By Siniša Luković

Global maritime industry will decline by 4.1% in 2020 due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as estimated by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in late November. From Montenegro’s standpoint, the predictions made by experts affiliated with this permanent UN body based in Geneva are more than optimistic, as the coronavirus and measures taken by the Montenegrin authorities since mid-March until today to curb the epidemic have had far, far worse effects.

The fact that literally not a single cruise ship bringing in tourists has docked in any of our ports since mid-March, that the Montenegrin marinas were at best half full this summer even at the height of the nautical season, and that the state caused numerous problems to our seafarers when returning from ships with its often illogical quarantine measures, all add to the gloomy picture of the effects that the pandemic has had on this branch of the economy.

From the point of view of approximately 7,000 active seafarers from Montenegro, who are almost exclusively employed by foreign shipping companies, the pandemic-characterized 2020 was and still is extremely tough and challenging. In the spring, while the world was just getting acquainted with the novel virus and its effects, many countries imposed virtually complete border closures to foreign nationals and severe restrictions on air traffic, making the problem of regular crew changes and repatriation of seafarers one of the burning issues for the entire maritime industry.

It is estimated that there are about 2 million active seafarers globally. The lockdown and difficulties with crew changes left as many as about 200,000 of them trapped on ships around the world even after the end of their employment contracts. Due to problems with travel and air transport, crews remained stuck at sea for months. In those early stages of the pandemic, some seafarers remained on board continuously for six or eight months, with some breaking the “magical limit” of 12 months of uninterrupted navigation. Being stranded on a piece of floating steel for months with more or less the same twenty people, separated from family and friends, takes its toll on seafarers even in normal conditions. How this will reflect on their physical and mental state in the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic remains to be seen in the coming period. An additional problem is that even during short times when ships are docked in ports, seafarers now generally cannot get off the vessel to visit a town and escape from the gruelling everyday life at least for a moment.

The gravity of the situation is also illustrated by the fact that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has made special protocols with measures and procedures for crew members to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection. It has also has set up a Seafarer Crisis Action Team to assist seafarers with repatriation, boarding or crisis situations. In early December, the 75^th UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution on international cooperation to address challenges faced by seafarers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic to support global supply chains, calling on UN member states to designate seafarers as key workers and implement relevant measures to enable seafarers to disembark and embark, as well as to provide them with unrestricted access to medical care.

Earnings remain unchanged, but Europe is not in focus

Many seafarers from Montenegro have also been among those who have suffered the consequences of the pandemic, especially those who sailed as white-collar staff on cruise ships. During the spring and the first months of the summer, our media were full of dramatic testimonies of some of our citizens who, as crew members of cruise ships which were laid up in various ports around the world, found themselves literally in a kind of a months-long imprisonment because they could not be repatriated. They were waiting for months to return to the country, with their employers devising various methods to bring them back home in coordination with Montenegrin diplomats. However, even when they finally reached the borders of their country, these seafarers and their colleagues who were returning home from merchant ships, where the sanitary risk is many times lower than on cruise ships, were, often unreasonably, kept in quarantine in Montenegro for another fifteen days. The public still remembers the protests – nearly rebellions – which occasionally broke out among repatriated seafarers due to poor conditions in quarantine hotels, especially in the one in Vučje resort and partly the one in Igalo. All that, however, was being gradually overcome and worked out, to the extent that departures and returns from ships are a bit less problematic today.

“Embarkation and disembarkation are still difficult compared to pre-Covid circumstances. In comparison with the first months of the pandemic, the situation is now somewhat easier because there are more PCR testing labs, many countries have introduced a simplified border crossing procedure, recognizing the importance of seafarers as a labour force of special importance to the global economy. Yet, various restrictions imposed by airlines, insurance requirements and the like still remain. The average cost of embarking or disembarking an individual seafarer is now 100% higher than in pre-Covid times, so shipowners often decide to change large numbers of crew members at the same time, as they reduce costs by sending more people off or on board at the same time. That’s why seafarers are sometimes left waiting for disembarkation for several months after the end of their contracts,” sea captain Janko Milutin of the Shipmasters Association of Montenegro and the Kotor-based “Seamonte” ship manning agency told Vijesti.

He points out that, fortunately, the corona crisis has not significantly affected the incomes of seafarers so far, which have remained more or less unchanged. However, as the global trade is currently more oriented to the Pacific region than to routes towards Europe, shipowners are looking for crew members from that region more often because it is easier and cheaper for them to rotate crews on ships operating in that part of the world, rather than sending seafarers from Europe there.

“Conversely, shipowners whose ships operate in this part of the world prefer to have crews from Europe, so we also get inquiries to send complete crews from Montenegro. This, however, is not so easy for us, because we practically don’t have, for example, helmsmen, oilers and other similar lower ranks,” Milutin explains. On the other hand, in the beginning it was even more difficult for our seafarers who were caught by the pandemic at home, because they were left without the possibility to board a ship and earn their livelihoods for an indefinite period of time.

A study by the American Cornell University has shown that during the first months of the pandemic between March and June, when the tightest restrictions and prevention measures were in force, an unprecedented global decline in volume of maritime traffic was recorded in virtually all segments of the world maritime industry. The decline ranged from 5.62% to 13.77% for container ships, to 3.32% for bulk carriers, 9.27% ​​for tankers, and from 19.57% to as much as 42.77% for passenger ships. A survey of representatives of 200 of the world’s leading shipping companies, conducted in mid-October by the international law firm DWF, has shown that as many as 63% of respondents have suffered negative economic consequences due to the pandemic and various lockdown measures around the world, while as many as 60.5% of respondents have said that they had to cut their workforce because of that.

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) announced that in the first ten months of 2020, the number of ships entering EU ports had decreased by 14% compared to last year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Spain, Slovenia, Croatia and Iceland being the hardest hit, while the industry sector that saw the largest decline was passenger ships – cruise ships, ferries and ro-ro ships on regular lines.

Montenegrin seafarers, like their colleagues around the world, have faced additional financial challenges as more foreign companies that hire them were forced to take a number of austerity measures and cut operating costs due to the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis and the reduced volume of traffic in global trade, 80% of which takes place by sea. Therefore, many companies put some of their ships out of service, and some of them simply started laying off workers because they were literally fighting for their very survival, as is, for example, the case with Bourbon Offshore, which employs a considerable number of our seafarers on their tugs, suppliers and similar oil industry support vessels.

Cruise industry

The world’s cruise industry is certainly the hardest hit by Covid, with over 90% of its capacities literally being suspended for months, as there are practically no cruises anywhere in the world at the moment due to the pandemic. In recent months, these companies have sent a number of their slightly older cruise ships to breaking yards in order to reduce costs. As a result, at least in the foreseeable future, a large number of jobs for seafarers and white-collar staff of various profiles who sailed on those ships have been cut. When it comes to the Montenegrin maritime economy, the pandemic has had the most devastating impact on cruising as one of its fastest growing segments. The fact that until March 16, when the ban on cruise ships was introduced in Montenegro, the busiest Montenegrin cruise port of Kotor recorded the arrival of only 9 smaller ships in the first quarter, out of as many as 560 planned arrivals of cruise ships this year, best illustrates the scale of the disaster which has affected not only the Port of Kotor company, but also all other links in the chain of cruise service providers.

Instead of the projected total revenue of €4.6 million in 2020, the Port of Kotor suffered a loss of €1.4 million at the end of the third quarter, with the deficit being expected to grow further by the end of the year. Kotor’s losses in cruising could not be offset by the results achieved in yachting, as by early September only about 120 yachts had sailed into the port under the walls of the Old Town, out of the total expected 1,600 yacht arrivals in 2020. The money that the Port of Kotor lost due to the absence of cruise ships, is added to the huge sums that were lost by everyone else involved in the cruise industry chain in Montenegro – starting with the state that collects so-called light dues (charges levied on ships for the use of sea routes) and other taxes, through maritime agents, pilotage and towing service providers, suppliers, excursion organizers, bus companies that take cruise ship passengers sightseeing, travel agencies… The extent of work involved is best illustrated when figures are compared with 2019, when 490 cruise ships came to Montenegro, bringing along almost 650,000 passengers.

