Krapović: Budva has finally taken off the epithet of the most indebted local government

Without false modesty, the results speak for themselves and I would say that they are colossal compared to what this government found in the past two years, said the outgoing mayor of Budva, Dragan Krapović, whose two-year mandate expires on December 29, at the annual press conference.

Thanks to numerous collaborators, without whose commitment and work, as he said, Budva would not have become an exemplary municipality, which fulfills all its obligations and which finally got rid of the epithet of the most indebted local administration, and which was in financial limbo for a decade, Krapović said that the basic election promise was fulfilled - financial consolidation.

"The implementation of the budget in 2018 exceeded expectations, so today we have 44,5 million euros in revenue, which is an amount that exceeds the projected amount. Although we had a positive rebalance in December, by which we raised the amount of projected revenues from 40 million to 44 million euros , now we can say that we exceeded that too. We have to boast about the excellent collection of real estate tax of 13,5 million euros, which is three million euros more than in the same period last year, and a record since this tax has been collected. we are more than Podgorica. Real estate sales tax was collected in the amount of 3,5 million euros, 600 thousand euros more than in 2017 or even one and a half million more than in 2016. Total taxes were collected in the amount of 19 million euros , which is 3,6 million euros more than last year", boasted Krapović and stated that he expects ten million euros to be collected from utility bills.

He emphasized that as much as 3,5 million euros were collected in the name of residence tax, which indicates that excellent results have been achieved in suppressing the gray economy.

"If we add to all these revenues the fact that in two years we returned 22 million euros of obligations from the previous period, and that we did not have the ability to manage a part of these obligations, they were forcibly removed from the account, we can say that these difficult two years passed in the rehabilitation of public finances with an emphasis on returning the debts that we found. It should be emphasized that for these two years the Municipality did not borrow a single cent, that during that time we managed to return more than one and a half million euros in annuities on behalf of old loans, and we paid all the installments within the prescribed period, so as not to risk entering the default interest zone," Krapović said.

According to him, at the end of the year, the total amount of settled debt, during the time he managed the city, which they inherited from the previous government, will amount to 25 million euros.

"We consider this a respectable result, and this result is recognized by everyone in Montenegro, the opposition, the position, competent state institutions, as well as in the reports of the World Bank and other international financial institutions," Krapović said.

He also recalled the success of the current government in solving the issue of waste water disposal, as he said, huge problems that "they encountered and which were ignored and neglected for years."

"After two years of hard negotiations, a continuous and difficult legal battle that is still going on, after expertise, audits, cooperation with the Government of Montenegro, especially the Ministry of Finance, to whom I hereby publicly thank for the correct cooperation, we have come to a very good situation and the legal position for the municipality. It required a lot of skill, tact, and fitness, and today we have already settled part of the obligations, while for the second, largest part, we sent an offer to WTE, which, in addition to the financial part, also includes a path to the final resolution of all disputes and after that, the completion of the waste water disposal project on the territory of the entire municipality in the final. I am also obliged to thank everyone for their dedicated work and commitment, Vice President Mihail Đurović, Secretary for Investments Bož Vavić, the Rodić law office, Pro-ing Supervision and of course the professor To Duhovnik and his team, we are within reach of a final solution and victory here, and I consider that a great success, especially since it was very difficult to even get involved in solving this big and neglected problem, very risky politically, professionally, you name it. It is a problem that everyone before us ran away from, certainly because of what someone else did, because of the difficulty and complexity of the problem, because of abuses... We did not run away, and that fact alone makes us winners," emphasized Krapović.

In two years, as he said, "we got all the companies, institutions and services back on their feet, and that had a positive effect on the quality of life in Budva".

"We invested in infrastructure, streets and rural roads received more asphalt in these two years than decades ago. We invested in the very foundations of every society, education and health, we have a new kindergarten in TQ Plaza, which relaxed the issue of overbooking preschool institutions, we have the formation youth club and the allocation of rooms to young people, we provided free textbooks, renovated classrooms and toilets, culinary cabinets, gave scholarships to students and pupils, awarded the best and gave them an incentive to continue... We received a large number of projects, some of which we ourselves conceived, initiated and implemented, together with partners such as UNDP, we planned public spaces with citizens. We tried to make Budva an open cosmopolitan environment where everyone can say, think and do whatever they want, as long as it does not offend anyone and as long as it does not contradict with the positive regulations of the state of Montenegro", emphasized Krapović.

The municipality, he added, won a large number of disputes, lost some, but "for each one we fought dedicatedly and without any rest".

"We have implemented a large number of investments with transparent and legal public procurement procedures. I will mention only the sewage outlet in Petrovac, also the repair of the sewage in Pržno, the atmospheric channel in the center of Budva, the circular flow and the arrangement of the stream in Bećići and many other implemented procedures and projects, as well as a large number of projects which have yet to be implemented. We have partially solved the issue of taxi transport in Budva, although there is still work to be done, the issue of public transport, which today is free for all students and pensioners in Budva. Communal housing has brought outdoor gyms, playgrounds, traffic solutions, partial, and later hopefully final protection of pedestrians, their sidewalks, improved parking in Budva, etc., etc. We have given a large number of rooms in the TQ center to NGOs, we have taken care of vulnerable parts of the population, through the NGO Puževa kučica and the Day Center project which in the next period should fully come to life," Krapović pointed out.

He recalled the excellent organization of the New Year public reception, the Sea dance music festival.

In the end, as he emphasized, they managed the destination in such a way that the most important thing, tourism and economy in Budva function well and bring a good financial result.

"Here I want to mention that the decisions that will be adopted tomorrow enable Budva to function well in 2019. When it comes to tourism and destination management, I have to single out the Proposal for the Program for the installation of temporary facilities for 2019-2023. This is the Decision of the greatest possible weight and importance, and if it is adopted, it will certainly be the most significant that this government has brought and will enable Budva to be a much more serious tourist destination with a much higher quality and more appropriate offer in the next five years," said Krapović.

Rotation depends on the Temporary Facilities Plan

Krapović said that he will resign on December 29, when his two-year mandate expires.

"I emphasized that all the time, although some made it questionable, there were speculations that it would not happen. It is definite that I will resign and that we will stick to what is our political agreement," Krapović said.

He expects that the rotation at the position of the president will be "completed" in the next ten days, but he reiterated that conditions must be met first. He reiterated that this primarily refers to the fact that at tomorrow's session the coalition will be united when adopting the Budget for 2019, the Plan for temporary facilities, and the Investment Program.

"These are the conditions that we publicly exposed, and I hope that everything will be completed as it should be and as we agreed. I cannot run ahead of the curve and anticipate what will happen at the session tomorrow," Krapović said.

In addition to the rotation in the position of President of the Municipality, where Krapović will be replaced by Marko Bato Carević from the DF, there will also be rotations in the position of the President of the Parliament, where a Democrat will replace the former member of the DF Đorđij Vujović, and Democratic Montenegro will also take over the position of Vice President of the Municipality, instead of the former Mihailo Đurović. (SDP).

Bulatović: We expect from Carević a homely approach to work

Montenegrin, which entered into a coalition with the ruling parties in July, is crucial for the election of the new President of the Municipality, Marko Bata Carevic.

The Vice President of the Municipality and the leader of the Budva Committee of Montenegro, Vladimir Bulatović, said that this party will participate in the "fluid" change of the municipal administration.

"We expect that the continuity of the work of the local administration will continue in the future. Therefore, we expect from Carević careful management of the municipal finances, a homely approach to work and, above all, further improvement of the work process within the municipality's bodies, as well as monitoring of the current development guidelines," Bulatović said. .