The "Thirdest August" ferry, which was purchased a few days ago in Croatia by the Public Enterprise (JP) Morsko dobro (JPMD), started operating today on the line Kamenari-Lepetane in Boka Kotorska, which was taken from a private company by the decision of the Government at the beginning of last month. Maritime traffic" from Kamenar and entrusted to the management of that state enterprise.
The launching ceremony of the 54-meter-long and almost 14-meter-wide ship, built in 1970 in Sweden, was attended by Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism Ana Novaković-Đurović, leaders of JPMD and the municipalities of Tivat and Herceg Novi.
The ferry, which was named "Prizna" by its previous owner in Croatia, when it was re-registered under the Montenegrin flag, was given the new name "Trideseti August" at the initiative of the leader of the Democratic Front (DF), Andrije Mandić.
The ship can load about 40 vehicles.
"The 20th August", as the officials said, will be only the first in a fleet of several ferries that will be procured by JPMD by the beginning of the main summer tourist season, and currently on the Kamenari-Lepetane line, this ship operates together with the smaller ferry "Vasilije" with a capacity of XNUMX cars. which JPMD rented from the construction company Briv Construction from Kotor.
"Today we are witnessing the start of the operation of the first of several ferries that will be owned by the state of Montenegro. It is important that Montenegro is returning to itself, returning to seafaring. It is true, these are not new ships, but these are new trends - trends that the state will to work on the purchase of new local ferries, but also ferries for the Bar-Bari and Bar-Ancona line and on the development of the maritime industry," Prime Minister Dritan Abazović pointed out, saying that "we have nothing against the private sector, but tycoon politics must end".
"We are a government that supports all private initiatives of investors who want to work fairly, but for someone to hold monopolistic lines for nothing, contrary to the law, and at the same time have very poor communication with all those with whom he should have good communication - that policy is finished . Let no one even try to humiliate the state of Montenegro, as has happened here in the past twenty days. That will not be allowed," said Abazović, thanking the company Briv Construction, which, he said, showed social responsibility and helped the state when she needed it.
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He concluded that "those lines that are monopolistic should be managed by the state or in partnership with certain companies", although the current legal regulations stipulate that ferry lines are awarded by concession.
Minister Ana Novaković-Đurović pointed out that "with today's act, we confirm that the decisions recently taken by the Government, which go in the direction of returning the most important state resources to the state and state enterprises, were completely correct, realistic and operationally feasible".
"Despite the initial problems that are real in the direction of taking on such complex tasks, today we confirm that the Government, the relevant ministry and JPMD as a team in synergy, and with the desire to really realize what they promise, are quite successful in that," she stated, adding that the Government has great support from the citizens in stopping the "illegal management of public resources".
The mayor of Tivat, Željko Komnenović, welcomed the takeover of the ferry line in Boka by the state, adding that it follows his and the efforts of the leaders of Herceg Novi and Kotor to defend the public interest.
"We are on our way to satisfy the public interest and finally, funds that have been going into private pockets for years, now go to local infrastructure and, above all, help to the residents of Lepetan and Kamenar, who suffered the most from this work," Komnenović pointed out, adding that in the next step in the development of this work, the Government, JPMD and the municipalities of Tivat and Herceg Novi must agree on how these two local governments will participate in the management structure and share the profits of the state operator of the ferry line in Boka.
The Chairman of the Management Board of JPMD Blažo Rađenović (URA) pointed out that this company "today has received a business that is at the level of the entire annual income of the Maritime Property from all the other 300 kilometers of our coast".
"This is information that worries many here, and in the future I am sure that the institutions of the system will have a serious job when it comes to this," said Radjenović, adding that he "will no longer speak and respond to some false information and spins that have been published, but we will talk and deny it with actions".
"This ship is named "Thirtieth of August" as a memorial to the day when the regime that carried out predatory privatizations fell, as a day that is a symbol of democracy and freedom, a day that enabled us to embark on the path of reconciliation and a better future in the coming period. If we take taking into account the circumstances under which the privatization of the Maritime Transport was carried out twenty years ago and the way in which the continuation of the contract between JPMD and that company was carried out, it can be clearly concluded that the only reason why such an important state resource went into private hands is the fact that the owner of the Maritime Transport the godfather of the current president of the state, Mila Đukanović, is driving. The loss of the monopoly position did not only hurt privileged individuals, but also those who had small benefits from this monopolistic business worth tens of millions of euros, so they put themselves at the service of privileged individuals with their actions," he pointed out. is the director of JPMD Mladen Mikijelj (DF), adding that "that is why we are exposed to the inflation of fake news and the inflation that is dangerous for this society in the last twenty days".
He promised that the JPMD fleet will have a total greater capacity than the Maritime Transport fleet that maintained the Kamenari-Lepetane line in the past few decades, and that it is an investment worth around 10 million euros that will be financed by JPMD from its own resources.
He apologized to the citizens who had problems in the past month due to extraordinary circumstances at the ferry crossing and assessed that it was "much less damage than if we had allowed ourselves to be robbed and ordered for 20 years".
Despite promising to answer journalists' questions about various controversial aspects of taking over the ferry business and the manner in which the first JPMD ferry was purchased, the leaders of that company and Prime Minister Abazović refused to finally do so.
Minister Novaković Đurović was the only one who appeared in front of the microphones.
She said that the ministry is responsible for the public enterprise for the management of maritime resources and that the MEP, in relation to the addition of maritime transport activities to JPMD, "was competent to prepare documentation in a technical sense and submit it to the Government".
She did not comment on the second part of the question, why the regulation of ferry operations is handled by the Ministry of Capital Investments, which is responsible for maritime affairs and not for maritime affairs. At the insistence of journalists, Novaković-Đurović confirmed that the founder of JPMD was the Parliament of Montenegro, not the Government, but she did not precisely explain how the Government could change the founding documents and add something to the competence of the company beyond its founder - the Parliament.
"The law on maritime property has not been changed. The Statute was adopted in accordance with the law. The change in the legal basis exists in the law. You can change acts, because you do not change the law. You can add activities. We have added activities in the JPMD Statute itself, so the essence of the company's activity and its founding act has not changed. The activity previously defined at the session of the Board of Directors has been added, which, as the sole governing body of JPMD appointed by the Government, has the authority to make decisions regarding the company's activities, and the Government to propose them." , Novaković-Đurović explained.
Journalists were denied answers from the head of Morski dobr about when the collection of ferry tickets will start, how JPMD bought a ferry with a direct bargain for 569.000 euros, which its previous long-term owner Jadrolinija from Croatia, less than half a year ago, estimated to be worth 150.000 euros, and why did the Maritime Safety Administration give the "Thirdest August" ferry, if it is in excellent condition, only a conditional and temporary seaworthiness certificate with a validity period of less than two and a half months.
The ferry "Trideseti August" stopped sailing today around 18:22 and docked in Kamenari. It was previously announced that it will run until XNUMX p.m.
JPMD stated yesterday that starting next Sunday, their ferries will provide a 24-hour connection between the two shores of Boka.
Buses can now be transported across the Veriga strait with the bigger ferry "Trideseti August", which was not possible in the past 25 days.
Until further notice, heavy trucks will not be able to be transported on the Kamenari-Lepetane line with either "Vasili" or "Trideseti avgusta", but they will continue to be directed to the detour around the bay via Kotor.
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