An Indebted Ex-President and the Pricey German Fix to a Montenegrin Stench

And that's not all.

The sum of evidence collected by two independent experts, sources involved in the project and via documents reviewed by the Centre for Investigative Journalism in Montenegro, CIN-CG, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, and the weekly Monitor, indicate that WTE overcharged by millions of euros for the construction of the one completed treatment plant.

"WTE obviously took us for fools," said Djordjije Vujovic, a member of the Budva city assembly.

WTE has denied any wrongdoing, telling CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor it has "done a good job". The company has already been paid between 12.5 million and 13.8 million euros by Budva - the exact figure is disputed - and called in a payment guarantee issued by the government in 2010 to the tune of 29.3 million euros. It is pursuing the cash-strapped municipality for a further 35 million euros in arbitration proceedings due to begin early this year.

Indebted ex-president

Milo Djukanovic with representatives of municipality of Budva. Photo: www.gov.me

The chaotic and often unregulated development of Montenegro's rugged Adriatic coastline has long been dogged by problems with water supply and sewage.

The WTE deal was seen as vital if the country was to continue servicing the annual influx of some one million tourists at the time. Yet something was up even before construction of the one completed treatment plant - in Becici - began.

Under a 2016 plea deal, Svetozar Marovic, the former deputy leader of Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, which left office late this year after three decades of uninterrupted rule, admitted defrauding the Municipality of Budva of three million euros via a fake invoice issued by the then...

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