“A rough estimate is that due to the absence of about 500 this year’s cruise ships, at least €25 million in direct revenues has been lost and at least as much in the revenues that would have been generated by a chain of other providers and caterers serving those ships and their passengers. The importance of the cruising industry for our economy is also indirectly shown by literally hundreds of calls that we get every day from caterers, traders, carriers and travel agents, who all want an answer to a single question – when will cruise ships start coming again? Personally, I think that it could still happen in the next few months”, Mihailo Vukić, the owner and director of the Bar-based Allegra Montenegro maritime agency, told Vijesti.

Losses in our ports in this year’s cruising are measured in tens of millions of euros, so it is not surprising that all those involved in this business are trying to bring and station cruise ships in one of our ports in the period when they are in lay-up. Depending on whether a ship is in the so-called warm or cold lay-up status, (lay-up for a shorter or extended period of time) i.e. depending on the number of crew members retained on board, operating costs for the owner of only one large cruise ship range between 1 and 3 million dollars per month. The biggest expenses in such cases are wages for crew members, but the rest of allocations that end up in the pockets of port operators, the economy and, indirectly, in the budgets of the countries where the ship is located, are not negligible either. Currently, about 95% of the world’s cruise fleet is in lay-up. European ports host over a hundred ships, with more than half of them staying in various ports in the Mediterranean. Montenegro also tried to get its fair share of the cake, so the first cruise ship to undergo a three-month lay-up in Montenegro – Norwegian Spirit of Norwegian Cruise Line – arrived in the Port of Bar in late November. However, achieving something greater in this regard was prevented by a barrier perhaps stronger than Covid – the traditional rigidity and inflexibility of the Montenegrin state administration and incompatibility of the relevant legislation.

Yachting fared the best

Another segment of the Montenegrin maritime economy that was virtually battered by the pandemic this year are tourist and excursion boats, several dozen of which take tourists on short tours along the Montenegrin coast during the summer. This year, most of those vessels did not go out to sea at all, and their owners were left with empty pockets because hardly any tourists visited Montenegro last summer. The only exception was the excursion boat Katica from Tivat, which made only twenty trips around Boka with groups of foreign tourists, primarily from Ukraine. In doing so, due to measures limit the spread of coronavirus, this boat with a capacity of 370 passengers accommodated significantly fewer people – up to a maximum of 90, which was ultimately reflected in reduced revenues for the owner.

Despite a dramatic decrease in traffic compared to last year, the impression is that the yachting industry suffered proportionately the smallest losses as a result of coronavirus.

“We had fewer yachts this year compared to last year, but the situation in that segment of our services was not as bad as we had expected it to be. Still, the results we achieved in yachting this year were above our expectations because more of those boats came than we had hoped for,” Vukić points out.

In the spring months during the complete lockdown, the leading Montenegrin marinas such as Porto Montenegro, Porto Novi and the Bar marina implemented a series of innovative and proactive measures and programmes to train their staff and design protocols for the arrival and servicing of yachts at the time of the increased health and sanitary risk. Although this year’s results of our nautical tourism cannot come close to last year’s, when there were 4,775 yacht arrivals with 28,562 passengers, the situation in our marinas this summer at the height of the nautical season was still a little less depressing than in the Port of Kotor, where there were no cruise ships in sight. For instance, out of a total of 85 births in the Luštica Bay marina, 70% of them were occupied in August, whereas berth occupancy in August in the largest marina in Montenegro – Tivat’s Porto Montenegro, with a capacity of 450 yachts, was 72%. However, these data should also be taken with caution, because long-term moorings are counted as occupied, regardless of whether there is a moored yacht at a given moment or not. There is, however, a fundamental difference, because when a boat is actually in the marina, the accompanying economic effects of its stay consequently grow through the costs it generates there through supply, payment of various services and consumption by its crew. Yet, all of this is missing when a yacht is not moored at the leased berth, which is formally counted as “occupied” by the marina management.

“Our annual birth occupancy in 2020 is 70%, which is an even better result than the one from last year, when we had 68%. Such score was achieved due to the extension of contracts for a majority of ships moored in Porto Montenegro as their home port, which also led to an increase in the average docking time of yachts in our marina from 51 to 105 days”, Danilo Kalezić, Porto Montenegro’s senior PR and marketing manager, told “Vijesti”. He points out that large boats came more often to that marina this year, so the average length of yachts that sailed into Porto Montenegro this year was 22 metres, up from last year’s 21 metres.

Numerous works were either fictive or overcharged, lower quality material was used in construction but invoiced as top quality and hence more expensive, experts claim. Wassertechnik Essen LLC has already pocketed around €42 million and requests another €35.34 million to be paid, which is vigorously contested by Budva Municipality. Furthermore, international arbitrations will cost Budva millions of euros. Special Prosecution Office has launched “inquiries” that drag on indefinitely

Invoices for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Becici are inflated by more than €20 million according to those involved in the project and the findings of two independent experts. The allegations are further corroborated by various documents that the Centre for Investigative Journalism in Montenegro (CIN-CG), Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and Monitor had access to.

Furthermore, Budva Municipality has not solved the key environmental problem as only the central part of the municipality is connected to the newly constructed plant. The sewage from the territory of Jaz, Petrovac and Buljarica continues to flow into the sea untreated, while the sewerage system for Montenegro’s top brand and tourist destination Sveti Stefan (Saint Stephen) has not been built.

Three million euros were stolen from the municipal treasury through a false invoice before the construction even began as court documents and verdicts show. Moreover, Slovenian expert Dr Joze Duhovnik, hired by the opposition led local government since October 2016 election, claims that €41.4 million invoiced by the German company WasserTechnik Essen (WTE) should be reduced by €12,629 million. That’s how much the Germans overcharged according to him. Financial expert Ilinka Vukovic, hired by the Municipality and later on by the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) discovered other controversial invoices with the amount in dispute exceeding €3,5 million. Furthermore, the management costs for the facility were overcharged between €500 to €700 thousand annually during five and a half years when WTE operated the plant.

The city of Budva is at risk to lose additional tens of millions in the launched international arbitrations over mounting disputes with the Germans. The first arbitration is due to begin on 9 February 2021 in Frankfurt. WTE collected so far between €12.5 and €13.8 million for its services to the Municipality (the exact figure is a matter of dispute) and activated the Government of Montenegro guarantee of €29.3 million. WTE claims another €35.34 million. The second arbitration will take place in Geneva. The litigations’ costs will be an extra burden to the embattled municipal treasury.

However, so far no one has been held accountable for the inflated invoices, fictive works and services, and the instalment of cheaper and poorer quality material and equipment. The exception is the aforementioned theft of the first €3 million confessed in the plea agreement by the then vice president of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the informal ruler of Budva, Svetozar Marovic. Three of his former associates also accepted the plea agreement with the SPO.

The plea agreement reveals that the money was used to repay Marovic’s private debt to a certain businessman Gojko Kapisoda. The prosecutor and the court were extremely lenient and sentenced Marovic to only three months in prison. Shockingly, neither the SPO nor the High Court ordered Marovic to return the stolen millions to the Municipality under the terms of the plea agreement. Moreover, Marovic avoided prison having moved to Belgrade where he lives now. The then executive of the local WTE Wastewater Budva Guenter Faust who made the fake invoice and redirected the money to Marovic got away with his crime having become the witness-collaborator for the prosecution.

The Special Prosecution Office appeals to “ongoing inquiries” when asked about responsibility for not prosecuting other criminal offences in regard to the water treatment project.

Milking the Municipality

The German company WTE signed on 8 July 2009 a so-called DBFO (design-build-finance-operate) contract with the Municipality of Budva on the construction of three wastewater treatment plants in Becici, Jaz and Buljarica, as well as a sewerage system in Sveti Stefan. The overall capacity was to serve the population of 130 thousand. The value of the project was €58.56 million plus interest and variable costs, on condition that the total investment shall not exceed the tender prescribed limit of €85 million. The contract also provided for annual management costs of €1.7 million until 2042 while Budva was to repay the investment by 2034. The project was only partly completed when the water treatment plant in Becici began its trial operation in July 2014. It was officially opened in early October 2014.

