Water supply company from Podgorica (“Vodovod”) will have to terminate the contract on the construction of the first phase of the secondary sewage system in Podgorica, worth € 1.83 million, which it concluded with the company “Toškovići”, because its owner Ivica Tošković was convicted last year for creating a criminal organization and evading taxes and contributions. After MANS Investigative Centre informed the German KFW Bank about its findings, whose grant is financing this project of Vodovod, they confirmed that there was a violation of the procedure and that further financing of the project in which the company “Toškovići” is involved is no longer possible out of their grant.
At the end of March this year, company “Vodovod i kanalizacija” from Podgorica signed a contract with the company “Toškovići” from Podgorica for the needs of the construction of the first phase of the secondary sewage system. The contract worth € 1.83 million was signed on behalf of “Vodovod” by its director, Filip Makrid, while on behalf of the company “Toškovići” it was done by its owner Ivica Tošković.
Ivica Toskovic
At that moment, Ivica Tošković was convicted of the criminal offenses of creating a criminal organization and evading taxes and contributions, as part of a criminal group investigated by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office within “Vardar” operation. According to the plea agreement he made with the prosecution, Tošković plead to return € 140,000 of profits to the state and pay a fine of € 40,000. The High Court also sentenced him to one year of suspended sentence.
The contract with the company “Toškovići” was concluded on the basis of the tendering rules of KfW bank, whose grants finance this job as well. The rules of KfW Bank stipulate that “contracts awarded from the bank’s funds shall not be awarded to companies/persons who have been convicted by a final judgement for involvement in a criminal organization, money laundering, terrorists-related offences, child labour or trafficking in human beings.”
Tendering rules of KfW bank
After informing the representatives of KfW Bank in Frankfurt about this discovery, this institution informed MANS Investigative Centre that they had no information that Tošković had been convicted, and that they would further investigate whether this fact fell under the violation of the tender procedure.
At the end of August this year, MANS received a final response from KfW Bank, which states that after analysing relevant documents, they came to the conclusion that Tošković case should subject to sanctions.
– Therefore, we have informed the Employer, “Vodovod i kanalizacija” Podgorica, that it is not possible to finance this contract out of the KfW loan/EU-WBIF grant, it is stated in the response of KfW bank sent to MANS Investigative Centre.
Response of the KfW Bank
After this response of the bank, it is clear that “Vodovod” must terminate the contract with the company “Toškovići”, because domestic legislation also explicitly prohibits contracting with persons who have been convicted of, among other things, creating a criminal organization and evading taxes and contributions, MANS warns.
Even after numerous calls and inquiries, the Capital City and Vodovod did not answer questions whether they were aware of the fact that Tošković was convicted, whether any in-depth inspection of that person and his company was done, as well as whether anyone would bear responsibility for the enormous omission made.
In the meantime, the company “Toškovići” continues to carry out the works that started in May this year, which was confirmed by MANS investigators who visited the construction site in Konik at the beginning of the week and found the workers and machines of this company.
Lazar Grdinić
Dejan Milovac
Tošković part of the Vardar affair
“Vardar” affair, along with the “Klap” affair, is one of the biggest tax and contribution evasion scandals that have been discovered in Montenegro recently. “Vardar” covers dozens of people and companies that made illegal VAT refunds, evaded taxes and contributions, but also extracted profits from companies through fictitious invoices. Ivica Tošković confessed to criminal acts described to Lidija Mitrović, the Special State Prosecutor, while the group whose member was Tošković caused damage to the state budget in the amount of € 3.7 million.
KfW Bank loan
The project for the construction of a wastewater collection and treatment plant in Podgorica, which includes the construction of a secondary sewage system, is mostly financed from two loans from the German “KfW” bank, in the total amount of € 35 million. In addition, funds from the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) in the amount of € 1.1 million were provided, as well as grant funds in the amount of € 9 million. The remaining funds up to the amount of over € 50 million, which is estimated to be worth the complete project, will be provided by the Capital City Podgorica.
