On Tuesday 21 February 2018, Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) organized a conference Investigative Journalism and Code of Ethics - Obstacles, Challenges and How to Reach Professional Standards, as a part of the EU funded project Investigate for ME and EU, implemented in cooperation with Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). The goal of the project is to strengthen investigative reporting and topics related to EU negotiation chapters, in order to contribute to the transformation of society towards democracy and the EU integration process.

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Municipality of Kolašin was damaged for enormous sums of money due to the illegal sale of municipal land throughout the course of last decade and a half, for which none was held accountable. There have been several formulas for the enrichment of privileged at the expense of Kolašin, but this one with land is rather simple – you buy a parcel from the Municipality for, let’s say, EUR 1000, and you sell it for EUR 70.000 the next day. Or, you simply receive the municipal square metres with one swipe of the quill and voila, there you have it!

Mileta Bulatović and Mile Šuković, duo which made the nowadays former municipal government in Kolašin for two decades, has sold or ceded millions of square metres without the compensation on attractive locations. Land was often sold below the price, and sometimes even given as gift to privileged individuals, companies, or affiliated persons. Municipality ceded the land without any trace of announcements, or the decisions of Parliament. Due to the aforementioned, Municipal Board of Social-Democratic Party (MB SDP) filed a criminal complaint in 2009, which for years is still not processed.

“We have a reasonable doubt to believe that they sold and given as gift state property without any supervision. They indebted the municipality and ceded the land under the fiduciary, while the institutions of system followed them in all of that”, stated Željka Vuksanović, current president of Municipality of Kolašin, even when local SDP filed a criminal complaint against Bulatović and Šuković, who occupied the positions of presidents of Parliament and Municipality of Kolašin for a long time.

MB SDP amended and expanded its criminal complaint against Bulatović and Šuković in September 2015 on the grounds of doubt that they gave away the land at preferential prices or without the compensation to the majority of persons, in an illegal manner, which, as has been alleged, caused great damage to Municipality of Kolašin and Montenegro.

Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIJ – MNE) had the insight into part of the documentation based on which that criminal complaint was created. Until the deadline for publishing this text, we have not received a reply from the Special Prosecution whether they work on this complaint. And the complaint contains lots of examples that indicate on the suspicions concerning misuse of authority.

In doing so, the Municipality sold three cadastral parcels to Miroslav Rakočević, supposedly based on the announcement from 9 August 2007: in cadastral municipality (CM) Kolašin, 2024 square metre for EUR 40.500; in CM Drpe, 2619 square metre for the price of EUR 26.200; and in CM Smajilagića Polje, territory of 3450 square metre for EUR 7.000.

Rakočević sold the parcels in Kolašin and Smajilagića Polje the very next day after he bought it, and he did so at several times higher price. Value of the land in CM Kolašin increased almost four and a half times in 24 hours, thus that what he paid EUR 40.500, Rakočević sold for EUR 182.000. For the lot in Smajilagića Polje, Rakočević received two and a half times more money only a day later – EUR 17.250.

Third parcel in Drpe he sold couple of months later, in October 2007. In the case of Drpe, the price rocketed almost six times. Therefore, he received EUR 150.000 for what he paid EUR 26.200. To summarise: he received EUR 349.250 for three parcels which he bought from the Municipality in the amount of EUR 73.700, thus earning for himself EUR 257.950! And this is the loss of Municipality only from doing that particular business.

Rakočević sold all these parcels to company Allianz Kapital from Budva.

Several other people have also sold land to this company, which they previously bought for pittance from the Municipality of Kolašin. In doing so, Milan Bulatović sold 600 square metres to that company for EUR 33.000, which he previously bought from the Municipality for EUR 600. Hence, euro per square metre, and sold even EUR 55 per square metre, with the fact that Bulatović did not pay those EUR 600 to the Municipality, according to the criminal complaint of MB SDP, whereas he did not omit to register that lot on his name, prior to the transaction with Allianz.

According to the criminal complaint, to which CIJ – MNE had the insight in, this was not the only parcel which Bulatović acquired without previously not paying for it.  He also registered the parcel in CM Kolašin of 391 square metre for which he should have paid EUR 1955, even though there was no announcement or the decision of Parliament concerning that transaction.