Two months after concluding the contract, the Germans founded a subsidiary company WTE Wastewaters LLC Budva which signed a €61 million loan agreement with her parent company in Essen in early June 2010 to finance the project.

To ensure that the work would be properly done, the Germans handed over to the Municipality a guarantee from Bayerische Landesbank of Nuremberg (issued on 9 July 2009) for the amount of €4.25 million. It was valid until 8 July 2014. The then local DPS controlled city council did not ask for an extension. A former municipal official, who wanted to remain anonymous, explained to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that the Germans offered not to insist on immediate payment of the already accumulated invoices if the locals would forget the bank guarantee. At the time the treasury of Budva was empty.

On the other hand, the government lodged a payment guarantee for the amount of €29.3 million on 16 October 2010. It covered 50% of the overall basic investment and it was payable on first call and without the right to protest. Moreover, five months earlier, the then mayor Rajko Kuljaca issued a payment guarantee for the amount of up to €66 million. However, he neither had the formal consent of the Government nor the decision of the local city council, as the law prescribed. WTE activated the government issued guarantee on 18 December 2019, while the mayor’s guarantee is the subject of international arbitration in Frankfurt.

Interlocutors of CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor, who were previously highly positioned in the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), claim that the water treatment project was "preceded by an agreement between Svetozar Marovic and the state (and the ruling party) leadership". Marovic owed money to private individuals. Two of them confirmed it to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor on the condition of anonymity. Marovic also owed money to First Bank owned by Aco Djukanovic, the brother of the then Prime Minister and now President Milo Djukanovic. The interlocutors from the DPS said that eventually it was "agreed" to include the water treatment facility in Becici in the scheme whereby Marovic’s debts would be returned through fictive and "many times inflated invoices at the expense of quality and volume of works". Allegedly the Germans agreed to that.

The press service of President Djukanovic categorically denied the existence of such an agreement. "No, no such idea was ever brought up. And if it was, it would certainly not be accepted" is said in the reply sent to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

Marovic refused to respond to the allegations of his former party colleagues. The representative of the investor also denied allegations of corruption. First Bank replied that their representatives "neither had knowledge, nor took part in the agreements you mentioned”. The Bank wouldn’t answer on whether Marovic and Property Investments have settled their debts, if there was any outstanding debt and about the collaterals for the loans. The Bank appealed to the legally binding confidentiality and non-disclosure clauses.

However, Marovic's plea agreement with the SPO, and the WTE invoices sent to Budva Municipality that CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor had access to, confirm some of the allegations from our DPS sources.

Skyrocket invoices- from land clearance to maintenance

Soon after the opposition won Budva in October 2016 election, it turned out that the €3 million theft was just one of many.

The then newly elected mayor Dragan Krapovic told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that their first challenge was to find the project documents which disappeared after the DPS stepped down. "We couldn’t find even the basic DBFO contract as the SPO prosecutors carried away the documentation without receipt and they wouldn’t return it either. The archive was in disarray".

The municipality managed to obtain some documents and then launched a review. "Dr Joze Duhovnik from Slovenia was chosen for the job. He had impressive international references," says Krapovic.

Suspicious invoices began to emerge.

Thus, at the very beginning of the project the land clearance was charged €56,195, or €2.5/m², which is at least 20 times the usual price. The clearance included the mowing of grass, removing of shrubbery, trees and stumps on the plot intended for the plant on an area of ​​22,478m². Entrepreneurs contacted by CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor gave the land clearing quotes from 7c to 10c /m² depending on the size of the area. They even offered discounts for large plots.

Djordjije Vujovic, a City Council member in Budva, told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that already back in 2011 he heard from a director of Tradeunique (WTE's subcontractor) that they had paid €6 thousand in cash to workers from Ulcinj and that "the investor inflated the invoice by 50 thousand before sending it to Budva Municipality". At the joint meeting in the office of the then mayor Lazar Radjenovic, Vujovic directly asked Ralf Schroder, the executive director of WTE Essen, whether it was true that Marovic's debt of €5 million to the aforesaid Kapisoda would be returned through the project.

"Schroder angrily replied that they were Germans, that they valued money and that he would not talk about it anymore," says Vujovic.

Soon afterwards another bloated invoice arrived- for the earthworks and terrain leveling.

"The supervision verified something that was not done. After the geodetic survey, we determined lower costs and reduced the value of the actual works by €700 thousand" explains Duhovnik in the interview with CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

He points out that the works on the equipment in the water treatment facility were bloated by €5,282,218.27. “The technical book defines the quality of the equipment and the building materials. However, on the ground we found low quality, poorer properties of the equipment and of the material itself. The pipelines were already cracking. They installed armature for cheaper pumps (25-30%) as they require less material. However, the supervision approved the price as though the stuff was of the best quality".

The Slovenian team led by Duhovnik found out that the construction works on the plant were inflated by €2.92 million, the project documentation by €1.613 million, and the building permits by €0.922 million. The Slovenians also disputed €1.89 million for the payment of internal supervision of the German company.

"By law, the project supervision should be paid by the Municipality as it is the most important part in the carrying out of the project. In this case WTE paid its internal supervision, which confirmed figures that WTE wanted. At the end, the invoice was sent to the Municipality to pay it, which is unheard of and against the law" explains Dr Duhovnik to CIN-CG/BIRN /Monitor.

WTE Wastewater Budva, led by Guenter Faust at the time, continued to send suspicious invoices while expecting the Municipality to pay them at face value. Financial expert Ilinka Vukovic states on page 99 of her report that “while reviewing the WTE documentation that was extracted by the prosecution office, I had a chance to see an invoice in the total amount of €3,145,000 for the expenses and dues to the parent company (in Essen), while its description includes different types of "meetings and negotiations ..."

The aforesaid invoice (dated October 2009 - September 2010) contains generic descriptions with conspicuously large and round figures: organizational concept draft- €350 thousand, negotiations with the Municipality of Budva - €200 thousand, creation of a letter of guarantee - €420 thousand, specifying details of other contracts - €270 thousand, loan facilitation - €360 thousand, defining of payment terms - €230 thousand, ongoing trade consulting and development - €300 thousand, technical concept development - €790 thousand, technical negotiations with the Municipality of Budva - €155 thousand and project management - €70 thousand. In total - €3.145 million.

"You can instantly see that something is wrong with that invoice. Corruption stinks. You have the project management - 70 thousand, then other figures - 300, 350 thousand ... WTE obviously thought we were fools ", says Djordjije Vujovic.

Another problematic WTE invoice of €535,095.99 was sent to the Municipality for the talks held with KfW-IPEX Bank from October 10, 2014 to October 29, 2015. Vukovic's report says that the talks didn’t lead to a loan approval for the project. WTE was simply doing "a market research without consent from the Municipality of Budva” which mandated the project. Therefore, WTE should have paid the cost.

However, the city of Budva had its own supervisor for the project - the company Pro-Ing LLC Novi Sad (Serbia) which signed the supervision contract worth €678,600 on 19 October 2011. The company’s founder and director Goran Vukobratovic told CIN-CG/ BIRN/Monitor that he disagreed with Duhovnik's findings. He believes that Pro-Ing did a good job for Budva.

"Keep in mind that Pro-Ing only supervised the construction works. We were not responsible for the management costs and the control of financial costs. Furthermore, we are not responsible for the invoices sent before we got the supervision", says Vukobratovic.

However, Mrs Vukovic in her report points to a controversial role of Pro-Ing Novi Sad, because Vukobratovic "was a member of the (tender) commission and among those who signed the minutes after the opening of the bids". Mrs Vukovic notes that Vukobratovic was mentioned as a consultant for the tender while it was being prepared.

She further writes that besides the company in Novi Sad Vukobratovic has another Pro-Ing Trade LLC Budva where he is the sole founder. Pro-Ing Trade has done business with WTE Wastewaters Budva for years. "That is an obvious conflict of interests" concludes Mrs Vukovic in her report.

CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor received invoices which Pro-Ing Trade LLC Budva sent to WTE for "making of audit report for obtaining a construction permit for WWTP Budva, including the entire sewerage network and pumping stations in the municipality". One invoice in the amount of €100,800 was issued on 19 May 2011, before the parent company signed the supervision contract. The second invoice in the amount of €39,312 was issued on 27 December 2011, which is after the supervision contract was signed. In response, Vukobratovic claims that "there was no conflict of interests in those two separate jobs".

"Feel free to check with MORT (Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism) if a company can work for another company and at the same time supervise the work of that company on behalf of another entity. You have an example of VODACOM which is an ongoing project in Kotor and Tivat ", notes Vukobratovic.

He also says that he can’t see a conflict of interests in the fact that he was on the tender commission team which opened and evaluated the bids. "The tender called for a concept to be proposed, not a detailed design. Thus I was not acquainted beforehand with the project details that I was later meant to supervise. The conflict of interests would exist if I had taken part in the drafting of the concept of which I certainly was not privy”.

Duhovnik says that those explanations are "typical Balkan style" stressing that "in any normal country, this would be recognised as a conflict of interests".

Germans and Austrians keep silent as they await arbitration to deliberate on their claim

Stefan Zach, the communications manager of the Austrian EVN Group which owns WTE Ltd, acknowledges the competence of Dr Duhovnik but prefers not to comment his findings.

“We will present our objections to Duhovnik’s report before the arbitration court in Geneva” replied Zach to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

Speaking of allegations for corruption and the facility’s poor quality, Mr Zach points out that “prosecutors checked the company and the plant several times and didn’t find anything against WTE despite numerous public accusations”. He further says that “the facility does work” and that “WTE has done a good job”. However, he admits that the facilities in Jaz and Buljarica were not built “because the municipal authorities sold the land for construction of hotels”. This is vehemently denied by the former mayor Krapovic who says that “it is very easy to check and find the opposite”.

Krapovic also stresses the problem of management costs of €1.7 million per year (as defined by the DBFO contract) which the Germans charged for since July 2014 and expected to be paid in full.

“We told them that we were not going to pay the management costs for the non-existent facilities in Jaz and Buljarica. Then Schutte offered me to lower the price from €1.7 to €1.2 million, given that we make a deal on some other (controversial) points” says Krapovic.

Hubertus Schutte succeeded Guenter Faust as the executive of WTE Wastewater Budva who left upon discovery of his role in the first €3 million theft.

Budva’s Secretariat for Investments told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that the projected annual management costs for the plant in Becici amounted to €993 thousand, which is considerably less than €1.7 million invoiced by the Germans.

Stefan Zach says that WTE-EVN claims €77 million in total, which is how much the wastewater project in Becici (Budva) cost them. He denies that WTE tried to charge for the facilities it didn’t build (Jaz and Buljarica). “Our principle is to charge for what we have built and not for what might have been” says Mr Zach.

Budva’s attorney Vladan Bojic explains in the interview with CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that “WTE-EVN launched the arbitration in Frankfurt at the end of 2019 over the guarantee signed by Kuljaca (Budva’s former DPS mayor). Just the fees, administrative costs, motions and other preparations before the hearing in February will cost the city half a million US dollars. The arbitration in Frankfurt may eventually cost us between $1.5 and $2 million. They also launched the arbitration in Geneva over alleged breach of DBFO contract, just in case they fail in Frankfurt”.

CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor asked Montenegro’s President Djukanovic whether he took any measures, since at the time he was Prime Minister, to ensure that WTE completes the investment in accordance with the contract given the lodged guarantee of €29.3 million. The President’s press service contacted the Ministry of Finance and sent us its reply. It says that “since the payment of the said guarantee, the government has not followed developments about the WTE project in Budva Municipality”. The statement further says that efforts are made to resolve the question of municipal debt to the national governement as a consequence of the payment it had made.

“Now the project and its follow-up is a matter of the parties thereto from the start and onwards. So the Municipality and WTE should reconsider and agree on all the aspects of cooperation” recommends the Ministry of Finance.

When the then Prime Minister Djukanovic cut the ribbon on 2 October 2014 he pointed out that the new facility would make the marine resources of Budva and Montenegro “cleaner, better and richer”. On behalf of the German company its director Franc Mittermeier stressed that the plant was constructed “in accordance with international standards”.

However, the ceremony was clouded by the facts that the plant in Becici (meant to serve the population of up to 90 thousand) was only one part of the agreed project. The facility lacked the certificate of occupancy which arrived half a year later for only a quarter of the building. The documentation was incomplete and the facility was not entirely registered in the cadastre.

Six years on and the sea on the coasts of Budva is still away from “better and cleaner”. Spanish Iberostar Bellevue hotel told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that it pressed charges in court against WTE following the incident in July 2019 when sewage was directly discharged for 24 hours into the sea between two 5-star hotels in Becici. Iberostar demands €1 million compensation and complains that WTE wouldn’t take calls from the hotel, let alone do something to stop the spilling. Occasionally the stench from the plant still pervades its vicinity and descends to the hotels on the shore. The semi-solid sludge which remains after the sewage treatment is not treated itself as that was never envisaged by the original contract. CIN-CG earlier reported that the sludge is taken to Albania and offloaded in wild waste dumps. The floating oil and grease from the facility occasionally stained the sea in Budva and Becici last summer. The problem is solved by the instalment of a new reduction gearbox in the plant – and paid by the city again.

Petrovac, Jaz, Buljarica and Sveti Stefan still discharge their untreated sewage into the open sea which the sea currents and winds send back to the coast.

Budva is not the only disputed case

Mr Zach emphasises that in the last 20 years WTE-EVN has completed 110 projects in 20 countries but they “never had problems like the one in Budva”.

Nonetheless, WTE-EVN projects are not going smoothly in other countries either. In Slovenia WTE has three disputes – Kranjska Gora is in the courts, the Lasko Brewery won the case, and Bled ended in a settlement. It is possible that another dispute may arise in Sentjernej.

In North Macedonia problems were resolved through interstate discussions at the highest level.

A dispute in Bulgaria was resolved by the arbitration in Washington, in which both sides were awarded smaller sums than they had asked for.

Reuters Agency in 2014 announced that EVN was planning to activate a €251 million guarantee from the German government after the collapse of a WTE incinerator project near Moscow.

 Three million euro talk over a cup of coffee

In January 2016, police arrested Guenter Faust, the director of WTE Wastewaters Budva. He was released 72 hours later. In his capacity as a witness-collaborator, Faust confessed on 1 May 2016 to the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) that Lazar Radjenovic had told him over a cup of coffee in the Budva café Hemingway that “it would be necessary to pay €3 million through a construction company which was yet to be chosen”. The lot fell on Tradeunique whose owner was Mirko Latinovic – later to become a witness-collaborator against Marovic. Faust admitted that the €3 million “originates from the company WTE itself, with calculations which relate to project and servicing costs… Given the overall amount of the project (€60 million) and the fact that WTE spends around €6 million a year, I consider this amount of €3 million to be not very large… and for this very reason the Municipality of Budva will also pay this €3 million”.

In his earlier midnight statement on 14/15 January 2016, when he was taken in as a suspect, Faust said before the SPO that Robert Werth, his senior in Germany “granted permission to conclude the contract with Tradeunique”.

The sums that the accused admitted to in the almost identical plea bargains do not match each other mathematically. Moreover, the SPO did not extend its investigation so to prosecute WTE bosses in Germany.

It is stated in the plea agreements that, during the period from 21 June 2010 to 28 March 2013 in Budva, Svetozar Marovic incited Lazar Radjenovic, then the vice-president of the municipality, Mirko Latinovic, owner of Tradeunique LLC from Budva, and its executive director Goran Bojanic to abuse their official positions. The aim was to extract €3 million from the Municipality of Budva and use the money “to pay off the debts of the company Property Investments and of Svetozar Marovic” to Gojko Kapisoda. Marovic was the head and founder of the criminal organisation.

Property Investments was already linked to the Marovic family and its businesses.

Thus Bojanic concluded “a contract for engineering services, maintenance and construction of a channel” on behalf of Tradeunique, with Guenter Faust of WTE Wastewaters Budva who was following the instructions of Radjenovic, who in turn had been instructed by Marovic.

