October 19, 2020 - The Municipal Assembly of Tivat has appointed the new Mayor, Zeljko Komnenovic, holder of the People Wins list after the dismissal of the former president of the Municipality, Dr. Siniša Kusovac, with the argument that he did not ensure the implementation of the Strategic Development Plan of the municipality, as well as causing multimillion damage to the city treasury,
In the first period, the new Tivat administration will concentrate on rationalizing the local administration's work and stabilizing the city budget, which, according to the new president of the Municipality of Tivat, is in a terrible condition.
"The people of Tivat demanded change. They got those changes. We are in a very challenging moment; we also have interregnum at the state level, anticipating the formation of a new Government of Montenegro. What makes us happy is the support of the EU and the international community for the whole process, which is as important at the state level for us in Tivat. However, it may not be obvious at first glance," said Komnenovic, emphasizing the circumstances of the global health and economic crisis. and the fact that Montenegro's debt is almost 100 percent of GDP.
"The situation in Tivat is even more challenging. The municipality, whose outgoing government boasted of millions in budget surplus a few years ago, has been put in a situation where it cannot pay taxes and contributions for its employees. We are yet to determine the real state of the municipality's finances. What is certain is that we need so-called crisis management. We are also confident that the new administration will work on transparency and that we will regularly inform the citizens about the state of the city budget. The municipality is their service, and those are the funds of all the citizens of Tivat. "
When it comes to managing the current crisis, Komnenovic points out that we must use maximum human and other resource potential to stabilize the budget "and, colloquially speaking, turn over a new leaf."
Komnenovic says that it is inevitable that Tivat will not carry out any significant investment projects during the next year when it comes to the capital part of the budget.
"But, as we promised in the election campaign, what we will work on with our coalition partners is the rationalization of the local administration, a new systematization of jobs, and the stabilization of the budget."
The team has a tremendous job ahead of them, hard and tedious, says the new mayor of Tivat.
"But someone has to do it. We must reach a point that will be a healthy starting point for thinking, rehabilitation, and planning of the sustainable development of the city in the future, "said the new president of the Municipality of Tivat, Zeljko Komnenovic.
The previous government liked to call Tivat the Montenegrin Monte Carlo, considering that some of our country's largest investment projects were being implemented in the city.
Komnenovic believes that Tivat will have excellent cooperation with investors in future
TMN: What will the cooperation with large investors be like in the future? In the pre-election campaign, the representatives of your electoral list and other colleagues from the current coalition in power often thematized agreements which, in your opinion, were to the advantage of investors, to the detriment of the city and the local population.
Zeljko Komnenovic: I hope and sincerely believe that we will have excellent cooperation with investors. We already have the interest of investors and proposals for joint plans. We continuously mention the companies Porto Montenegro and Luštica Development, which make huge investments at the local level, but also with the entire country in mind. And we have two other significant investors who have been forgotten lately. One of them is Qatari Diar, which is the tenant of Pržna Bay, and the other is the Russian Metropol, in whose hands is perhaps the most vital resource on the Montenegrin coast - Stradiotti Island in the Bay of Tivat. Due to some inadequate approaches to resolving the investment project's requirements in Qatari Diar, i.e., Pržno Bay, where property and legal problems have not been resolved, the investor abandoned the project, and it still has not been delivered. I am not sure how seriously the competent authorities at the local and national level approached this serious investor, one of the most reputable at the world level. We will do our best and do everything in our power to make this project finally come to life because it is not only in the interest of Tivat but also of the entire state economy.
We will also review the St. Mark's project - the planned investments on the island of Stradiotti. According to the information available in the media, the company Metropol is still the island's owner, but it is in the process of being sold.
So, these are two significant investment projects, which, I am sure, would give the city and the state a vital boost for economic growth.
As for Porto Montenegro, I think there are no barriers to stopping us immediately sitting down together and discussing the modalities of future cooperation. We are a peoples list; we answer only to the citizens of Tivat. We have no headquarters above us, no greater interest than the interests of the city and its citizens, which I think is quite clear to them as well. We have to work together to solve all the accumulated problems, and there are quite a number of them. The public knows about them, so I will not repeat them. In any case, we will try to make every move in the interest of Tivat.
