The Municipality of Tivat continues to pour citizens' money into a "bottomless hole"

The Municipality of Tivat continues to invest significant taxpayer funds in regular and extraordinary maintenance of its administrative building on Magnolia Square, which it built in a very poor quality about fifteen years ago in a problematic public-private partnership with the company "Građevinar" owned by a Podgorica businessman. Miloš Šuković.

The huge building, which is architecturally completely inappropriate for the coastal environment and prevailing climatic conditions, has suffered from a series of technical problems since its construction, starting with the massive marble slabs falling off the facade, the roof leaking, the large western glass facade leaking, problems with the elevators, water and sewage installations, and the air conditioning system.

The local government has been continuously investing in the building, which has an area of ​​over 4.000 square meters, for years, so last year, according to the Spatial Planning Report prepared by the Secretariat for Spatial Planning and Planning, over 100.000 euros were invested in the "bottomless pit".

The Municipal Investment Directorate conducted several tenders to select the most suitable contractors, and last year, work was carried out to replace the waterproofing on the roof of the Municipality building, worth 26.620 euros including VAT, and the repair of the semi-structural facade on the local government building cost 7.817 euros including VAT. 8.470 euros including VAT were invested in replacing the lighting fixtures in the building's premises, while the renovation of the terrace on the Municipality building with painting cost an additional 25.894 euros including VAT.

Last year, the local government also conducted a tender for the selection of a contractor and concluded a contract for the renovation of offices and other premises in the Municipality building, worth 35.080 euros including VAT, which were implemented during this year.

Over the past year, according to a report by the Secretariat for Local Government, numerous other minor interventions were carried out on the administrative building.

As part of the repair and maintenance work on the central cooling and heating system of the Municipality building, only the air conditioning units could be serviced and put back into operation, while the filter cleaning was "planned after the ceiling reconstruction."

The former mayor of Tivat entered into a public-private partnership with "Građevinar" Dragan Kankaraš (DPS). The project was accompanied by court disputes with the local government over the collection of multi-million-dollar claims, the rehabilitation of the terrain, and the legalization of subsequently illegally constructed square meters on buildings that belonged to Šuković's company.

In a joint multi-million dollar deal, the Municipality contributed a valuable large plot of land about 15 years ago and “Građevinar” was released from the obligation to pay utilities worth millions. Miloš Šuković’s company, who said that this project in Tivat was “the crowning glory of his career after which he will retire”, built a low-quality concrete and glass complex in a super attractive location in the center of Tivat, completely out of harmony with the Mediterranean ambience, even with the conceptual design according to which it was supposed to be built, “breaking through” the planned maximum number of floors of the buildings, but also not respecting what it had agreed with the Municipality.

Thus, the City Hall building - today the administrative building of the Municipality, which according to the contract was supposed to have an area of ​​2,2 thousand square meters, "grew" to as much as 4.945 square meters, of which the Municipality ultimately received 4.200. Although "Građevinar" did not honor the contract, but built much more than agreed, and although the Municipality did not have its own supervision during the execution of the joint work, in 2010, following the findings of a mixed commission of the Municipality and the Podgorica company, a mutual "settlement" was made. According to it, the Municipality was left without almost all other business and residential premises on Magnolia Square that it was supposed to receive under the original contract, and in addition to the already invested multi-million-dollar value of land and utilities, it had to pay Šuković's company about two million euros for the purchase of the pergola on the square and "unforeseen, additional and surplus works".

This was the result of the Report on the delimitation of mutual obligations between the Municipality of Tivat and the company “Građevinar” arising from the Agreement on the joint construction of a residential and business complex at the location of Turkova poljana - Tivat, which was adopted in 2010 by the local parliament, in which the DPS had a majority at the time, with its partners SDP and HGI. The report was prepared by a mixed commission consisting of the then Deputy Mayor of the Municipality Krsto Bošković (SDP), advisers to the mayor of Kankaraš Petar Vujović (DPS) and Jovanka Lalicic (DPS), lawyer Ivan Perisic, manager of the construction of the complex Goran Pešić and Miloš Šuković himself.

The commission assessed that "the overall cooperation of the partners from this work was professionally correct and that the overall management of the facilities, from the preparatory documentation to the completion of the work, was done in a high-quality, professional and responsible manner" and noted that "as a result of the cooperation, we have facilities that have decorated the city" and that "it would be useful for the same partners to find each other in a new job".

The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) was, during the mandate of the former Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoj Katnić archived the case filed regarding this controversial public-private partnership, even though the local government suffered multi-million euro damages in the deal. The municipality exited the deal without receiving the requested and contracted business and residential buildings, and despite that, it had to subsequently pay an additional two million euros to the company of a Podgorica businessman close to the DPS.

Even so, the special prosecutor Lidija Mitrović who acted in that case, found no grounds to conduct criminal proceedings against the perpetrators of that case, but archived it. She has since been suspended from her position as special prosecutor and sentenced to seven months in prison for abuse of office in another case. However, Mitrović did not go to Spuž to serve this prison sentence, but escaped in early February this year, and the NCB Interpol Podgorica issued an international arrest warrant for her.