At the same time Bojanic signed a contract with the firm Biochem Industries LLC Budva, owned by Stjepan Skocajic (also the skipper of Marovic’s yacht) for “design and engineering services worth €3 million, even though he knew that its contracted work would not be carried out by Biochem Industries, but by WTE Wastewaters”.

Then Radjenovic transferred money from the municipality’s account to WTE Wastewaters’ account, and Guenter forwarded the money to Tradeunique’s account. Bojanic then, on the orders of Mirko Latinovic, transferred the first €2.808 million to the account of Skocajic’s firm. Later on he transferred the sums of €200 thousand, €100 thousand and €50 thousand. On Marovic’s order, Skocajic transferred the sum of €2.4 million to Gojko Kapisoda’s account to pay off the debts of Marovic and Property Investments per a loan agreement from 2008.

Thus, as it is concluded in the plea agreements with the SPO, Svetozar Marovic and the firm Property Investments obtained “illegal gain of €2.4 million, and Stjepan Skocajic obtained the sum of €277 thousand”. Skocajic withdrew the aforesaid €277 thousand from the account of Biochem Industries, either for his own needs (as is written in the plea bargain with Marovic), or else he “handed it over to M.R. to settle the expenses of the company Property Investments that had arisen over the sale of land” (as is written in the plea bargain signed by Skocajic). Thereby the accused “defrauded the Municipality of Budva of €3 million”, it is concluded in the plea agreements.

The SPO says “inquiries still under way”

When asked by CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor about the affair with the water treatment plant, the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) sent a scant reply after much waiting saying that “plea agreements were concluded with the accused Svetozar Marovic and Dragoljub Milanovic..., after which the plea bargains were confirmed by the High Court in Podgorica, and this resulted in the return of illegal gain to the Municipality of Budva amounting to €1,096,481.39”. The SPO also stated that it was still “conducting necessary inquiries”.

The municipality denies that the money has been returned, and the previous mayor Mr Krapovic says that the sum mentioned by the SPO has nothing to do with the WTE plant but with the Copyright case, in which the Municipality of Budva was defrauded of €3.86 million through a series of fictional contracts regarding promotional marketing of the city and the induced court settlement. Moreover, the aforementioned Milanovic also had no part in the WTE scheming. He was the executive director of Gugi Komerc and involved in the affair related to the paving of the plateau on Jaz Beach, where the mega-concerts of the Rolling Stones and Madonna were held.

Krapovic’s allegation is confirmed by the plea agreements published on the SPO’s website. Svetozar Marovic, under item “d” (one of a total of five criminal offences) was convicted of abuse of office by means of incitement to commit crimes in an organised manner in the case of the WTE plant. For the criminal offences a, b, c and d in the plea agreement, as the architect and head of multimillion-euro theft, he received a sentence of one year in prison in total. Thus it turns that he got three months per offence. Marovic undertook to return €1,096,481.39 of illegal gain which his criminal organisation had made, but this was for point “c” of the plea agreement for the Copyright affair.

The Special Prosecution, according to the agreement signed with Marovic on 9 June 2016, did not require him to return the €3 million. Neither did the High Court, which adopted the agreement in an unamended form.

The Municipality’s attorney Vladan Bojic, states in his interview with CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that the behaviour of the judiciary in this case is unheard of.  “If you hold up a kiosk and steal a few small items you will get at least six months in jail, while Marovic stole millions. Many citizens would agree to serve three months in prison, not for €3 million, but for €300 thousand or even for €30 thousand” said Bojic.

For item “e” of this agreement, Marovic received another 12 months for fraud (later reduced to 10 months). It relates to the case when locals sold land in Kamenovo through his firm Property Investments for €7.5 million. By means of a forged signature, that money was used as collateral for a loan with Prva Banka for Marovic’s firm. In the plea agreement signed on 16 May 2016, he received another two years in jail and the obligation to pay a fine of €50,000 for other multimillion thefts. Before this he had spent five months in the pre-trial detention in Spuz. Thus he yet has to serve the remaining 3 years and 5 months of his overall sentence.

Lazar Radjenovic, Stjepan Skocajic and Goran Bojanic also signed plea bargains as members of Marovic’s criminal organisation. Mirko Latinovic and Guenter Faust were granted the status of witnesses-collaborators, thereby avoiding criminal prosecution.

Radjenovic, in a plea bargain concluded on 16 May 2015, admitted two criminal offences, one for the WTE water treatment plant and the other for the Copyright case. He was sentenced to a total of six months, or three months per offence, the same what his criminal boss Marovic got.

Goran Bojanic and Stjepan Skocajic were each sentenced to six months in prison, twice as much as their “inciter” and criminal boss Marovic.

Skocajic’s firm Biochem Industries LLC Budva was convicted, according to the same plea agreement, as a legal entity and ordered to pay a fine of €100,000 suspended for one year. The High Court agreed with this on 12 September 2017.

Jovo MARTINOVIĆ

The Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) will implement the project Investigating the Investors in Montenegro in the period from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021.

The project aims to investigate who really invests in Montenegro, which on the one hand is negotiating accession to the European Union (EU), while on the other its key investors come from countries far from the EU, such as Azerbaijan, the Emirates, Russia, China, or exotic offshore destinations. What do such investors bring to the country and can their dominance influence the economic reforms necessary for Montenegro's EU accession?

The project aims to raise awareness of the importance of strategic investors for economic development and the country's position, as well as to shed light on the links between the origins of investments entering the country with the rule of law and the fight against corruption.

It is planned to conduct and publish more in-depth research and articles, to broadcast a short video on the most important foreign direct investments in Montenegro, as well as their effects on overall social development and public debt. Through these activities, CIN-CG intends to bring together the most important experts in the country to address key issues in this area.

The project is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

The Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) will implement the regional project Reporting Diversity Network - RDN 2.0 in the next four years (April 2020 - April 2024).

The project aims to activate the role of civil society in combating narratives of divisions as a negative phenomenon that leads to conflicts, as well as to encourage positive discourse in order to contribute to respect for diversity, human rights and good neighborly relations. The project will strengthen the regional network of civil society organizations with the aim of working together to raise the quality of media coverage of the following issues: ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and age.

RDN 2.0 will seek to provide tools and resources to civil society to influence the strengthening of inclusive media. It will also support effective policy-making in areas that promote tolerance on a national and regional basis.

It is envisaged that the project will develop a media monitoring methodology within which the project team will detect hate speech and discriminatory discourses in the media, and create responses / complaints based on these discourses.

During the implementation of the project, 30 local civil society organizations across the region will be supported to implement projects and initiatives that will increase media monitoring, contribute to stopping harmful media practices and respond to them in a way that promotes tolerance and inclusion. It is also planned to hold national and regional conferences aimed at initiating a discussion on this topic. During the implementation of the project, an intensive campaign will be conducted through websites and social networks.

The lead applicant is the Institute for Media Diversity Institute in London (MDI). The project is funded by the European Union (EU).

If Montenegro were a functional democracy, governments would change in election cycles. The Left, Right or Center would leave and return. The victory of the opposition would not be presented as the end of the world - a typhoon that will take away the country.

However, Montenegro is not a democracy. That’s why it is a miracle that Djukanovic lost the elections, despite the monopolies he holds, or, as OSCE observers would diplomatically say, his huge institutional advantage. Only Lukashenko in Belarus and Putin in Russia still have such an advantage in Europe. 

The government has completely controlled the elections here for decades, it had an army of safe voters, the media, huge funds, the security apparatus, electorate lists filled with phantom voters, and it still lost. This speaks not only of the erosion of a clientelist and corrupt order, which is slowly being abandoned by even the most loyal supporters, but also of the enormous democratic potential and desire of citizens to control power and trigger change.

Clearly: the Serbian Orthodox Church played a huge role in these elections. Djukanovic's rival was his former ally, Metropolitan Amfilohije. But, it would be wrong to conclude that Djukanovic was overthrown only by the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Law on Freedom of Religion. His other, no less important, opponent was the civic Montenegro. Djukanovic could never fall just because of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Law, even though it was a drop that spilled over the glass. After all, the Church was not engaged in the presidential elections in 2013, or the parliamentary elections in 2016. And in both of those cycles, Djukanovic lost, but the opposition was stolen the victory.

