The ACG unions are demanding that the Prosecutor's Office be involved and the concession procedure be stopped, because the tender is rigged and irreversibly compromised

AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS

The Airports Union of Montenegro and the Independent Airports Union of Montenegro announced that the tender for concessions over the airports in Podgorica and Tivat has been irreversibly compromised, and that this is an unscrupulous operation that cedes a strategic state resource to private capital for three decades.

In the statement, they state that the two airports are being sold under dubious control and without accountability, with no consent from either the employees of ACG or citizens.

"This attempted rigged tender procedure is not part of our country's European path, nor can it be the basis for further quality development of airports. This is a quasi-tender act of handing over key state transport infrastructure under the complete control of dubious capital - to the detriment of the employees of the Airports of Montenegro and the citizens of Montenegro," the union emphasizes.

They state that "the door is opened for the questionable concessionaire to independently manage the selection of the strategic direction of development, routes, pricing policy, all revenues, defining priority destinations, commercial and security issues".

In doing so, the state, they add, would have the role of a "passive observer".

"Today we are witnessing a picture that insults the common sense of every honest citizen - while hungry wolves fight over the prey, employees and citizens' hands are tied, so that they cannot even ask about the details of the procedure, let alone protect what they have created with their own hands and proudly guarded for decades", state the two unions.

They demand that the concession procedure be stopped, calling on the prosecutor's office to investigate the circumstances, including "possible abuses, political pressure and corrupt actions".