Even Zoran Bulatović traded with Allianz Kapital: he sold 1267 square metre to that company for EUR 76.200. He previously acquired the land from the Municipality of Kolašin at a symbolic price, and according to the criminal complaint, there was no value assessment of land prior to that sale.

In May 2007, Allianz also bought the land from Tomislav Bulatović, namely 710 square metre for the amount of EUR 78.100, hence EUR 110 per square metre. Bulatović previously bought that lot from the Municipality, even though there was no decision of Municipal Parliament on the sale of that land, which is mandatory.

Allianz Kapital did not buy the land solely through the mediators. It did trade at privileged prices directly from the Municipality of Kolašin. In August 2007, it bought 8.748 square metre for EUR 87.500, hence something less than 10 euros per square metre. According to the criminal complaint of MB SDP, there was also no previous value assessment of real estate, and other land in close proximity was sold at the price of 50 to 150 euros per square metre.

There was another interesting transaction in the beginning of 2005. Municipality of Kolašin sold 400 square metre to Dejan Đurašković from Podgorica for EUR 800. There is no decision of Municipal Parliament of Kolašin on that sale either. Once he registered the parcel, Đurašković soon after sold it to Zoran Vlahović, former Chief administrator of this northern city. Vlahović paid EUR 1000 for the land, hence 2.5 euros per square metre. Nevertheless, in Vlahović’s hand the value of that land soon enormously increased and he sold it to Allianz for EUR 70.000, or 175 euros per square metre. Seventy times more that what he originally paid for. Good business for local official – you give a thousand, and earn EUR 69.000.

According to the Register of Commercial Court, company Allianz Kapital was founded in March 2007. The founder is Igor Chaplygin, while Zoran Rakočević was the director. The company was initially formed as a real estate agency, and later re-registered into hotel company. Soon after the registration, Rakočević‘s name was erased from the Register of Commercial Court, and Chaplygin was registered as the only person in the company.

According to state cadastre, Allianz owns huge assets, not only in the municipality of Kolašin, but in Budva and Kotor as well. Burden was registered last year on part of its assets in Budva, due to the unsettled tax debt of about EUR 33.000. This company has been on the list of blocked legal subjects last several years due to the debt which exceeds tens of thousands of euros. This year, Allianz Kapital found itself on the list of 200 largest tax delinquents with the amount of debt of EUR 282.651.60.

By the way, according to earlier reports, owner of Allianz had been buying the land located between Saint Stefan and Budva, along with several other persons, from the former creator of Zavala project, Sergei Polonsky. Apart from Chaplygin, others who participated in those transactions, according to media reports, were Igor Pelyuhno and Nahum Emilfarb, who is now one of the owners of Budvanska rivijera. Emilfarb is known for transforming the failed project of Zavala into Dukley gardens, and for having great plans for the capital of tourism, as well as for other coastal towns.

“Had you applied for the announcement on the sale of municipal land, you would have acquired it under the same conditions, same as the ones for which you are inquiring about”, told Mileta Bulatović for CIJ – MNE. When CIJ – MNE insisted to get clarification for the specific cases, Bulatović lost his patience and stated: “Get off of our backs, you’ve crossed every line, you and your investigative journalism and Vijesti. We know well who you are”, told Bulatović, thus depriving us of answer to numerous dilemmas.

But all of the abovementioned is just smaller part of the story. Municipal expanses were taken by the biggest players. Media previously announced that the majority of them bought land for pittance. According to data of Real Estate Administration, Aco Đukanović, Prime Minister's brother, registered more than 275 000 square metres on his name in September 2009, spread on three parcels in cadastral municipalities of Šljivovica and Smajilagića Polje.

Edin Kolarević, Prime Minister’s nephew, has six parcels in Kolašin in cadastral municipalities Kose and Smrčje, total space of about 46 000 square metres!

Another two persons close to highest Montenegrin officials own vast amount of land – either directly or through affiliated persons and companies. In that manner, Zoran Bećirović, friend of Prime Minister Đukanović, seized hundreds of thousands of square metres through companies which he privatized. Only his SKI Resort - Kolašin 1450 owned about 147.000 square metres on Jezerine near Kolašin. And Ljubiša Šestović, brother-in-law of Branimir Gvozdenović, longtime minister in several Governments of Montenegro, came to a possession of 83.000 square metres in the summer 2008.

