Patrol boat and tugboat "trapped" in overhaul: million-dollar job unfinished, deadlines defined by contracts breached

The repairs of two ships of the Navy of the Army of Montenegro, which have been in the Adriatic 2023 shipyard in Bijela since August 42, have not yet been completed. The Ministry of Defense (MoD), which allocated 1.175.878 euros excluding VAT for these works, does not have a precise answer to the question of when the ships will be returned to operational use.

It is about the P-105 "Durmitor" patrol boat and the PR-41 "Orada" offshore tugboat of the Croatian Navy. The work on those ships should have been completed a long time ago, but the deadlines were extended without a publicly available explanation as to why this was done.

"The overhaul of the P-105 patrol boat and the PR-41 offshore tug has not yet been completed. The Ministry of Defense concluded two contracts with the Adriatic 42 shipyard with accepted technical specifications. The first contract was concluded for the amount of 578.511,39 without VAT with a deadline of August 4, 8. This contract is annexed in the part of the execution period until 2024 December 15 for the reasons stated in the annex. The annex was published on CEJN (Montenegro electronic public procurement) on August 12, 2024. The second contract was concluded for the amount of ¤1 without VAT. So far, the shipyard has been paid ¤8 excluding VAT. Completion of the contracted works is expected in accordance with the agreed deadlines", informed "Vijesta" from the department headed by the minister Dragan Krapović.

However, the contract worth EUR 597.366,99, which was published on the CEJN portal, was concluded on July 10 of this year with an official deadline of 60 days from the date of signing the contract. This means that according to this arrangement, the work on the Army ship should have been completed no later than mid-September. The deadline for execution under the second contract worth 578.511,39 euros, which was already extended by annex, expired on December 15

The Ministry of Defense did not precisely answer the questions of "Vijesti", which are the specific reasons why these jobs have been delayed, that is, when the P-105 "Durmitor" patrol boat and the PR-41 "Orada" offshore tugboat can be expected to be finally returned to operational use. .

By the way, these are the first major investments of the Ministry of Defense in those two ships, which, along with the training ship "Jadran", currently represent the bulk of the Navy's naval forces. Since the closure of the former military shipyard Arsenal in Tivat in 2007, the Navy has been left almost without any serious logistical and technological support, which had a disastrous effect on the reliability of its vessels, and thus on the level of combat readiness of this branch of the Army.

With the opening of the Adriatic 42 shipyard in Bijela, which is supported by a consortium of the renowned shipbuilding corporation Drydock World Dubai and Tivat's Adriatic Marinas, the Navy once again got the opportunity to carry out at least basic overhauls of its ships in its own country, while it still cannot do this even in Bijela. when it comes to weapons and more complex combat systems on military vessels, which was once done routinely and without problems in the Tivat Arsenal.

This week, Krapović, with colleagues from the ministry and the Army, "visited the overhaul works on the P-105 patrol boat and the PR-41 offshore tug that are being carried out in Bijela by the Adriatic 42 company," as reported by that department.

"The minister is in conversation with the director of the company, Erik Robert Pelard expressed his satisfaction with the dynamics of work on military vessels, the completion of which is expected at the beginning of 2025. Krapović reminded that the Ministry of Defense and the Army, after the sale of the Shipyard in Bijela in 2017, were left without an important support when it comes to dock and overhaul services for Navy ships, and that the arrival of the Adriatic 42 company created the conditions for quality maintenance of military ships . He expressed his satisfaction with the cooperation so far with this company, which meets the real needs of the Ministry and the Army, considering the further planned dynamics of investments in the Navy", the Ministry of Defense announced.

They noted that "considering that Adriatic 42 has adequate capacities and has the ability to dock larger military ships, Krapović and Pelard expressed hope for the continuation of further successful cooperation and the realization of a strategic partnership between the Ministry and this renowned company."

Krapović said that for the coming year, his department "plans to contract dock services with the company Adriatic 42 and for other vessels of the Navy, in order to ensure their safety and security at sea, and to enable quality execution of the planned tasks."

From the photos published on the website of the Ministry of Defense, it can be seen that the P-105 is still on the operational shore of the shipyard and that the painting of the hull and superstructure is still ongoing on that ship, while the tugboat PR-41 has meanwhile been lowered into the sea by a travel-lift. Therefore, the minister still had the opportunity to visit the "Orada", which is commanded by the first woman - the commander of a warship in the Navy, the lieutenant of a frigate Sara Rakočević.