MDUP: The competition for Velje Brdo was conducted legally and without conflict of interest

The department reacted to the statement by the NGO KANA/ko akti ne arhitekt, in which it stated that "the authors of the awarded works are employed at the same institution managed by a member of the jury, even though such a relationship is expressly prohibited."

The Ministry of Architecture and Civil Engineering points out that Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Prof. Dr. Grozdana Sisovic, co-author of the first-awarded paper, as well as assistant to Dr. Dalia Dukanac, co-author of the second-awarded paper, are not employed by Prof. Lojanica, but, like him, are engaged by the same employer – the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, which operates within the University founded by the Republic of Serbia.

"We also particularly point out the attempt to further manipulate and mislead the public by linking people who have no connection to each other." Collaborator on the second-awarded work Jelena Maric "She is a final year master's student and has no relation to assistant professor Dr. Jelena Marić, despite the similarity of their names," they said in their response.

We would like to emphasize that the integrity of the competition procedure was ensured through strict adherence to the principle of anonymity, which is a key mechanism for protecting impartiality. All competition solutions were submitted under a code, while data on the authors were available exclusively in sealed envelopes marked "AUTHOR - DO NOT OPEN", which were opened only after the Commission's final decision was made and signed. In this way, any influence on the evaluation process was completely prevented.

"Attempts to question the transparency and legality of the procedure, despite such clearly defined rules and facts, represent malicious action aimed at undermining public trust in the work of institutions," they state in the response.

As they add, we are pleased that some critics of the Velje Brdo project, from the position that it is about political marketing and deceiving citizens, have moved to the position of commenting on the process of implementing this major project of the Government of Montenegro.

"We are trying to provide the best quality living conditions for the future residents of Velje Brdo, and this is guaranteed by the first-prize winning project, which was selected by the jury with an absolute majority," they conclude in their response.