The President of the Tivat Municipal Assembly, Miljan Marković (NSD), today made serious accusations against the director of the municipal company in that city, Vučeta Stanišić (People Win), whom he called out for allegedly making bad business decisions that resulted in the devastation of the area due to the creation of a large temporary garbage dump on the site of the former Montepranzo agricultural estate, abuse of official position, unscrupulous work in the service, misleading the public and possible corruption.
Marković did so at the continuation of the 31st session of the Tivat Municipal Assembly, which today, after a heated debate that lasted more than three hours, with a majority of the votes of the councilors of the ruling coalition, approved the decision of the Board of Directors from November last year to entrust Vučeta Stanišić with another term as director of the municipal company. Councilors from the People Wins (NP), Democrats, PES and independent councilor Sandra Sindik voted in favor of confirming his new term, while Marković and another councilor from Nova Milanka Brajković were against, and one councilor each from DNP and Tivat Action (TA) abstained. The opposition did not comment on this agenda item, but previously characterized it as a perfect confirmation that the current Tivat government has violated all of its pre-election promises from 2020 and 2022 to end party dictatorship and introduce meritocracy in the management of the city and the management of local companies and institutions.
Marković, who was Stanišić's opponent in the competition for the election of the new director of the Municipal Company, but was not selected by the Board of Directors of that municipal company, fiercely attacked Stanišić. He claimed that only recently, from the position of president of the local parliament, he learned about Stanišić's alleged numerous bad business moves by researching publicly available documentation after media reports. Marković first tried to postpone this item on the agenda, claiming that he had to discuss the topic with the president of the municipality, Željko Komnenović (NP), who was not at the session. This intention of the president of the municipal assembly was met with unanimous condemnation by the majority of councilors of the ruling coalition and the vice president of the municipality, Jovan Brinić (Krtoljska lista).
"If you had something to say, you should have done it at the coalition meeting where you would have received all the explanations for what you are raising, and not doing what you are doing here at the Assembly and turning the formal confirmation or non-confirmation of the already made decision of the Board of Directors of the Municipal Company on the election of a new director, which you are turning off the agenda, into a discussion of the Report on the Work of the Municipal Company which is not on the agenda," said Brinić, adding that Stanišić has good results behind him, that Tivat is a neat and clean city, and the local Municipal Company is one of the best companies of its kind in Montenegro.
"The worst thing is when those in power try to bring not the best people but hollow personnel to various positions that belong to them according to the political agreement," Brinić told Marković.
The President of the Municipal Assembly presented a detailed and long chronology of events in the ruling coalition, from which it follows that the NSD received the position of director of the Municipal Service, but that it was not allowed to do so either after the 2020 elections or the 2022 special local elections.
"There was an agreement for me to be the director of the Municipal Corporation, but it did not work out because some of the councilors in the government changed their position because they thought that I would be too successful in that position and that it would turn into a multi-year mandate," said Marković, adding that the Board of Directors of the Municipal Corporation ultimately did not honor this, but elected Stanišić for one, and now a second, mandate.
"It is now up to the Assembly and the coalition in parliament to decide whether they will honor the agreement," said Marković.
He pointed out that he had previously requested that Stanišić be removed from the coalition, but that this allegedly "had nothing to do with the coalition agreement, but rather because of his poor performance."
He accused the director of Komunalno of buying exclusively second-hand trucks and equipment in the past few years, which, according to Marković, resulted in numerous breakdowns and a situation where Komunalno is unable to transport waste from the city to the sanitary landfill Možura near Bar and Matej in Cetinje in a timely manner using its own equipment. According to him, this led to the formation of a temporary large landfill in Montepranzo, which, he said, threatens the quality of life of the citizens of the Gradiošnica community where Marković lives, and presents a very ugly picture to all passengers who land at the nearby Tivat airport. He accused Stranišić of spending large sums of money on paying for much more expensive waste removal services in the past few months when the problem escalated, in relation to the prices that, according to the contract that Komunalno Tivat had with Komunalno Kotor, he was supposed to pay for the reloading and transfer of that waste at the Lovanja recycling and reloading station, which is managed by the people of Kotor, who in the meantime unilaterally canceled that service for the people of Tivat.
