The former mayor of Budva, the current Minister of Defense Dragan Krapović, supplemented the report he submitted to the chief special prosecutor Vladimir Novović, requesting that the controversies surrounding the project of building a solitaire in front of the halls of the Adriatic Fair by the company "Mia investments" be investigated.
Krapović, who is also the vice-president of Democratic Montenegro, filed a criminal complaint in April 2022, when he asked the then Acting Supreme State Prosecutor Maja Jovanović, the Chief Special Prosecutor Vladimir Novović and the then Director of the Police Administration Zoran Brđanin to investigate the origin of the money for the construction of the towers. , but also the connections of Montenegrin politicians in that project, from Milo Đukanović and Branimir Gvozdenović, who were mentioned by the fugitive businessman Duško Knežević, and all the mortgages that were registered on the land from Piraeus Bank, up to the registered mortgages of the company "Carinvest RS" of the family of the former the President of the Municipality of Budva, Marko Carević.
On May 27, 2020, 'Mia investments' submitted an application for the construction of the facility. Based on the aforementioned report, on July 30 of that year, an inspection report was drawn up, which stated that the submitted construction report was in order and submitted in accordance with Article 91 of the Law on Planning and Spatial Planning. That documentation was done contrary to the law, and the auditor's report contains illegal findings. The technical documentation was made based on the UT conditions issued on January 23, 2014, which were issued for the entire urban plot, because the planning document did not specify the parameters for the construction of the hotel as opposed to the parameters for the construction of the congress center. The project was made for a part of the urban plot using proportional values. The planned hotel is not shown in relation to the neighboring buildings, even in relation to the building planned for the remaining part of the urban plot", stated Krapović in the supplement to the application, which "Vijesti" had access to.
As he emphasized, in the UT conditions there is a note that until the application for the issuance of a building permit is submitted, property and legal relations on the plot should be resolved.
"The current property-legal relations are the product of the decision of the Municipality, which was made in order to cooperate with the co-owner for the construction of a congress center with a congress-type hotel, therefore the separation of a part of the urban plot from the complex of congress content with tourism violates the property relations established with the aim of bringing the space to the purpose of in accordance with the DUP "Budva Center - Amendments and Supplements". By violating the unity of the complex, property relations are also violated. The legal entity 'Expo Budva' was formed for the purpose of building a congress center in a period when, by law, it was not possible to build on part of the urban plot. With the adoption of new legal solutions, the right to build on this land was made possible, but the way of regulating mutual rights and obligations, the disposition and encumbrance of the land, which is all the subject of the SDT's investigation, remained still disputed. It is precisely this fact that prevents the Municipality from finally regulating mutual rights and obligations with the Adriatic Fair. Due to all of the above, the regulation of mutual rights and obligations regarding construction on the urban plot is a preliminary issue in the process of granting consent on its part", explained Krapović.
He emphasizes that in the specific situation it is foreseen that construction on part of the urban plot can be approved only if the missing part of the plot does not affect the functionality and access to the object and that "the construction of the solitaire prevents the use of the existing fair halls number 4 and 5, which are owned by 'Expo Budva', whose founder is the Municipality".
"The ruling of the Administrative Court from May 2021 annulled the decision of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism from December 25, 2019, which refers to the approval of the preliminary decision for the construction of the solitaire. The Law on Administrative Procedure stipulates that by annulling a decision, the legal matters that resulted from that decision are also annulled, which specifically means that from the moment the judgment of the Administrative Court becomes final, the acts that resulted from it or rely on it and all legal consequences are put outside strength. I believe that the submitted construction application cannot remain in force, because it is invalid and cannot be acted upon. It was erroneously stated in the minutes of the inspection that the submitted construction application was in order and in accordance with the law," emphasized Krapović.
He points out that a note of restitution has been registered on the land on which the construction is planned, and he believes that deficiencies in the project documentation and its lack of verification allow the investor to damage the budget of Montenegro.
"According to the Law on Tourism and Hospitality, it is prescribed that a 5-star hotel can be operated under the condo or mixed business model under certain conditions. A key fact that is purposefully abused in practice is that the investor must first of all have a 5-star hotel. A complete hotel facility must be designed in which all facilities are dimensioned in accordance with the capacity of accommodation units that will not be sold and accommodation units that are planned for sale. The difference between the condo and the mixed business model is that the buyer of the condo model must be engaged in tourism. And with mixed, it doesn't have to. On the example of the conceptual design of the 5-star hotel 'Mia investments', we have a hotel that actually contains a smaller hotel with a capacity of 144 double rooms (288 beds) with an apartment part consisting of apartments of different sizes (858-288=570 beds). The hotel facilities in this facility are not sized for the needs of all 858 beds," he emphasized.
According to him, in practice, part of the accommodation units intended for sale is designed as a residential building, and only the part not intended for sale is designed as a 5-star hotel.
"This is an abuse of space. The scariest thing of all is that five-star hotels do not pay utilities in accordance with the law on space planning and construction of buildings and have the option of not paying VAT for the construction and furnishing of hotels, which are actually partly not hotels but residential buildings. Illegally determining the category of a 5-star hotel, which is not actually designed in accordance with the by-law, enables the illegal enrichment of individuals to the detriment of the public interest. In this way, the number of apartments/apartments for sale is significantly higher than planned," emphasized Krapović.
At the beginning of February, the department of Minister Janko Odović annulled the decision on giving consent to the conceptual design of future towers of 15 and 16 floors each, but the company, which gathers Turkish investors, continued to carry out the works, which is why the recent municipal secretary for property protection, Đorđe Zenović, submitted criminal complaint against an unknown person in the construction inspection that did not stop the works.
Žižić gave his consent and worked for the auditor
Krapović emphasized that until 2017, the category of the building was determined by a commission in the then Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, and since that year, auditors have been doing that work - design firms that have a license to create project documentation, audit and supervision, which, as he says, facilitates fraud.
"In the specific case, there is doubt about the auditing firm "SEDAM - ING" DOO Podgorica and its actions in the project in question. I emphasize that at the time of the audit of this project, Mirko Žižić was one of the engaged engineers in the aforementioned audit firm. During the 42nd mandate of the Government, when the project was approved, Žižić held the position of chief state architect in the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism," Krapović pointed out.
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