For the controversial project to build a road from Lubnice to Jezerine, with the Klisura tunnel through the Bjelasica mountain, 818 thousand euros were paid in December last year, bringing the price to over 63,1 million, the Action for Social Justice announced.
The NGO said that this means that the work has been paid for for a full decade.
"The contract for the execution of works for a price of 34,6 million was concluded at the end of 2016 with Sarajevo-based Euro Asflat, and in December of that year the first approximately 3,5 million euros were paid for the start of works," ASP reminded.
However, as stated, in the following years, due to the poor main project, on the basis of which the work was undertaken, serious difficulties arose during the execution of the works, which led to delays in completion deadlines and increased costs.
ASP data shows that by the end of last year, the Sarajevo contractor was paid over 63,1 million euros, which is 28,5 million more than the initial contract price, and it is questionable whether this is the final price of this job, which ended up with the Special State Prosecutor's Office a few years ago. The epilogue of the prosecutor's proceedings is unknown.
"Although the Sarajevo company won the job, Bemax from Podgorica emerged as the main subcontractor, and other domestic companies were also hired for certain parts of the work. For example, the company BB Solar, owned by Blažo Đukanović, son of the honorary president of the Democratic Party of Socialists, Milo Đukanović, was hired for a part of the electrical work," ASP said.
In the part of the documentation in the possession of ASP, for the main project of the reconstruction of the Berane-Kolašin road, the Lubnica Jezerine section, the designer is listed as Put Inženjering from Podgorica, and Radenko Ostojić is listed as the lead designer. The main project auditor was the Podgorica-based "Institute for Civil Engineering", and the lead auditor was Miloš Knežević, while the number of that report is dated February 2016.
"However, during the execution of the works, this main project had to be changed, so the changes had to go through a re-review process, and in the end, part of the works was carried out based on the original revised main project, part of the works based on the amended revised project, and part of the works based on the project of the completed facility," the statement said.
ASP said that it is not known whether the issue of revoking the licenses of the responsible planners and auditors was raised due to numerous failures in the work, but it is known for now that among the major problems were those related to indicatively designed solutions regarding the geological condition of the terrain (breaking through the Bjelasica).
"When the Klisura tunnel was put into trial operation in the spring of 2024, the technical inspection commission indicated that, although the works were "essentially completed", there were still shortcomings that needed to be eliminated and carried out under "appropriate traffic protection and safety measures," the statement added.
ASP said that during its trial operation, restrictions had to be respected, including a ban on the transport of hazardous materials on the entire section, a ban on freight traffic through the tunnel, a speed limit of 40 kilometers per hour for vehicles through the tunnel, an obligation for a fire truck to be constantly present in the tunnel, and trial operation was allowed between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.
"This transport investment is one of the most expensive in the country, and it includes not only the cost of the construction works performed, but also a number of related costs, such as payments to a foreign consortium as professional supervision of the works, additional payments for project changes, the cost of expropriation, the cost of a borrowed foreign loan or the cost of domestic authorities," the statement concludes.
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