The former workers of the "Bajo Sekulić" Saltworks in Ulcinj, 70 of them, have been waiting for months for the bankruptcy administration to pay them part of their claims of 150-200 euros each, because the Public Enterprise for National Parks of Montenegro allegedly did not pay the money based on the lease of the oldest Ulcinj company.
This was confirmed to "Vijesti" by a representative of the workers Sasa Mitrovic while in the National Parks they claim that they fulfilled all the obligations from the contract based on the lease as of August 31.08.2023, XNUMX.
Mitrović said that he is aware that the National Parks have not yet paid the money stipulated in the contract of around 2,5 thousand euros on a monthly basis.
"The bankruptcy administration promised us that money before the New Year. The previous practice was for the bankruptcy administration to collect several months' rent and pay the money in the name of former employees, first-order creditors.
In the National Parks, they claim that all obligations defined in the Lease Agreement, such as providing physical protection of the property, meeting the costs of electricity, water and other maintenance, as well as enabling additional valorization of the leased property, are settled regularly.
"The Ministry annually pays a subsidy to the account of the National Parks, which, in addition to the National Parks, also applies to the Nature Park "Ulcinjska Solana", said this state-owned company.
The National Parks state that last year they settled the debt based on the lease of the salt flat for 2022 in the amount of 29.100,5 euros and part of the obligations from 2023, and that the last payment was on August 31.
"The monthly rental price is EUR 2.910,05 including VAT from January 2018. In the period from 2016 to 2018, the rental price was 2.856 euros including VAT on a monthly basis," the company states, adding that the government regularly provides them with subsidies that cover the rental costs.
The National Parks, in accordance with the decision of the Government, have been managing the oldest company in Ulcinj since August 2015 with the aim of protecting biodiversity.
The bankruptcy administration owes more than one million euros to former workers based on unpaid wages and contributions. Mitrović previously said that the workers will ask the bankruptcy judge Dragan Vucevic ask to hire a financial expert to calculate the interest on multi-year claims, and ask the Ministry of Labor to contact the Labor Fund regarding their requests.
Bankruptcy in the Ulcinj company was introduced in the first half of 2005, ie on May 5, and the failed five-year reorganization plan lasted from the beginning of 2006. As the reorganization plan failed, the Ulcinj company has been in classic bankruptcy since 2011.
The process of privatization of Solana began in 2001 with mass voucher privatization, after which the former privatization fund Eurofond, which was then managed by a businessman Veselin Barovic, became the majority owner of the company from Ulcinj.
The Administration for Cadastre and State Property, based on the opinion of the Privatization Council, passed a decision in December 2021 allowing the Saltworks land to be registered as state property and that the Government is the sole holder of the right of disposal. The state was officially registered as the owner of the Solana land in the cadastral books at the beginning of July 2022, while the bankrupt company is the beneficiary of most of the property.
After that, representatives of the minority shareholders announced lawsuits which, according to their estimation, could cost the state over 200 million euros. They claim that it is the property of 20 shareholders and that the state has confirmed that it issued shares without coverage, because they believe that they bought the company's shares during privatization and subsequently on the stock market, considering that Solana is the owner of 14 million square meters of land that it used.
In the meantime, the Administrative Court of Montenegro accepted the lawsuit filed by the bankrupt joint-stock company "Bajo Sekulić" and annulled the opinion of the Government, i.e. the Council for Privatization and Capital Projects from July 2021, in which it was stated that the state's ownership of the land of the only Montenegrin salt mine is undisputed. Thus, the fate of the oldest collective from Ulcinj is now in the hands of the government of Milojko Spajić.
Bonus video:
