EPCG: NOT A SINGLE METER OF COAST OR ISLAND IS SOLD TO ANYBODY

In the period 2018-2020, physical entities, mainly heirs of the previous owners, submitted requests to EPCG for purchase of land which is not in the function of energy system, about 40 requests in total. These are mainly former owners, i.e. their heirs whose intention is, out of understandable reasons, to carry out restitution of the previous family properties. Although there was no legally based pre-emptive right, thus neither legal obligation of EPCG to firstly offer this land to the heirs of former owners, it de facto existed in practice and in each legally justified case citizens’ requests were fulfilled, threat submitting,  in addition to the request for land purchase, an adequate evidence that the concerned land used to belong to their legal predecessors, while the third interested parties, in addition to the request, were requested to submitted the consent of former owners’ heirs, often verified by notary.

According to the records, total area of the real estate owned by EPCG which is not in the function of the energy system, amounts to almost 5 million m2 only at the territory of Nikšić Municipality. The obligation of EPCG based on tax payment for the concerned real estate at the annual level amounts to € 200.000-250.000. 

Upon concluding that there are no obstacles to alienate real estate which for EPCG represent only cost based on taxes, i.e. land which is currently not needed for the system functioning, which is confirmed according to the opinion of EPCG expert departments, which is expropriated according to obligation stipulated by the then valid Expropriation Law, Article 9, as remaining part of property of the owner whose land was expropriated for the purpose of construction of HPP Perućica hydro energy system, in line with guidelines for managing the property which is not in the function of the system, defined in the Property Management Strategy and Action Plan for the Strategy implementation, EPCG Board of directors passed the Decision on transfer of rights over property which is not in the function of energy system, No. 10-00-47073 dated November 18, 2020; 

The mentioned procedure of the property alienation does not interfere with the restitution or compensation procedures for deprived property, which are conducted according to the Law on Restitution and Compensation;

As it is undisputable that total EPCG property represents ownership of a business entity not of the state, as it has been stated, within the meaning of article 12 of the Law on Restitution and Compensation, there are no justified reasons for restitution but exclusively compensation, in case of EPCG property;

Land value in each concrete case was appraised by the competent state authority, i.e. Appraisal Committee of the Real Estate Administration Regional Unit Nikšić according to which purchase price was set. Therefore, setting the price of the concerned land was not falling within the competence of EPCG but of the state authority.

In concrete, Mr. Đoko Butorović in addition to this Contract signed the Contract in 2019 for the land pertaining to the ruins of the house which used to be owned by the above named  legal predecessors and was expropriated within the meaning of article 9 of the then Expropriation Law as remaining part of the property. By the Contract signed in 2021, the above named person additionally purchased a part of land by the mentioned ruin. 

Not a single meter of coast, beach, island was sold to anybody. Also, during mandate of the new management, not a single square meter of the land was sold to Mr. Aco Đukanović.

Since the date of taking up the duty by Executive manager of the Directorate for Legal Affairs (May 24, 2021), the consent for signing only 7 contracts has been issued out of 29 which is the number of the so far totally signed contracts. It should be pointed out that in all these 7 contracts the procedure was already fully conducted, in line with the law, internal documents and Decision of the former Board of directors, so there were no reasonable grounds to suspect that it was about harmful legal transaction, thus neither the reason to withdraw from signing of concrete legal transactions.

Albeit the land selling procedure was implemented lawfully, once the internal control and identification of relevant facts was carried out, the management determined that the procedure of land selling was not transparent enough, due to the fact that it was implemented per request of an interested party, and passed an Order on suspension of further implementation of the Decision up until the new Board of directors contemplates justification of further implementation of the Decision adopted by the prevous BoD. To that effect, signing of 13 contracts and analysing of 25 new requests has been stopped. We would like to highlight that, apart from the present BoD's intention to follow the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility, securing thereby a transparency in the overall business of the Company, there is no legal ground for suspension of further implementation of the Decision. 

The established internal Committee for property related issues has been reviewing all contracts, controlling thereby all elements of the legal transaction.

Once the subject documents were initialled and thereby approved by Mićun Milatović, Executive Manager of the Legal Directorate (who took office on May 24, 2021) it was when the Chief Executive Officer gave no objection to all contracts signed in June this year.

Should there arise even the slightest reasonable grounds to believe that any of the mentioned legal transaction has been signed unlawfully, the management will react in line with its authorisations and initiate procedures envisaged under internal acts and the Law. We, hereby invite the prosecutor’s office and other competent State institutions to take an active part in reviewing the legality of all procedures under the subject Decision on transfer of rights over property which is not in function of energy system (Decision no. 10-00-47073 dated November 18, 2020).