The municipality of Kotor paid its utility company significantly more than is realistic for the horticultural arrangement of the roundabout on the Adriatic highway in Lipci. The project was completed in the spring of 2014. In the meantime, there is almost nothing left of the expensive greenery at the intersection. One part of the plants, planted almost three years ago, failed due to drought and lack of maintenance, and the rest was stolen.
The reconstruction of the until then problematic intersection, which was turned into a roundabout, has been done since 2013. The project was jointly implemented by the Directorate for Traffic of the Government of Montenegro and the Directorate for Arrangement and Construction of Kotor.
The first allocated around 270 euros for construction works, while the second invested a total of 61.403,69 euros for the installation of lighting and horticultural landscaping of the new intersection.
Of the amount paid by the citizens of Kotor, 39.829,49 euros was paid to the Kotor company "Spinel" for the construction of public lighting at the intersection, while its landscape and horticultural arrangement, which was carried out by the Public Company "Komunalno" Kotor, cost as much as 20.670,30 euros, as it stands in the answer that the Center for Civic Education (CEO) received from the competent services of the Municipality of Kotor.
Kotor PUC Director Zoran Mrdak, after repeated insistence by CGO to inform them of all the details and specification of costs for the works carried out by that company on the landscape and horticultural arrangement of the intersection in Lipce, replied that the Municipal Directorate for Arrangement and Construction of Kotor had asked them to make an offer based on a previously completed project for that job.
By the way, the project was done by Tatjana Krstović, a graduated horticultural engineer from Tivat, who is the manager of the Urban Greenery Department of the Tivat Municipal Enterprise.
At the request of the investor - Directorate for Development and Construction of Kotor, PUK Kotor made two variants of the landscaping solution for the circular area, whereby variant "B", which was finally selected, used a solution that is less demanding in terms of the need to irrigate the planted plants .
Thus, according to the estimate, a total of 2.020 pieces of laprantus, 507 pieces of opuncia, six agave seedlings, three pieces each of yucca, oleander and washingtonia palms, and one two-meter tall pine seedling should have been planted.
The final bill, which the Kotor PUC submitted to the Directorate for Arrangement and Construction on May 30, 2014, amounted to 20.670,30 euros, even though 185 less laprantus seedlings were planted than originally planned.
In a letter to CGO, PUC director Zoran Mrdak claims that accordingly the invoice was later corrected and reduced by around 1.300 euros, and sent to the Directorate for collection. The director of that municipal institution, Ivo Magud, meanwhile, is determined that the originally contracted 20.670,30 euros were paid to the PUC.
From the Directorate for Arrangement and Construction of Kotor Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) it was announced that the offer of the municipal utility company for the job of landscaping the new intersection in Lipci was the most favorable and that is the only reason why they decided to entrust them with the job.
In response to our questions, they said that the companies "Mondo Verde" doo Kotor in the amount of 20.985,84 euros and "Ekoplant" doo Podgorica in the amount of 23.619,40 euros also sent offers. All three offers, in addition to plants, also included the remaining necessary materials - soil, fertilizer, pebbles...
It is interesting, however, that one of the companies that two years ago participated in the public invitation of the Kotor Directorate, CIN-CG for the absolutely identical specification of the required plant material and works that was performed by the PUK Kotor in 2014, these days submitted a significantly lower offer.
Kotor's "Mondo Verde" offers all this (including the complete amount of laprantus that the Kotor PUC did not plant two years ago) for 15.871 euros, including VAT.
Why seedlings paid significantly more
Kotor's Communal Enterprise did not answer the questions sent to them by CIN-CG regarding the job of landscaping the roundabout in Lipci.
It is to be assumed, however, that the planting material used by that company for the horticultural arrangement of that public area originated from the PUK's own production - their nursery in Kavč.
Although in the offer accepted by the Kotor Landscaping and Construction Directorate, nowhere is the individual price of seedlings per type of plant requested (instead, PUK gave the total price that includes the plant and the works for its planting), comparing those amounts with the prices of planting material that CIN - Montenegro received in several Montenegrin nurseries, it turns out that the Municipality of Kotor paid rather more for the plants of its own utility company.
Namely, in the structure of the offer that CIN-CG received from "Mondo Verde", only 15 percent of the total value of the planting material refers to the value of physical works on planting plants, while the cost of soil and fertilizers represents another four to five percent. Bearing that calculation in mind, it turns out that, for example, a laprantus seedling at JKP Kotor costs 5,6 euros - significantly more than at "Mondo Verde" (3,8 euros) or the garden center "Kalia", where a seedling of that plant costs only 1,95 euros.
JKP Kotor charged its founder, the Municipality of Kotor, as much as 456 euros for one Washingtonia palm tree seedling, while a palm tree of the same type and size costs 360 euros at "Modno Verde" and only 220 euros at "Kalija".
Although it is not for direct comparison, JKP Tivat charges only 44 euros to its founder - Municipality of Tivat for planting palm trees of a similar size, but of a different type (canary date)! JKP Kotor charged the founder as much as 115 euros for a yucca seedling, which is four and a half times more expensive than that plant costs in "Kalija" (25,5 euros), i.e. 1,6 times more expensive than in "Mondo Verde", where yucca costs 70 euros .
In 2014, PUK sold an agave cactus to the municipality of Kotor for the intersection in Lipci for almost 173 euros, while that plant in "Mondo Verde" today costs 130, and in "Kalija" a seedling of the same plant twice the size costs only 21,5 euros.
And they gave more for electricity
On February 16, 2013, the Directorate for Development and Construction of Kotor called for submission of bids using the shopping method for the execution of works on the lighting of the newly built intersection in Lipci.
However, on April 16, the contract for the execution of the works was concluded with the second-ranked bidder, the company "Spinel" doo Kotor, whose offer was more expensive by about 3,5 thousand euros. The Kotor Development and Construction Directorate replied that everything was in accordance with the law.
As the first-ranked, most favorable bidder, "Buster" doo Podgorica, selected by Decision No. 02-889 of 04.03.2013/19.03.2013/18.04.2013, did not submit the signed Contract within the prescribed legal term, and the same was submitted to him for signing on 10/XNUMX/XNUMX, the client is in in accordance with the law, concluded a contract with the second-ranked bidder "Spinel" doo Kotor on April XNUMX, XNUMX, due to the fact that the price difference was not greater than XNUMX% compared to the originally selected offer," the director of that municipal company told CIN-CG institution, Ivo Magud.
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