DORH investigates the legality of the decisions of the High Administrative Court made at the expense of Tankerkomerc company.
“The State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia (DORH) informed the Ministry on submitting a request for an extraordinary review of the legality of the verdict of the High Court of Justice of the Republic of Croatia, ruled in favour of the Republic of Croatia. At this point, consultations with DORH are being conducted on further action”, replied the spokesperson of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure when asked about the outcome of the Marina Zadar concession tender.
After initial reluctance, Minister Oleg Butković announced this summer his plans on bringing the tender to an end, which this year ‘celebrated’ its third birthday, reports 057.info on September 18, 2017.
A few months ago, the Ministry sent inquiries to the bidders whether they are still interested, provided that the Republic of Croatia cannot, due to court proceedings, allow entry to the possession of the maritime domain of the Marina Zadar. It was after the Higher Administrative Court upheld the verdict at the expense of Tankerkomerc who sought the right for conversion of the maritime domain, which the company has been using for more than 30 years. Although aware that the tender does not have a legally binding base, which Tankerkomerc has been claiming from the very beginning, the Ministry insists on the tender, i.e. on the continuity of policy that dates back to unlawful decisions made by SDP minister Siniša Hajdaš Dončić.
After Tankerkomerc filed an appeal to an 18-year-long ‘administrative silence, the SDP minister issued a decision rejecting Tankerkomerc’s right for the conversion of the maritime good. The government in the summer of 2014 had decided to publish a tender for a 30-year concession at Marina Zadar, after which Tankerkomerc made an objection that they cannot announce a tender until the court’s administrative proceedings take place.
According to the concession law, this was one of two reasons why the ministry should have proposed and the Government confirmed the cancellation of the tender. This, however, has not yet occurred. The Ministry is informed that Tankerkomerc has initiated proceedings to collect compensation, but that is not enough reason to cancel the tender. Therefore, Tankerkomerc has contacted the DORH, who should check the legality of the judicial decision, while the final verdict will be delivered by the Supreme Court.
In the proposal, Tankerkomerc, legally armed with all documents of this long process, warns that the Ministry was not authorized to issue a decision refusing conversion, but that such a decision should have been made by the Government, which could annul the contract of Tankerkomerc and SO Zadar, that grants the use of the maritime property for or an indeterminate period of time. The significant element of doubt regarding the legality of the verdict made by the High Administrative Court, is the fact that the file of the administrative proceeding, which is in progress since 1996, has been lost.The third reason for the request, which the DORH acknowledged, was the allegation that the Administrative Court adopted a decision on the basis of the Regulations, which grant more rights than what is permitted by law.
There is a great interest and a lot of pressure concerning the tender for the Marina Zadar. The ball is in the State Attorney’s court since only they can clarify this political and legal mess, in which the national media is pointing fingers at Tankerkomerc, questioning how they, who had built the marina, have been using it without a concession for the past 30 years. The issue arose in the previous country, while the government of this country has shown no regard to that right and by doing an illegal concession tender it is trying to destroy Tankerkomerc.
How else to explain the avoidance of Plenković’s response to the direct question: will the government make a decision on the choice of the concessionaire of the Marina Zadar, even though it is not inscribed in the Land Register as the owner of the maritime domain? The Prime Minister, who is a lawyer by profession, said this summer that he was familiar with the legal problems and added that “we will try to speed things up with the help of the Minister of State Property”.
Translated from 057.info
