Podgorica, (MINA-BUSINESS) – According to the Social Justice Action (ASP), the reconstruction of the Matesevo–Kolasin road, which connects the motorway to Kolasin, has cost just under €7.4 million, the amount paid to the contractor, the company Bemax, which is €1 million more than initially contracted. 

The NGO stated in a press release that the contract with Bemax was signed in early October 2022, with a completion deadline of eight months. The urgent need to reconstruct the road followed the opening of motorway section for trial use in the summer of that year, prompting the Transport Administration to launch a public call.

ASP reported that Bemax received an advance payment of €320,000 around 20 days after the contract was signed, in accordance with the contractual terms. However, just two months later, in December 2022, the company received another advance of approximately €640,000, based on a Government’s conclusion.

“This conclusion allowed additional advance payments to contractors on ongoing capital projects to ensure liquidity and continuity of work. However, at that time, Bemax had not yet begun reconstruction on the Matesevo–Kolasin road, nor was the company facing any liquidity issues,” the press release states.

The actual reconstruction did not begin until the end of April 2023. Later that year, by which point the work should have been completed, the Transport Administration signed an annex with Bemax, increasing the contract value by about €1 million and extending the deadline for completion.

The annex cited design modifications as the reason.

The NGO added that this is one in a series of contracts financed from the capital budget by the Transport Administration, where the original contract value is regularly increased due to design changes, often by millions of euros.

ASP noted that there is no record of the Transport Administration or the Ministry of Transport questioning accountability for flawed design documentation on which road construction or reconstruction tenders are based.

“This raises the question of whether these design modifications have effectively become a scheme for extracting additional millions of taxpayer money from the state budget,” ASP added.

ASP concluded that this case was one of many capital investment projects being investigated as part of their broader research.