UPSUL is divided into three parts

At the initiative of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the Government on Thursday adopted a draft Decision on amendments to the Regulation on the organization and manner of work of the state administration, which divided the previously single Maritime Safety and Port Management Administration of Montenegro (MSPO) into three parts.

Thus, in the future, a new Maritime Safety Administration will operate in Bar, whose focus will be on taking care of waterways, maritime signaling, VTS and the maritime radio communication system, collecting hydrographic, oceanographic and meteorological data, maintaining the Yacht Register, as well as interventions in cases of search and rescue at sea, or sea pollution.

The newly formed Port Authority is returning to Kotor, which functioned in that city as an independent state administration body until about ten years ago, when it was merged with UPSUL.

The Port Authority will be responsible for ports of national importance and for the construction, reconstruction, maintenance and management of the port or part of the port that has not been given for use in accordance with the law, control and supervision over the construction, reconstruction, maintenance and use, provision of port services and performance of other activities in the port that has been given for use by concessionaires, and the implementation of concession procedures related to the operations of economic entities in ports of national importance.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs will perform administrative supervision over the work of the Maritime Safety Administration, i.e. the newly formed Port Authority. At the same time, the amended Regulation on the Organization and Mode of Operation of the State Administration determined that a third segment should be separated from the previous single UPSUL - the previous Technical Inspectorate of Vessels and Floating Objects from Tivat, which was responsible for determining the seaworthiness of ships and other maritime objects, performing technical supervision, issuing ship documents, books and certificates, calculating tonnage during the calibration of vessels and performing technical expertise in the event of maritime accidents. The Technical Inspectorate will in the future become part of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, i.e. its Directorate for Navigation Safety. This means that in the future only the Ministry of Maritime Affairs will act as the so-called "flag state control" and "keep an eye on" the merchant fleet flying the flag of Montenegro, which is important for maintaining the reputation of the maritime flag of Montenegro in the eyes of international organizations. It is stipulated that the Ministry of Maritime Affairs will take over from the former UPSUL the civil servants and employees "who carried out the assumed tasks, equipment and official documentation" of the Technical Inspectorate.

The Government has decided that the Maritime Safety Administration and the Port Authority will begin operations within 30 days of the entry into force of the amended Regulation on the Organization and Mode of Operation of State Administration.

Within that period, an acting director of the Maritime Safety Administration, i.e. the Port Authority, will be appointed, and the two new bodies will take over from UPSUL "civil servants and employees who performed the tasks taken over, equipment and official documentation", and adopt acts on the internal organization and systematization of the new individual administrations.

Civil servants and employees of the previous unified UPSUL who are not assigned "exercise their rights in accordance with the regulations on civil servants and employees."