Network for Affirmation of Non-governmental sector (MANS) filed a criminal complaint several years ago against the Government of Montenegro and Ministry of Sustainable Development, as well as against Aco Đukanović, Edin Kolarević, Dragan Bećirović and Branimir Gvozdenović due to conflict of interest. Namely, the Government and its Ministry assigned the Republic Institute for Urbanisation and Planning (RIUP) with the development of spatial plans for the area where the vast land of families Đukanović, Šestvović and Kolarević is located, whereby the RIUP is in the ownership of Aco Đukanović!
Alas, this criminal complaint was also left as a dead letter.

The money is being poured into the hands of privileged ones from Montenegrin municipalities, and not in a legal manner. Though the spotlight is on Budva and Jelići, there are similar from which the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIJ-MNE) starts a serial on corruption at the local level.

Mileta Bulatović, former president of Municipality of Kolašin, had been receiving tens of thousands from the budget after being dismissed from his position. “Since September 2012, when his right to compensation terminated, Bulatović received EUR 47.000 by the end of March 2016, when he was relieved of all of his duties, even though it was against the regulations. This amount also included taxes and contributions in the amount of EUR 31.500. Hence, in total – EUR 78.500”, claims for CIJ-MNE Željka Vuksanović, current president of Municipality of Kolašin. She also stated that they stopped paying the salary to Bulatović when they came to power, but that he sued the Municipality. And he won the dispute. This case is being audited at the moment. Vuksanović came to function in December 2014, with the support of then opposition, by taking over the governance from duo Mileta Bulatović – Mile Šuković, who brought both, during two decades, misery and fortune to one of the most beautiful northern cities.

The decision which prolongs Bulatović‘s right to compensation of salary, even upon the legal deadline until one year after the termination of function, was signed by Darko Brajušković, former president of Municipality, on 14 November 2012, by referring to Article 35 of Law on State Employees. That article envisages “that the right to compensation can be extended for another year if during that period the person obtains the right to pension.” However, Bulatović did not retire by the end of that period, but moved to another position. And that happened in spite of the fact that, on 27 November 2013, he received the decision of Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance (Fund PDI) on “complete loss of working ability”, based on which, along with the additional documentation, he could have taken his.

In January 2013, municipal Parliament of Kolašin hired Bulatović for an indefinite period based on the takeover deal (even though at the time the former president was not employed, only receiving the compensation), whereby he occupied the position of Adviser for Environmental Protection to president of municipal Parliament  - his comrade Mile Šuković. The decision was signed by Šuković and Brajušković.

Bulatović occupied that position by March 2016, after which the Municipal Parliament dismissed him, by referring to the decision of Fund PDI, two and a half years old, which found that  Bulatović was “completely incapable for work”.

Current president Vuksanović claims that several former officials from this municipality have kept their privileges upon the completion of their function. She referred to the example of Marta Šćepanović, former Chief administrator of Kolašin.

Since November 2012, Šćepanović's “rights and obligations have been resting, due to her appointment as MP in the Parliament of Montenegro”. However, Šćepanović was the elected official in the municipality, and persons who end their function cannot have their rights resting, nor can they return to former function upon the termination of other, says Vuksanović.

It is also interesting that Mile Šuković, whose function as the president of municipal Parliament od Kolašin has ended for few years now, still uses the offices in the municipality and that it is impossible to move him out. “I will seek the assistance of new minister, since neither the police wanted to cooperate with us on that matter up until now”, states Vuksanović.

However, the use of offices, compensations and employment of privileged ones, are just part of the story. As far as the use of state funds is concerned, best example are the invoices for fuel during the era of Šuković – Bulatović.

In 2008, only until October, Municipality of Kolašin paid EUR 408.520.38 to Jugopetrol for fuel. The Municipality paid for fuel to other suppliers as well, which makes this sum even higher. By comparison, nowadays the Municipality spends about thousand euros on monthly level for these purposes. According to information of municipal financial service from 1 December 2014, EUR 15 000 were spent for fuel to this date.

If assumed that in average ten litres of fuel are spent on every 100 km (by driving luxury vehicles which “devour” fuel), and that the average price of one litre of fuel is one euro, it turns out that they travelled four millions and one hundred thousands of kilometres in nine months! One hundred and two circles around the globe!

Municipal officials simultaneously paid also for fuel with credit cards. Thus, Mile Šuković used to pay EUR 655 for fuel by using his CKB card.