As much as propaganda wants to disguise - all nations voted against the DPS on Sunday, Amfilohije's believers, but also atheists that are far from the Serbian Orthodox Church - dedicated citizens who believe that Montenegro needs a government which will build institutions, implement necessary economic reforms , establish a fairer income distribution, strong health and education systems, stop the departure of young people and professionals, reform the judiciary and introduce the rule of law, move faster towards the European Union and create a state for all.

All those who believe that the most sensitive issues should be resolved by compromises, and not by deepening divisions, also voted against Djukanovic. Governments committed to the public interest address sensitive issues through dialogue. Djukanovic did not have sensitivity for that. Instead of negotiating with the Church, he sought an enemy. This time he overplayed himself. And as Balsha Brkovic says: every dictator must fall once.

As in other autocracies, when leaders move out from reality - they get deposed, even when the whole security apparatus is on their side. Our dictator has been operating for a long time with uncontrolled power. He stepped out from the real world. He covered himself with the flag, anthem, language and the state, while he and his closest looted and destroyed our environment.

He surrounded himself with extreme Montenegrin nationalists (some of whom not so long ago fervently called for the restoration of Dusan’s Empire), or better with clients, who pushed him into ruins with constant demands to insert another letter in the alphabet and paint the history ... As if the identity can be "rounded off" by force, whenever it comes to the leader's mind, after he completely ruined everything Montenegrin while conspiring with Milosevic.

That Djukanovic was in a world of his own, with a narrowed consciousness, became clear when he announced the founding of a church at his, allegedly left, DPS party congress. As if Montenegro were not a secular state and as if churches are established by party decrees. A year before the elections, he and his hawks pushed the DPS into a conflict with the Serbian Orthodox Church, only to impose a new topic after the "Envelope" affair and stir conflict, and present himself as the only guardian of the state.

Concerned analysts, among them many of our friends from the ‘other’ Serbia and the region, perceive the change of government as the collapse of Montenegro, even as a threat to the stability of the region. It turns out, according to these interpretations, that this state can only survive as a dictatorship. Hence, one more cycle of thirty years should be granted to Djukanovic and his circle: to drive out the Russians, pacify the Serbs, round up the church, create a state-building opposition and, along the way, plunder whatever is left.

Accordingly, while Djukanovic is the guarantor for NATO, it does not matter what the nature of the government in Montenegro is like and how people live here. The fact that we are a hybrid regime, that we are suffocating in corruption and crime, that we are impoverished, that we have been negotiating with the EU for the longest time in history due to unwillingness to reform the system - is left aside, as long as the leader keeps the ‘correct’ strategic course.

If this country can only survive as an autocracy, under someone's firm hand, then let it not be. Why maintain it by force.

The moment of truth has arrived. And although many followers thought that he was eternal, he is finished. Now it is only important that the transition is peaceful, that Montenegro becomes a country of all its citizens. There was too much revenge and conflict.

Milka Tadic Mijovic

In addition to the Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja and the Aluminum Plant Podgorica, apart from the heating season, the largest pollutants are more than 240 thousand vehicles, most of which are over 10 years old, with the largest percentage being diesel cars. WHO's calculations show that six percent of all deaths in Podgorica, 12 percent in Nikšić and 22 percent in Pljevlja can be attributed to the effects of air pollution

The irony brought by COVID-19 is that the air in Montenegro is significantly cleaner.

This is mainly due to the limited traffic, the forced parking of most of the 240,000 registered vehicles, more than two-thirds consuming diesel. More than half of all vehicles are between ten and 20 years old, and a fifth even up to three decades old.

According to a research carried out by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG), other pollutants are Aluminum Plant Podgorica, Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja and the unfinished heating season.

Prevention from the spread of the pandemic has also affected global trends, as shown by satellite imagery of significantly reduced pollution above industrial zones in Europe and other parts of the world.

IQAir, a Swiss-based air quality technology company, has conducted a study of the world's ten most polluted cities which revealed that extensive preventative measures have reduced air pollution by 30 to 60 percent.

In Podgorica, over the past month, the number of dangerous particles causing pulmonary, cardiac and malignant diseases has exceeded the limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter (μg / m3) on eight days only. This was confirmed on the website of the Environmental Protection Agency of Montenegro (EPA Montenegro), where air quality data is updated daily. The highest level of pollution by PM10 (particles less than 10 micrograms composed of the mixture of smoke, soot, acid, heavy metals) was recorded on 21 March, amounting to 144.8, while the level of PM 2.5 particles (2.5 micrometers in diameter, or three percent diameter of human hair) was 123.1 μg / m3.

In contrast to these results, a PM 2.5 level of over 350 μg / m3 was recorded in Podgorica in mid-January. According to a method developed by Richard Muller, a professor of physics at the University of California, this is equivalent to smoking 16 cigarettes a day. He and his daughter, Elizabeth, climate change and air pollution activist, carried out an extensive research in China in 2015 and concluded that smoking one cigarette a day is equal to the detrimental effect of breathing air in which the hazardous PM 2.5 particles are 22 micrograms per cubic meter. (http://berkeleyearth.org/air-pollution-and-cigarette-equivalence/).

Concentrations of harmful PM10 particles at metering stations in Podgorica exceeded 510 micrograms per cubic meter in early January, and according to Agency's official data for December, the air in Podgorica, Bijelo Polje and Pljevlja was polluted almost every day. In Nikšić, this average was slightly milder, with extremely high concentrations of these particles observed on 16 December being: (i) PM 2.5 - 609.3 and (ii) PM 10 - 721.2; which is 12 to 14 times more than the allowed daily average value of 50 micrograms.

Exceeding the average pollution level should not be over 35 days per year. Pljevlja had 136 such days during last year and 129 the previous year. Nikšić had 61 days in 2019, and in 2018 as many as 79 days, while Podgorica had 75 days in 2018, and in last year 57 days above the allowed mean values. In Bijelo Polje, measurements began only last year and comparative data from 2019/20 indicate that it is more polluted than Pljevlja during the heating season from 1 October to 1 April.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explained for CIN-CG that poor air quality during winter months in the central and northern regions has become commonplace, listing industrial activity, traffic and the heating season as the main causes.

"High air pollution episodes, primarily suspended particles (PM10 and PM2.5), are characteristic during the winter months when weather conditions, with high atmospheric pressure, slow down the circulation of air, bringing dry, cold and foggy nights. The presence of factors affecting the deterioration of air quality lasts from four months in Podgorica to half a year in Nikšić and Pljevlja. According to EPA, during these time periods, the total annual number of overruns of mean daily values of suspended harmful particles is concentrated, except in cases of accident situations.

At the end of last August, the Agency started publishing daily air quality reports for the most polluted areas of Podgorica, Nikšič, Bar, Pljevlja, Bijelo Polje, Kotor, Gornje Mrke and Gradina.

In January, when media, NGOs and opposition politicians called in question the ongoing pollution levels and the inert attitude of the institutions, the Agency stated that "the law prohibits unauthorized interpretation of results that could be misleading and cause misinformation of citizen." The problem is that there was no "authorized interpretation of the results".

"Air pollution in Montenegro has a seasonal nature and it is most often related to the heating season. Thus, the solutions must be aimed at establishing a district heating system in urban areas, implementing energy efficiency measures in residential and collective housing facilities, strict implementation of environmental standards in the industry, vehicle modernization, improvement of urban transport and a number of other activities'', the Agency noted.

Despite improved situation in the past month, the Agency's data shows an increase in the surpassing of the daily average of PM10 by 1 April compared to the previous season in Podgorica and Nikšić. The biggest pollution in Podgorica is recorded at the roundabout in Zabjelo, one of the largest concentrations of cars in the capital.

Biologist Vuk Iković says that the Thermal Power Plant causes 41 percent of total nitrogen oxide emissions, while the Aluminum Plant accounts for 41 percent of all polluting PM10 particles.

"The official data indicates that Pljevlja is the largest ecological black spot. The data clearly demonstrates that its water, soil and air are polluted. This is due to the Thermal Power Plant, the Coal Mine, “Vektra Jakić“, the slag and ash landfill ''Maljevac'' and the waste and tailings landfill ''Jagnjilo'', Iković told CIN-CG.

Iković also warns of the serious consequences of the huge number of cars, most often old and diesel fueled. Only in Podgorica, more than 70 thousand cars are registered.

“The green light for pedestrians lasts shorter than for vehicles. The highest concentration of toxic particles is at the intersections, one meter above ground surface. That is why children and people in wheelchairs suffer the most. Public transport is not organized yet. There is no quick communication from the suburbs to the city center. The system forces citizen to buy a car instead of encouraging them to use other modes of transport'', Iković says.

In Montenegro, 246,423 vehicles were registered in the past year: 6,193 motorcycles, 215,496 cars, 462 vans, 1,461 buses, 17,282 freight vehicles, 576 specialized and commercial vehicles, 1,662 towing vehicles, 3,090 trailers and 201 tractors.

According to the information provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, oil or diesel is consumed by 180,153 vehicles, super 98 petrol by 54,678, petrol 86 by 515, fuel blends by 14, petrol-gas combination by 7,854 vehicles, while only 144 cars are electrically powered.

There were 459 registered ‘old-timers’, manufactured until 1979. As many as 10,428 were from the SFRY (1980 to 1989). From the last decade of the last millennium, there is a total of 43,186 registered vehicles.

There are 134,653 vehicles manufactured between 2000 and 2010. Most of them are manufactured in 2004 and 2007 - 15,573 and 15,937 respectively.

From 2010 to the end of 2019, between 4,200 and 7,867 cars have been imported annually, amounting to a total of 57,607 new cars.

According to the Customs Administration, over the past year, the largest number of imported used cars were diesel fueled - 14.088, while only 1.020 were gasoline cars. Also imported were 2,225 new gasoline powered cars, 1,363 diesel cars and only 25 electric ones.

The Customs Administration explains that, according to the Law on Road Safety and the current rulebook on technical requirements, it is not allowed to import used vehicles that do not meet the EURO 4 standard. New vehicles should be equipped with minimum EURO 6 engine and meet the requirements for exhaust emission limits and noise levels.

In Germany, a partial ban for EURO 4 diesel vehicles was introduced in some cities last April. That is why protests have been organized and the cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart and Darmstadt have reported more than 16,000 people violating the ban on the use of older "non-environmental" diesel cars.

The Institute of Public Health did not reply to our request for data on how air pollution affects health. Unofficially, there is no such recent research, so the one that the Institute conducted in late 2015 and early 2016, in collaboration with experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), is still relevant. Air pollution assessment study covering Pljevlja, Podgorica and Nikšić revealed that more than 250 premature deaths and 140 hospital admissions annually in these three cities, as well as a number of other health consequences, are directly linked to the increased exposure to PM particle concentrations.

WHO's calculations show that six percent of all deaths in Podgorica, 12 percent in Nikšić and 22 percent in Pljevlja are attributable to the effects of air pollution above the values prescribed by this institution. The Institute previously told CIN-CG that the annual rate of premature mortality associated with exposure to pollutant particles in Montenegro, is up to 60 times higher than the tragic consequences of traffic accidents and up to 20 times higher than mortality due to diseases of the digestive system.

World Health Organization data indicates that air pollution is a global public health challenge that kills seven million people a year!

Iković considers necessary to introduce a pollution tax. This implies payment for the release of pollutants into the air, primarily carbon, nitrogen and sulfur oxide, soot etc.

"It is possible for us to become an EU member with this kind of air quality, but then we will have to pay the costs of pollution. For example, for every tone of CO2 emission, we would pay 25 euros. If Montenegro manages to regulate key pollutants and conserve and recover its forests, it could earn millions, as its nature would reduce pollution levels beyond borders. This should be our offer to Europe. This is one of the reasons why Podgorica should be a tree-city, for which we have launched an initiative of 100,000 new trees'', Iković says.

Aleksandar Perović, from the NGO Ozon, points out that air is an important segment of Chapter 27 in the EU negotiation process.

"So far, this international organization has not shown much interest for the problem of air pollution, which is very surprising to us, given that clean air is one of the fundamental human rights. If this attitude is not changed, it is hard to expect that domestic decision makers will take any action“, Perović told CIN-CG.

Asked by CIN-CG whether the implementation of Chapter 27 obligations was threatened by air pollution, the Agency replied that "the Approximation Strategy and the adoption of initial negotiation benchmarks have defined and proposed deadlines for activities to reduce air pollution".

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "air pollution does not jeopardize the fulfillment of Chapter 27 commitments, but prompts finding the best possible solutions to this problem."

Hazardous tire and waste incineration

Old furniture, layers of debris, concrete, earth and gravel, electronic and plastic waste, food scraps and used tires are found in Podgorica's settlements: Stari Aerodrom, Vrela Ribnička or parts of Ćemovsko Polje. Residents of these settlements regularly report to the competent bodies the levels of arson and smoke spreading through the settlements and the city.

"Tire and plastic incineration releases one of the most toxic substances, dioxin. Part of it is inhaled and the rest goes into the atmosphere, returning with the first rains and depositing in soil and water. The question is what the purpose of the inspectorate is, if it does not punish the perpetrators”, Iković says.

According to the Law on Waste Management, penalties for unconscientious persons range up to 40 thousand euros for legal entities and up to 2 thousand euros for natural persons. This does not stop the perpetrators, mainly because the responsible bodies can only apprehend those whom they caught violating the law.

Iković recommends that if individuals burn tires due to the sale of steel wire, it should be prohibited to buy it without a proof of origin of such waste.

Neighbors also are among the most polluted

IQAir's list of the 100 most polluted cities from 15 April 2020 includes the Balkan capitals.

Sarajevo ranked 11^th as the world's most polluted city, Belgrade 61^st, Skopje 85^th and Zagreb 94^th.

According to the same organization's list of the 100 most polluted countries in the world, Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked 14^th, North Macedonia 17^th, Serbia 32^nd, while Croatia ranked 51^st. Slovenia and Montenegro are not included in this list.

According to IQAir, the most polluted city in the world is Shenyang in China.

Europe's most polluted country, according to GreenMatch, is Turkey, followed by Poland and Latvia. The countries with the cleanest air are Sweden, Finland and France.

Air pollution drops in metropolises

During coronavirus lockdown, air pollution in major global cities fell by up to 60 percent in comparison to the last year, CNN reports, referring to the IQAir's data.

Seven out of the ten cities studied, including New Delhi, Seoul, Wuhan and Mumbai, saw significant improvements in air quality from the same period last year.

The Indian capital New Delhi saw a 60% reduction in PM2.5 levels from 23 March to 13 April. The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the deadly virus was first identified, saw a 44% reduction in air pollution levels from 26 February to 18 March.

Los Angeles saw its longest stretch of clean air on record, over 18 days from 7 to 28 March. PM2.5 concentration levels were down by 31%.

In Europe, London, Madrid and Rome experienced during their lockdown periods reductions in their PM2.5 in comparison with 2019.

The reconstruction of the Thermal Power Plant is delayed

The ecological reconstruction of the existing block of TPP "Pljevlja" was supposed to be completed by the next year, but due to the pandemic, it will be delayed since the contract has not been signed yet.

At the beginning of November last year, EPCG declared the winner of the tender for this deal - a consortium of Chinese company Dongfang Electric International (DEC) of Podgorica-based firm Bemaks, BB Solar Company owned by Blažo Djukanović, the son of the President of Montenegro, and Permonte Company, whose bid price was 54,427,700 euros. The German consultant Steag Energy Services hired by EPCG previously estimated that the tender is worth 45 million euros, or 54,450,000 with VAT. Other tenderers’ bid prices were significantly higher: Shangai Electric Group Co.Ltd - 97,922,683 euros and Hamon-Rudis - 72,539,500 euros, but this did not prompt EPCG to raise suspicions, which should normally happen when the range between bids is so large.

Representatives of the Chinese corporation were supposed to arrive in February to agree and sign a contract, but this was delayed, allegedly, due to the Corona epidemics, as their delegation would have to stay in quarantine. EPCG later announced that they were expecting them in March, but Chinese Ambassador to Montenegro Liu Jin said in an interview for “Vijesti” on 15 April that "both sides are in the process of preparing to sign the treaty" and expressed hope that it would be done as soon as possible.

