Budva councilors Mladen Kažanegra, Milica Babić, Filip Vujović and Kristina Rafailović, who were on the list of the former Democratic Front, made a statement after the Budva Municipal Assembly session was not held today due to lack of quorum.
14 councilors from the former DF came to the session scheduled by the president of the SO Nikola Jovanović, and apart from four councilors from that list, the councilors of Democrats, URA, SNP, SDP and the coalition gathered around the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) did not come.
The statement of the four councilors is transmitted in full:
"We, the councilors of the winning coalition of the Democratic Front, which was led by the real one among us, President Milo Božović, and whom we consider innocent until proven otherwise, and we do not see any evidence other than media speculation against Milo Božović, also do not agree to be pawns in the hands of others, that the meetings of the SO Budva are scheduled secretly, that all the councilors are informed about it along the way, that the councilors are expected to just raise their hands while others conduct, because in that case the struggle and Golgotha of us and our families, which lasted as long as three decades would have been in vain, and we would actually be the same ones who, led by Božović, were beaten to the ground.
We were born in Budva and with our families we fight publicly and proudly against abuses, against robberies, for the right of everyone to be equal and free and for the Budva Municipal Assembly to be the only place for agreements and decisions, not basements, garages and terraces, under the auspices of night. We are for Budva where there are no "equals" because that is always an introduction to corruption and new destruction of Budva, and the citizens did not give us that kind of support for that.
Our actions, related to the latest session of the Municipal Council of Budva, are first of all connected with our intention that legally questionable jobs will not be carried out under the name of the first and best among us - the President of the Municipality, Milo Božović. We deeply believe that agreeing to illegal activities would weaken the position of the President of the Municipality instead of doing everything we can so that he and his family can come out of the current very difficult situation stronger, as soon as possible. We, as his friends and party comrades, will do everything for him to prove his innocence and fulfill his mandate, much longer than individuals.
In order for Budva to emerge from the government crisis, it is necessary that, in accordance with the law, power be returned to the hands of the councilors, who are the only ones with the mandate to make decisions on behalf of the citizens. This means the appointment of the vice president of the Municipality, all managers in accordance with the law and the agreement with the coalition partners, and above all the construction of the government system that has been collapsing for decades for the sake of personal enrichment. Different behavior has always cost Budva, recently even hundreds of millions of euros, and it will certainly not be repeated with our votes.
The public must be informed that many decisions prepared for the current session of the Budva Municipal Council do not have their processors in the Municipality because they are prepared in private companies and serve exclusively tycoons. Many decisions open the door to devastation of the budget in very high amounts that are magically determined, without implementing the Law on Public Procurement and any other law. In no case do we want to participate in a project that is literally a copy of the big affair "Zavala" and which can be freely called "Zavala 2" because for the same company the Municipality of Budva is being asked to open the door for decades of robbery.
We are being asked to vote to pay for something that the contested assessment itself says we partially don't need, but to pay for anyway. To buy temporary buildings for the needs of the contract that we have for 4 years, but to recognize the temporary building as amortization for 50 years. They convince us that we are obliged to do all this with a company that was obliged by the decision of the Government of Montenegro to take its belongings out of the port two years ago and to pay the most valuable things to such a company at full price.
The most incredible thing is that the councilors elected by the citizens, who have both family and personal honor in Budva, force us to close our eyes wide, so that they don't feel that the company from which we "buy" outdated equipment, whose parts we pay for at full price, will immediately to pay for such equipment, sue the state of Montenegro and JP Morsko dobro for "damage", but we are forbidden to demand that such a provision, the prohibition of a lawsuit against the state for the purpose of looting the budget, be included in the contract!?
If we had not seen the "Zavala" affair with our own eyes and pockets, we might have blindly and naively agreed to "Zavala 2".
It is hidden from the councilors how much the company, from which we "have to buy" the equipment and which has been the illegal tenant of the Port of Budva for two years, earned from the lease of berths in the period since the Municipality of Budva took over the port in March 2023, and whether that amount will to be deducted from the huge amount demanded for equipment that has been illegally in the port of Budva for two years.
We emphasize here that we are completely in favor of returning the port of Budva to its citizens. We are fighting for this with our families until the Budva barges, riviera and port were not even in the imagination of all the participants in this work. However, the port of Budva has already been returned to the citizens through the March contract between JP Morsko dobro and the Municipality of Budva. And instead of working since then to free the port from the illegal tenant, in accordance with that contract and the conclusion of the Government of Montenegro from 2021, we are asked to blindly listen and follow those who made a dubious deal with dubious tycoons for inflated amount in an illegal procedure, without public procurement and thus to be participants in the "Zavala 2" affair. And that after that we hear for years about the lawsuits of that same tenant because of the damage caused to him by the Government of Montenegro and JP Morsko dobro, because those who ask the councilors to vote for the decisions also ask that the same councilors remain silent about the multi-million dollar lawsuit being prohibited by the disputed agreement.
Bonus video:
