Photo: Tanjug/BeoinfoBIRN obtained audio recordings in which it is heard that the head of the cabinet of the mayor of Belgrade, Nenad Milanović, at two meetings held in the building of the City of Belgrade Assembly, offered to the representatives of the Turkish company Kentkart that he would set up a tender for them for a new job - maintenance and improvement of the ticket collection system and management of vehicles in public city transport - if they agree to the mutual termination of the existing contract from 2021
The head of the cabinet of the mayor of Belgrade, Nenad Milanović, told Kentkart representative Sava Terzić at a meeting on March 9 that he would accuse him of "ruining public transport in Belgrade" if the Turkish company did not accept the offer of mutual termination of the contract, can be heard on the audio recording reached by BIRN.
Milanović did not answer BIRN's questions about the offer to terminate the contract and rigging the tender. The mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, did not do that either.
Terzić, however, told BIRN that it is not clear to him how the journalists obtained the recording of the meeting, but he confirms that what is heard on the recording is authentic and that Milanović was offering Kentkart a new job that the Turkish company would get in a rigged tender.
"I confirm your statement that we were offered the arrangement of a future public procurement on the condition that we sign the offered mutual termination of the contract." This has been offered to us on several occasions. If the contract was harmful and there were elements for terminating the contract, the City would never have offered us continued cooperation. We made an official note about this event and submitted it to our legal team. That's all I can tell you because we will do all further activities in accordance with the advice of our legal team," Terzić answered for BIRN.
Kentkart was in charge of introducing the ticket collection system in Belgrade's public transport since 2011, and the first contract was signed when Dragan Đilas was the mayor, and Šapić was his assistant. The new ten-year contract was signed in 2021.
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The dispute between Kentkart and Serbia
At the end of March, Kentkart informed the republican authorities that it would initiate a dispute against Serbia for the protection of its investment because the City of Belgrade unilaterally terminated the contract 11 years before the deadline. On the proposal of the mayor of Belgrade, the city councilors voted for this termination on February 21.
This procedure, they say, is made possible by a bilateral international agreement, in which the state guarantees the protection of foreign investments. They also say that Belgrade violated the contract as a party to the contract and as the authority.
Kentkart's announcement also states the following: "With the personal preferences of the city leaders based on their own value judgments, which we witness every day in the media, by addressing the competent authorities of the Republic of Serbia, the solution to the situation is moved from the field of personal promotion of the holders of executive functions for the city of Belgrade to the level of the Republic of Serbia, as the bearer of the protection of values proclaimed by the existing legal system."
Aleksand Šapić to resign
The president of the city committee of the Freedom and Justice Party (SSP), Mila Popović, today asked the mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, to immediately submit his irrevocable resignation, and the prosecutor's office to initiate criminal proceedings because the head of his cabinet, Nenad Milanović, offered the Turkish company Kentkart a tender for maintenance and improvement of the system for ticket collection and management of vehicles in public city transport in Belgrade "set up" in exchange for a reasonable termination of the current contract.
In a written statement, Popović pointed out that it is clear that Šapić's chief of staff did not lead the negotiations on his own and offered Kenkart another job as compensation, and contrary to the law on public procurement, he could only do so with the consent or by order of Šapić.
What does Šapić say?
The Mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, said last night on the Euronews Center show that the new public transport prices, according to which a daily ticket in zone A will cost 120 dinars, and a seven-day ticket 800 dinars, are "probably the final version", but that does not mean that there will not be some more change until the moment when the system is official.
Šapić, speaking about the new public transport system, said that the "lie" regarding the validators cost the citizens of Belgrade and the city budget four million euros per year.
"Essentially, it cost us tens of maybe even hundreds of millions of euros, because the annual income fell, from nine billion to six, which is 25 million less income for us." God knows how much the entire public system cost us. We cannot know that. "Do you understand that we handed over a system worth nearly 250 million euros to a private entrepreneur who reported an official profit of 100.000 euros per year," said Šapić.
He also said that the system could not be analyzed for 20 percent of paid tickets, and that the validator therefore "didn't serve anything" because its whole concept was "that we get information from the people who are transported, which lines are more busy, which the category of people the bus enters".
Šapić also said that "it is a purely local political decision to lower prices as much as possible and to restore trust" and that over time, through getting to know the new system, one can see "what it is that is squeaking".
"That's why we will continue subsidizing." "The city is currently allocating 250 million euros for the entire public transport," Šapić said.
And the City will initiate a court process to prove that the signed contracts were harmful to the City from the very beginning and will seek compensation for that.
On April 13, a new public transport system will be proposed to the Belgrade City Assembly, which should be valid from May 1, according to which zones, tariffs and the entire public transport system should be changed, and in the new system, citizens will have the power, Šapić said. to pay for transportation with all credit cards, SMS messages or with an application on the phone, and for those who do not want to do so, special points of sale will be opened.
MN/BIRN/FoNet
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For more than 10 years, GSP and public transport in general have put an enormous burden on the city budget, GSP is a multimillion-dollar loser every year (in euros), ticket collection in Belgrade is extremely weak, GSP has 15-20 percent of redundant employees and thus the problem persists, and none of the city's the government has been failing to solve it for decades
