The International Arbitration Court in Geneva accepted the evidence and expert reports of the Municipality of Budva, thereby rejecting the request of the German-Austrian concern WTE/EVN to pay them EUR 40 million for the termination of the contract for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Bečići, "Vijesti" has learned.
The editors could not get an official statement from the Municipality of Budva, because allegedly the local administration will make an official statement.
A foreign company initiated a dispute for the termination of the DBF contract concluded with the Municipality of Budva a decade ago and thus requested to be paid everything that was planned to be realized as an investment. The expert reports that were submitted, starting from the evaluation of the works performed by the company "Dr Duhovnik", and the financial expert showed that Budva paid in full what the German company from Essen had invested.
This decision of the arbitration in Geneva, as "Vijesti" was told unofficially, called into question the decision of the arbitration court in Frankfurt, which a few months ago "ruled" in favor of WTE and ordered Budva to give them a guarantee (which the Municipality claims is forgery) pays 40 million euros.
The German-Austrian company activated the state guarantee in December 2019, when the then Prime Minister Duško Marković's government paid it 29,3 million euros, despite the opposition of the Municipality of Budva. In January 2020, the foreign company then left the plant in the Vještice neighborhood of Bečić, leaving the collector in poor technical condition, as claimed by the then local administration headed by Marko Carević.
The former mayor of Budva, Dragan Krapović, and Milorad Marković, as a legal expert, the current candidate for the supreme state prosecutor, testified before the arbitration court in Geneva.
Zenović: We will not pay an additional 70 million or a state guarantee
The Secretary for Property Protection, Đorđe Zenović, on the occasion of the decision of the arbitration court in Geneva, said that the Municipality of Budva will not pay an additional 70 million euros or 29 million euros of state guarantees.
"The move of the Municipality to engage in arbitration proceedings based on the 'issued' guarantees in Frankfurt and the termination of the DBFO contract in Geneva was contested, many believed that it was better to let this highly criminal business exist. The choice of the legal team and the DLA paper that prepared the defenses in both cases were challenged. We contested the choice of experts, whose findings in Geneva were almost 100 percent accepted. It was expected that we would pay this over the already paid 40 million, another 40 million euros on the basis of guarantees (for which the procedure of annulment of the arbitration decision is underway before the regional court in Frankfurt) and an additional 30 million euros on the basis of damages due to the termination of the DBFO contract. We will not pay an additional 70 million and we will not return 29 million rubles to the state due to the voluntarily paid guarantee on the first call - as much as we have paid so far is what we should have... It is very likely that we will now be charged by WTE and all the actors who allowed this kind of contract". said Zenović.
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