"The project includes, together with the revitalization of the Maljevac landfill worth around 20 million euros, construction of a desulphurization system, a denitrification system, improvement of the operation of the electro filter plant and construction of a wastewater treatment system. Along with the ecological reconstruction, within 12 months from the signing of the contract, a source of thermal energy for heating Pljevlja will be provided”, EPCG stated during the announcement of the tender winners, adding that after the ecological reconstruction, all emissions and products of combustion of coal and chemical processes in accordance with national legislation and European directives, will be kept below the permissible limits.

New analysis of the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), Sandbag, Climate Action Network Europe (CAN Europe), the CEE Bankwatch and the Europe Beyond Coal from 2019, has shown that 16 outdated coal-fired power plants in the Western Balkans represent a health and economic liability for the whole Europe.

This report shows that every year, air pollution from Western Balkans coal power plants is responsible for 3,900 premature deaths, 8,500 cases of bronchitis in children and other chronic illnesses. The health issues these plants cause add up to lost productivity and health costs of up to 11,535 million euros.

Predrag NIKOLIĆ

Award ceremony for EU Investigative Journalism Awards in Montenegro is postponed until the fall. The decision was brought with the consent of the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, due to COVID-19. Numerous applications have been submitted so far and all of these applications will be evaluated by an independent international jury. Because of the situation with COVID-19, in the fall another chance will be given to all journalists who have not applied so far for achievements published in 2019. The public will be duly informed on the additional Call.

The awards are a continuation of the ongoing regional EU Investigative Journalism Award in the Western Balkans and Turkey and part of the ongoing project ‘Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey’, provided with the financial support of the European Union. EU Investigative Journalism Awards in the Western Balkans and Turkey aim to celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements of investigative journalists as well as improve the visibility of quality journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The first prize will be 5,000 EUR, the second 3,000 EUR, and the third will be 2,000 EUR. Within the same project, last year EU Investigative Journalism Awards were granted for investigations published in 2018. Next year, the Call for journalistic achievements for 2020 is planned to be publish.

For more information, please contact: assistantcincg@gmail.com 

Today, the key threat to Montenegro does not come from Vucic's Serbia, Putin's Russia, the Serbian Orthodox Church, or the so-called anti-state opposition and alleged internal enemies, which, as we can see, are multiplying every day. The future of our country is uncertain, first of all, because of the nefarious Djukanovic’s system, which is not based on the rule of law and social justice.

Montenegro is not a functional state. According to all relevant international reports, it does not have strong and independent institutions. On the shards of the old, one-party order, a hybrid system has emerged in the heart of which are corruption and organized crime, and at whose forefront is a corrupt political class - and that, in all branches of government. Several key people run the state, financial and economic operations, institutions from the Anti-Corruption Agency to the Supreme Court and Special Prosecutor's Offices, the judiciary, propaganda ... and the mafia.

The division of power, foundation of any democracy, has never actually taken root here. How many criminal complaints have been filed for top-level corruption that has wiped out entire industries, closed factories, degraded the coast, ravaged forests, polluted rivers, destroyed canyons and the most beautiful UNESCO-protected areas, leaving tens of thousands of people jobless or anguishing in the margins of the society. At the same time, the privileged few have enormously enriched themselves by taking over one-by-one state resource in fraudulent privatizations and suspicious transactions, in which hundreds of millions of euros have been laundered. In this country, almost none of the flawed deals has been stopped, nor has the mafia been restrained - on the contrary, it has branched out because it owns the state. Instead, campaigns have been intensified by ‘patriots’ against those who dared to disclose corruption and write about organized crime.

Bombs have been thrown in front of the newsrooms, and many journalists and civic activists have been victims of physical and verbal violence, whose perpetrators have remained largely unpunished. It is no secret: behind almost every major business - from Tivat to Savnik, from Bar to Boliari, from Kotor to Colombia – stand the interests of a group that has captured the country and governed it for 30 years. 

The illusions that after the opening of negotiations with the EU, the prosecution, together with the police and the judiciary, could curb key the perpetrators of the problems, have long been dispelled. A fragile hope had emerged when the entire top of the organized crime group in Budva was prosecuted. Now, a few years after the case has been closed, one must question whether this process, whose main actors are at large, was really a showdown with the organized crime or just a way to weaken a faction within the ruling DPS party whose increased financial and organizational power could compete with the dominant clan controlled by Djukanovic.

Prosecutorial investigations and court proceedings are largely faked. Numerous actors of corruption and organized crime - from the local level to the top - have never been prosecuted. As is well known, there is not even a ‘remote’ suspicion that the responsible for the affairs Telecom, First Boss’s Million and Envelope could be the President of the country, his relatives and friends, despite the US judiciary documents, videos, and even public acknowledgment by the DPS leader that this party has been funded illegally, that part of the money, not only from Knezevic, has never been reported, even though it ended up in the party's box office. The prosecution has not even confronted the drug cartels, while the society is declining and the death toll is increasing day by day. Drug lords Saric and Kalic got back their seized property and were compensated at our expense. But the opponents of this government are punished, based on the testimony of compromised witnesses and questionable evidence.

By enacting the Law on freedom of religion, Djukanovic is trying to divert attention from crucial things in the election year – the captured state plagued with crime. He sheds divisions and says that Metropolitane Amfilohije is returning us to the dark middle age of theocratic state. And theocracy is not when the DPS President announces formally that a Leftist Party’s key point is - the renewal of autocephaly of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church. With him as the Patriarch. 

Each day this group in power, the greater the danger for a country occupied by endemic conflict of interest of its President, as citizens increasingly perceive her less as their own and most would abandon her. Even those who would have sacrificed their lives for her a few years earlier. If the key people of this failed system are not held accountable, if the rule of law does not prevail, Montenegro has no future.

Milka TADIĆ-MIJOVIĆ

* Milo Djukanovic, Montenegrin ruler since 1991; its President or Prime Minister & ruling DPS Party Chairman   

Do you have an idea for a big story in the public interest? Do you want to explore topics relevant for Montenegro and the EU integration process? Do you want to report your story to the highest standards, with training and a quality editorial mentoring from the country and the region that let you explore your subject in depth? Would you like your story to be published in the region, translated into English and to reach readers even more widely?

If the answer to these questions is ‘yes’, now is the time to submit your ideas for investigative articles in the public interest related to the EU integration process. The candidates with the best proposals will undergo a training, to be held in Montenegro in the end of March 2020.

The training will be followed by a selection process. Three candidates with the best ideas, journalistic skills and knowledge will implement their investigative projects, with a close supervision and mentoring of the editorial team from the country and the region.

After completion of the investigation, all stories will be published at the websites of CIN-CG and BIRN, as well as in a special bilingual publication and e-book.

All journalists from Montenegro who have interest and experience in investigative journalism are eligible to apply. Apart from the training, mentoring and editorial support, the selected applicants will receive € 1,000 bursary for their stories (reduced by approximately 9% tax). 

Applications should be submitted by March 4th, 2020 to: konkurscincg@gmail.com. The application form is available online HERE

Should you have any additional questions, please send them to: konkurscincg@gmail.com or assistantcincg@gmail.com. 

The Center for Investigative Journalism Montenegro (CIN-CG), weekly Monitor and Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) have launched the two-year project entitled Investigative Journalism on EnvironMEntal Issues, with Citizens’ Engagement. This project aims to strengthen investigative reporting as well as to protect public interest particularly related to environmental protection in Montenegro and Chapter 27. Journalistic investigations will focus on Montenegro but some of the stories will have a regional character. 

Apart from journalists from CIN-CG, Monitor and BIRN, other investigative journalists from Montenegro will have the opportunity to get involved in the project, while six best proposals submitted to the Call will be awarded.

The project will allow citizens to get directly involved through a newly-designed web platform that will enable them to become active amateur journalists. Thus, citizen reporters will be given the opportunity to report on local environmental issues regarding Chapter 27, as well as other relevant topics to European integration.

The project is supported by the EU Delegation in Podgorica.