Marković said that Komunalno Kotor stopped providing this service to the people of Tivat "because you couldn't even accept your own garbage at Lovanja" and said that "the contract is not binding", which caused general laughter in the hall. He denied that his attack on Stanišić and the previous delay of several months in putting the confirmation of his second term as director on the agenda of the Municipal Assembly, was motivated by the fact that he, as an NSD employee, had failed to get into that position. He claimed that he had only recently learned about the controversial matters in the operations of Komunalno and that "this only coincided with the expiration of Stanišić's previous term", and that he had acted in a similar way in the case of controversial actions in the operations of the Arsenal Football Club, which had also recently been a hot political topic in Tivat.
He claimed that "Komunalno Tivat sued Komunalno Kotor, and then sought an out-of-court settlement before making a decision because it knew what the outcome of the dispute would be," to which Stanišić and the Secretary for Traffic and Utilities of the Municipality of Tivat Mirjana Jarić replied that this was not true because the out-of-court settlement proved the guilt of Komunalno Kotor and was in favor of Komunalno Tivat, and that according to it, the people of Kotor must compensate the people of Tivat for damages of 50.000 euros.
Stanišić explained in detail everything that Marković accused him of, emphasizing that he had to buy used vehicles and equipment in a situation when Konumano received only about 40 percent of the annual budget from the Municipality that it requested from the founder. Therefore, there was no money to purchase new equipment, but that changed in the meantime, so they started buying new vehicles and equipment last year. In the meantime, the contract with Komunalna Kotor was renewed by an annex and garbage collection from the city to the Lovanja transfer station resumed. Stanišić said that everything was done in accordance with the law and regulations, as well as the State and Local Waste Management Plans and with the consent of the Environmental Protection Agency and other competent authorities. He and Jarić denied Marković's claim that the removal of waste deposited at Montepranzo in the meantime is paid to third parties at a price of 105 euros per ton, but, as they pointed out, 16,7 euros per cubic meter.
"You only recognized the problem in Montepranzo when the EU ambassador to Montenegro recently came to Tivat to teach us how to dispose of waste," Marković replied, to which Tonći Janović (PES) said that "Marković completely abused the position of the president of the Municipal Assembly and the agenda item for his personal showdown with Stanišić."
"All that you allegedly have about illegalities in the work of the Municipal Corporation, hand it over to the police and the prosecutor's office," Janović told Marković, and opposition SD councilor Igor Petković did the same, emphasizing that what was heard in the municipal council today must have a judicial epilogue.
"An incredible thing has happened here, that the president of the Municipal Assembly is publicly accusing the director of the Municipal Corporation in front of us of at least several serious criminal offenses. If it turns out that Marković is wrong, he must resign," said Petković, calling out Marković for "knowing that something illegal was happening in the Municipal Corporation, but he kept quiet about it and only brought it to the public when his political trade failed."
"Today, citizens clearly saw how the Tivat government's scheme works and how the entire city and system will enter a blockade if the political scheme and trade are not realized. So far, you have been silent, and when you did not get what you aspired to, you are throwing wood and stones at your partners," Petković pointed out.
"Where were you to talk about this when the report on the work of the Municipal Council was recently adopted in the Assembly. Everything was great then. Why were you silent then and waited for the political agreement on the distribution of functions to be fulfilled, and now that you didn't get what you expected, you decided to "twist" everything?" - asked independent councilor Sandra Sindik to the Speaker of the Parliament.
"These are unfounded attacks by the mayor's office president on the director of the Municipal Corporation and I admire Stanišić for enduring this so calmly. The city is clean and tidy and he has our support," said Ilko Klakor (Krtoljska Lista).
The Deputy Mayor of the Municipality, Jovan Brinić, said that the latest court decision in the dispute between the Tivat Municipal Corporation and the Kotor Municipal Corporation confirms that the people of Tivat and Stanišić were not to blame for the problems with waste collection from the city, and that "what you (Marković-ed.) did is a disgrace to someone who does their job well."
"I'm not taking anyone's side, but I support Stanišić because the man is doing an excellent job. I'm not interested in party affiliation, but if you are dismissing or want to dismiss someone who is doing the right thing, then you are committing political suicide," said Brinić.
The Manager of the Municipality of Tivat, Ivona Petrović, said that the success of the work of the municipal authorities and the management of local companies and institutions is best demonstrated by the fact that Tivat is currently the only city in Montenegro that meets the criteria to receive official city status under the new Law on Local Self-Government.
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