They declared secret everything that the inspection does in the case of Medenica

The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism (MORT) rejected the request for free access to information submitted by MANS in connection with the action of the Construction and Urban Inspection of MORT in the case of illegal construction on state land in Krtoli in front of buildings owned by Miloš Medenica, the son of the President of the Supreme Court Vesna Medenica and his business partner, Tivat businessman Rad Gag Arsić.

The work of MORT has been coordinated by Prime Minister Duško Marković since Minister Pavle Radulović resigned at the beginning of November last year due to the scandal involving the disclosure of the corruption case of two construction inspectors.

On May 6, that department rejected a request for free access to information from MANS, which asked MORT to provide them with copies of all decisions and minutes that MORT, its Directorate for Inspection Affairs and Licensing, i.e. the Directorate for Inspection Supervision for the Southern Region , adopted acting on the forwarded minutes of the Communal Inspection of the Municipality of Tivat from April 22, in connection with the illegal construction on plot 173/13 KO Krašići in Tivat.

"The requested information relates to the inspection procedure regarding which this Ministry makes a decision and the disclosure of the requested information would jeopardize the planning and further performance of the inspection supervision, and therefore access to the requested information is limited in accordance with the aforementioned Article 14 of the Law on Free Access to Information. .. Accordingly, this Ministry found that the requested information, i.e. a copy of all decisions and records that the MORT of Montenegro, the Directorate for Inspection Affairs and Licensing, the Directorate for Inspection Supervision, brought according to the forwarded minutes of the Administration for Inspection Affairs of the Municipality of Tivat no. 18-714-29/20 of April 22, 2020, and in connection with the construction on plot no. 173/13 within KO Krasići, Municipality of Tivat, they present information that, if it were available to the public, would significantly jeopardize the interest of the official duties of this Ministry , and thus further planning and carrying out inspection supervision. By early disclosure of the requested information, there is a possibility of drawing conclusions and prejudicing possible responsibility before the control and the end of the inspection," reads the MORT's decision on the request of MANS, which was submitted on April 30.

The information, if it were available to the public, would significantly jeopardize the interest of this Ministry in performing its official duties, and thus the further planning and performance of inspection supervision. Premature disclosure of the requested information has the possibility of drawing conclusions and harming potential liability before the control and inspection have been completed," reads the MORT's decision at the request of MANS

From that department, they stated that they conducted a harm test and that it allegedly resulted that "the disclosure of the information would cause harmful consequences for the interest, which is of greater importance than the interest of the public to know that information."

The case was initiated at the beginning of April when the residents of Krašić reported that one of the two completed segments of the first phase of the new lungo mare promenade in that place, about thirty meters long, was literally cut off and taken away from the Municipality of Tivat as the investor of that public utility facility and the citizens as its to users. At the time, the workers were building two fence walls from concrete blocks on the coast below the two large tourist villas that are being built near the former "Poseidon" cafe, thus cutting off the new promenade.

The walls were erected on cadastral plot 173/13 KO Krašići, which is owned by the state, that is, the Municipality of Tivat, under two villas under construction on plots number 1117, 7/3, 7/4 and 7/8 KO Krašići, which are owned by Medenica and Arsic.

According to the records of MANS, one of the walls with which the public promenade under construction was fenced and interrupted at the beginning of April is partly located on plot 7/8, which is owned by Arsić.

Because of this, MANS filed criminal charges against Medenica and Arsić to the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica in mid-April, considering that the two committed the crimes of "illegal occupation of land" and "construction of a building without registration and construction documentation".

MANS then asked JP Morsko dobro and MORT to conduct inspections at the disputed location in Krašići, but despite this, the construction continued so that in front of two villas under construction on the coast of Krašići, between two illegal walls that cut off the promenade, in the meantime concreting of the already built route of the promenade was also done and another, third wall was built that divides the usurped state land in half, and creates special parts like yards in front of the Arsić and Medenica villas.

By the way, the Municipality and "Morsko Dobro" as investors invested a little more than half a million euros last year in the construction of the first part of the lungo mare promenade in Krašići, which was supposed to prevent exactly this kind of illegal privatization of the seashore and make it accessible to everyone.

Lazar Grdinić from the MANS Research Center told "Vijesta" that judging by the photos from the field that this NGO received in recent days, the competent institutions did nothing to stop the further devastation of this part of the coast in Krašići. He pointed out that, according to their knowledge, the inspection of the Municipality went to the field, which "only stated that the construction is being carried out in the zone of marine property and that the complete procedure is forwarded to MORT."

"In the meantime, the construction site was closed by order of MORT, but it is not possible to get more information about what the inspection found, what measures were imposed, and whether the mentioned investors will bear any consequences.

"Getting information is important not only to stop further illegal construction at that location, but first of all to determine responsibility in the inspection itself for the fact that illegal builders have been building unhindered for more than a month," Grdinić said.

The construction site is officially sealed, but work is still ongoing

Although the construction site of Medenica and Arsić in Krašići is allegedly closed by the decision of MORT, this is not the case in practice because the workers are still there and carry out interior work in the villas. Grdinić points out that this development of the situation further undermines the already low trust of citizens in MORT, which was further reduced after the last discovered case of corrupt inspectors.

"This kind of behavior of the inspection, and hiding even basic information about its work, does not contribute to significantly changing the situation. "MANS will certainly appeal against such a decision of MORT, because not only the Law on Free Access to Information, but also the Law on Inspection Supervision, which guarantees the public access to the entire inspection process, was violated," Grdinić said.