According to the slips from the card, in which the CIJ-MNE had the insight to, Šuković used the card nine times at the gas station of Jugopetrol in Kolašin on 23 September 2010, minute after minute in doing so. And in June that same year, Šuković used official card to pay the amount of EUR 300 at the gas station of Luk oil in Kolašin, through several transactions made in two minutes.

“That’s correct, but the municipal accounts were blocked and I used the card to pay the fuel for others as well”, Šuković told in an interview with CIJ-MNE, by emphasising that media wrote gibberish, only to smear former government.

When asked to comment how former authorities managed to spend more than 400 thousands for fuel in only ten months, and that the new one spends thousand euros in average per month, since December 2014, Šuković told: “That says it all about how things used to function before, and how they function now. We spent more fuel, because we worked more, do you know how many kilometres of local roads we have and what activities we accomplished with that fuel”, says Šuković, by emphasising that costs did not fall under his competence. We tried to contact Bulatović, who was responsible for municipal budget, but the attempt was not fruitful.

Šuković used the official CKB card in Belgrade in 2008 for private expenses. He paid the amounts of EUR 139.55 and EUR 268.64 to ophthalmology office Diopta, and EUR 100.95 to Tehnomarket. “It is correct that I paid for those private expenses by using the official card, but only because they didn’t accept euros in Belgrade. I returned that money later”, says Šuković.

According to the extract of CKB credit card from the period 1 August 2007 to 6 May 2011, Šuković spent EUR 11.649,90. “The amount of those funds is not that great compared to nearly four years”, claims Šuković for CIJ-MNE.

On the other side, Darko Bulatović, former driver of Šuković, and nowadays president of the Trade union of local management, only in 2008 received EUR 12, 000 for perdiems, according to the claims of current management. Or, one thousand per month. Earlier it was publicised that Šuković for three years of heading municipal Parliament of Kolašin took perdiems in the amount of app. EUR 21, 000. He denied these claims. He also deined that in one day he paid bill for fod and drinks in the amount of EUR 10, 000, as indicated by the representatives of current municipal authorities.

President Vuksanović claims that from January 2013 to June 2014 trusted officials received unfounded payments from the municipal budget and that their salaries were increased, and that this was done in the amount no lesser than EUR 30.177.

Subject related to payment of unfounded salaries was submitted to special prosecutor, same as many other suspicious transactions which were performed by former administration of Municipality of Kolašin, however, the Prosecution still provides no answer.

Instead to Kolašin, Prva banka paid the taxes of Lipka to Podgorica

Upon overtaking the municipality, millions in debts of previous authorities were inherited. Accounts of Municipality of Kolašin were blocked. “It took us 12 long months and 12 days to unblock the account. I believe that we were obstructed, because we barely got a loan”, says Željka Vuksanović, president of Municipality of Kolašin.

She considers that state level structures constantly exert pressure on municipal authorities that they do not control. She states the following example: Prva banka of family Đukanović transferred EUR 216.000 to Municipality of Podgorica on 31 May 2016 instead to Municipality of Kolašin, based on the taxes of sale of Kolašin–based hotel Lipka and parcels where the construction of hotel was planned. “We suffer great damage because Prva banka transferred our money on someone else’s account, allegedly by mistake, and after I warned them, they refused to return us the funds, and instead blamed the Tax administration and Municipality of Podgorica, which is now returning us the money in tranches”, stated Vuksanović.

She addressed the minister of finance and Central Bank of Montenegro (CBMNE), and even though more than a month has passed, part of that money is still blocked.

“CBMNE is aware of the case, and it launched the control procedure in Prva banka within its legally prescribed authorisations, in order to determine state of affairs. In case it determines any irregularities in the functioning of Prva banka during the control procedure, CBMNE will take adequate measures to rectify these irregularities, in line with the Law on Payments”, as announced for CIJ-MNE.

Darko Radunović, CEO of Prva banka, denied any notions of obstruction. “There is no mention of political background. This was the case of inexperienced employee. Concluding with 05 July 2016, Municipality of Kolašin received EUR 135.555,58. We expect that the remaining funds will be returned by the end of the week”, Radunović told for CIJ-MNE.

We had the insight into the deposit slip, which the byer of Lipka handed to employee of Prva banka with duly entered account code of Municipality of Kolašin – 728. Code of Podgorica is 302. It is hard to permute the two.