Last year, the Bar municipal services collected over 300 thousand euros from the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management for the work they do in their zone, and they earned an additional over 20 thousand euros by maintaining unleased beaches. Despite the good earnings, the Bar local government does not hide that sometimes they get stuck in cooperation with this company.
These are from the Municipality managed by Dušan Raičević told "Vijesti", answering questions about the activities that their services and companies carry out in the coastal zone, and added that the collaboration between the local administration and the public company is often not at a satisfactory level.
From the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management (JPMD), headed by Mladen Mikijelj did not answer questions about the quality of cooperation with the Municipality of Bar and their activities in that municipality.
The Municipal Police and Inspection Service of the Municipality of Bar carries out regular inspections of public areas and controls the installation and construction of temporary and auxiliary facilities in the coastal zone on the territory of the municipality throughout the year.
In addition to regular activities, during the tourist season, extraordinary intensified controls are carried out in Čanj, Sutomore, Žukotrlica, Bar, Dobra Voda and Utjeha, which relate to the control of the installation of catering equipment, gaming equipment, amusement parks, stands, advertisements and billboards, as well as cases of sales outside the place intended for that purpose and the occupation of public space contrary to the Decision on Communal Order in the territory of the Municipality of Bar.
In cases where irregularities are found during inspection, the Municipality said, inspectors from that service issue removal decisions in accordance with the Law on Administrative Procedure. In cases where the subject of supervision does not act on the given decision, administrative enforcement is carried out through the executive service of the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management.
The Municipality points out that the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Facilities clearly defines the responsibilities of the Municipal Communal Police Service and Inspection in terms of supervision over the installation of temporary facilities, while the relations between tenants and the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management (JPMD) are regulated by lease agreements, which oblige users to return the space to its original condition upon the expiration of the lease.
"In the event of non-compliance with these obligations, the removal of the facilities and the burden of costs fall on the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management. In the previous period, initiatives with these requests were sent to the Municipal Police and Inspection Service by the JPMD," they told the newspaper.
The Municipal Police and Inspection Service of the Municipality of Bar regularly informs the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management about the measures and actions taken in cases handled by the service's inspectors.
However, the Municipality of Bar points out that cooperation between the Municipal Police and Inspection Service and the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management in these matters is often not at a satisfactory level "due to the fact that the acts of the Coastal Zone Control Service, accompanied by official notes sent to the municipal service, do not contain all the necessary and relevant information that would make it easier for inspectors to act on them."
As an illustration of the above, they point out the fact that the Municipal Inspection and Police Service issued four executive decisions on the removal of temporary structures in the coastal zone and promptly informed the Public Company so that administrative enforcement could be carried out before the start of the tourist season. However, there has been no reaction and action on these cases, claim the Municipality of Bar.
Clean, uncrowded beaches
After adopting the Work Program for performing tasks in the Coastal Zone for 2026, in March this year, a contract was concluded between the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management and DOO "Komunalne djelatnost Bar", which defines the scope of tasks and financial resources for their implementation.
According to the contract, the utility company performs daily activities in the coastal zone, with increased work intensity during the pre-season, tourist season and post-season in the territory of the municipality of Bar.
The tasks include maintenance of public areas, collection, removal and disposal of waste and bulky waste, washing of streets and walkways, maintenance of green areas, horticultural landscaping, maintenance of parks, as well as installation and maintenance of urban furniture.
The total funds foreseen in the contract for the implementation of these activities, which belong to DOO "Komunalne djelatnost Bar", amount to 307.014 euros and are at the level of 2025, the Bar local government told "Vijesti".
When asked whether municipal services had to perform tasks outside of those agreed upon and whether they charged additional fees from JP Morsko dobro, they replied that all other tasks within the scope of the utility company's activities, and at the request of Morsko dobro if necessary, are subsequently contracted and invoiced.
In this regard, in accordance with the signed Annex in 2025, additional funds in the amount of 23.850 euros were transferred to the Municipal Company for cleaning work on unleased beaches.
Obvious problems
When asked how satisfied they were, in general, with the way in which JP Morsko dobro maintains the space it has in Bar, they said that the Municipality of Bar has always been committed to partnership and institutional cooperation with all state and public enterprises, in the best interest of the citizens of Bar and the development of the local community.
They noted that significant infrastructure and development projects have been implemented with the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management, among which the reconstruction of the square and promenade in Sutomore stands out, while similar projects are planned for the Čanj area.
However, despite the existence of quality examples of cooperation, it is evident that in some segments there are serious problems in communication and coordination in the field.
"Certain irresponsible actions and inadequate reactions by individuals from the Coastal Zone system have often made the work of local services more difficult and created additional problems for the citizens and economy of Bar, especially during the tourist season," they said.
Therefore, the Municipality of Bar, as they stated, together with other coastal municipalities, has repeatedly initiated changes to legal solutions that would further decentralize the management of the coast and the maritime domain zone and transfer it to local governments.
They believe that municipalities, which best know the needs of their citizens and the situation on the ground, could manage the coastal area more efficiently, responsibly, and in the interest of the local community.
Public roll calls
The strained relations between the Coastal Zone and the Municipality of Bar came to a head during the previous summer tourist season when Raičević and the Head of the Coastal Zone Control Service clashed in public opinion regarding the situation in the Coastal Zone in Bar. Srdjan Radić.
Raičević claimed that the condition of the beaches was poor and that they were not maintained, while Radić criticized the work of the local administration in the field of communal services and obligations, and called Bar a "fairground". The Municipality subsequently announced that the beaches of Bar, like the rest of the Montenegrin coast, were in a worse condition than they were 20 years ago, and that at the very peak of the season, they were completely unprepared and unsafe for tourists.
Last August, the Municipality of Bar told "Vijesti" that they had best refuted Radić through the work of their services in the field, which is also supported by the previously presented data. They explained that at that time, in response to Radić's words, they felt the need to react for the sake of the public, "and any further communication with an official who allows himself such a public appearance is, to put it mildly, beyond any purpose," they said.
Despite this, the debate with Radić through public channels continued this year - Raičević, while appearing on Television Vijesti two weeks ago, said that Radić was continuously making a series of accusations against the Bar administration.
He called him a "bad guy" and a "marginal person" and assessed that he was "fulfilling the demands of certain centers" and that he was using attacks to cover up his own and his service's inaction.
A week before that, while appearing on the same show, he cited Raičević's administration as a bad example of cooperation, and supported this with the promenade project in Čanj - the Secretariat for Urbanism and Spatial Planning rejected their request for a building permit.
Radić said that the Municipality of Bar did not show good will, but that "the influence of local tycoons and powerful people is stronger than the general interest of the Municipality of Bar" and that in the event of the project being implemented, the temporary facilities of people close to the top authorities in Bar would have to be removed, which he said was the real reason for rejecting their request.
Raičević responded that Morsko dobro did not receive a building permit because Morsko dobro did not obtain the urban-technical conditions for the preparation of technical documentation for issuing a building permit and because property-legal relations had not been resolved. The same arguments were previously put forward by the municipal Secretariat for Urbanism and Spatial Planning, as "Vijesti" wrote.
Responding to Radić's call-outs about the interests of powerful people, he said that these were platitudes and called on him to, if he had certain information, forward it to the competent state authorities, which, according to Raičević, he has not done so far.
These are not temporary structures belonging to people close to the authorities in Bar, he claims, but rather residential buildings belonging to the indigenous people of that part of the city, and that the expropriation for phase one of this project, which will also include the elimination of the road that provides access to residential and tourist facilities, is being addressed from 2023.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
