The owner of "Knez Petrol" Srđan Knežević bought a member of the private consortium BG BUS PREVOZ and will take over two lines with twenty vehicles in public transport in Belgrade, according to the Center for Local Self-Government.
"It's no secret that he tried to enter the public transport business in Belgrade before, but he will only succeed now," they say. "We are thus getting into a dangerous situation where public transport in Belgrade is becoming a playground for tycoons and a way to easily turn a profit from their primary activities, instead of being a strictly controlled public service in the highest interest of citizens."
Interest in the business of transporting passengers has grown sharply since 2024, when public transportation was declared free and when public-private partnerships were concluded under very unusual circumstances and criteria, which the public already had the opportunity to hear about, they add.
"The fact that among the selected partners there were transporters whose work caused the most criticism is particularly worrying", say the Center and assess that the circumstances under which these public-private partnerships were concluded will certainly be the subject of future investigations.
Growth of "Knez Petrol"
The biggest expansion of the Knez Petrol company started in 2012, which coincides with the coming to power of SNS. In that period, the company took over a large number of local gas stations in a short period of time and drastically increased its share on the oil derivatives market in Serbia.
Knez Petrol regularly wins tenders for the supply of fuel to state institutions, local governments and public companies. The owner, Srđan Knežević, was legally sentenced to prison for oil smuggling.
The owner of "Knez petrol" was mentioned in 2021 to the statements of an anonymous man about Palma's parties in Jagodina. At the time, the man claimed that he had personally attended the event above the "pool of Hotel Alfa", which, according to him, was attended by Ivica Dačić, Aleksandar Antić and the owners of Knez Petrol and Kopernikus Television.
"The whole pool was emptied, people were sent home and then one by one the girls got up and introduced themselves - where they came from, what they liked, what they didn't like. It was more like a cattle market than a party," he said. "Those hostesses of theirs, who normally have credit cards with a few tens of thousands of dinars at their disposal during the day, they wait ready for the women to leave the room, enter and the parties last until the morning."
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