New economy: Who are accused of corruption in the canopy collapse case

Special department for combating corruption of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade brought charges against three people for fall of the canopy at the Novi Sad Railway Station. The names of the accused are not known to the general public, but their role in the railway reconstruction project was significant.

The indictment, which has yet to be confirmed, includes the investment development manager of JSC "Infrastruktur Železnica Srbije" Slobodanka Katanić, the president of the Commission for Technical Review Milutin Savović and member of that Commission Biljana Krstić.

Savović is the owner and director of the company Trioprojekt, which is in the consortium responsible for the technical review of the entire railway project. writes the New Economy.

In addition to Trioprojekt, the consortium also includes the companies Beogradčvor and KBV Datacom, in which the owners of the Millennium team, Ivan Bošnjak and Stojan Vujko, each own 30 percent of the shares.

Shadow role

As the chairman of the Commission for Technical Review, Savović was in communication with other managers, but also with Nataša Vukšić, whom New Economy established that as an associate of the President of Serbia, she played a role in the railway reconstruction project from the shadows.

When Savović informed other officials about the report on the technical inspection that was done at the end of last year, Nataša Vukšić was among the recipients of the email.

This report referred to the entire railway line, which includes the Novi Sad Railway Station, and Savović's report was sent on November 1, only ten hours before the canopy fell.

After the incident in which 15 people died, Savović was among the people questioned by the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad.

In December, he admitted to the prosecutor that "it was not right" that the commission issued a permit for trial operation to the Novi Sad Railway Station in the way it was done.

He claimed that the commission made a report and submitted it to the investor "because it was a request from Elektrodistribucija and Elektromreza, in order to connect the station building in Novi Sad to the power grid".

"Otherwise, all works would have to be stopped, and that's why we gave this report, even though it wasn't right." This therefore means that we could not provide such a report for the trial work in accordance with the Rulebook for the performance of a technical inspection, but we still did it for the reasons I stated," said Savović in front of the prosecutor.

He claimed that in April 2024, the entire station was not inspected, but the power, security and telecommunication devices.

The permit for trial operation should only apply to part of the station

An inspection of the architecture and structural works was also carried out, but only those parts of the building that are connected to the mentioned devices, he stated.

However, in the minutes of the technical inspection, it is written that the trial operation is approved for the railway station facility.

Two members of the commission said that Savović, as the president of the commission, had pictures of their signatures and seals that were placed on the document.

Their testimonies indicate that the permit for the trial operation of the railway station should actually have referred to only one part of it, but the signatures of the commission members were placed on the document approving the operation of the entire facility.

Another member of the Commission against whom the indictment was brought, Biljana Krstić, testified that in April 2024, only substations were inspected in order to obtain a temporary permit in order to connect the railway station building to the power supply. She told the prosecutor that she inspected the substation located in the D wing of the Railway Station.

"This is the first time I see this MOT report"

After this inspection, she sent a partial report to Milutin Savović, which concerns the area she is in charge of - architecture and construction, she said then before the prosecutor.

When she was presented with the Technical Inspection Report dated April 5, which approved the trial operation of the station, she stated: "I am seeing this technical inspection report for the first time now."

"It contains parts of the report that I partially sent to Milutin Savović, and this report has our seals and signatures, but there is no electronic one." These seals and signatures were pasted on the document, so I never signed or certified this document with my signature and seal," said Krstić.

She explained that the practice when inspecting substations was that members of the commission did not sign the reports electronically, but gave pictures of their signatures and seals to the president of the commission so that "when the final report is drawn up, he would have everything in the document, i.e. to place those thumbnails of signatures and seals on the document."

"I was not told during the inspection during the month of April 2024 that the trial operation will eventually apply to the entire facility of the Railway Station in Novi Sad," said Krstić.

Slobodanka Katanić, a manager at the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia, who was also included in the indictment, was also involved in communication with Nataša Vukšić.

Correspondence with the Chief of Staff of the President of Serbia

As can be seen from the documentation published by VJT in Novi Sad, one email from February 2023 was addressed simultaneously to Vukšić and Slobodanka Katanić, manager for investments in the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia.

With it, Telekom Serbia asked Katanić for a response to a request sent in July of the previous year, in connection with the railway project.

Also, Katanić participated in the correspondence with the chief of staff of the President of Serbia, Ivica Kojić, who promised the Chinese contractor that he would speed up activities on the railway project.

In an email to Kojic, China's CRIC/CCCC sent a document titled "Report on Major Issues Limiting Project Duration." There were five issues that prompted the CRIC/CCCC to increase the "degree of coordination".

Slobodanka Katanić answered each of the five points mentioned by the contractor.

The indictment charges her with the criminal offense of Abuse of Official Position and the criminal offense of Aggravated Crime against General Security from the Criminal Code. Savović and Krstić are charged with the criminal offense of Unconscionable work in the service and the criminal offense of Aggravated offense against general security.

What does the prosecutor say?

There is a justified suspicion that the chairman of the Commission for the Technical Preview of Works Milutin S. and the member of the Commission Biljana K. from March 25, 2024 to April 5, 2024 violated the law, other regulations and general acts, neglected the duty of supervision and acted in another way obviously negligently in the performance of their duties, even though they were aware that a serious violation of the rights of others could occur as a result, so such a violation occurred, said prosecutor Nenad Stefanović.

It is suspected that Slobodanka K, from September 2020 to November 1, 2024, in Belgrade, as an official person-manager for development and investments in JSC "Infrastruktur Železnice Srbije" Belgrade, is in charge of coordinating and monitoring the project of modernization and reconstruction of the Hungarian-Serbian railway on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, for the section Novi Sad-Subotica-State border (Kelebija), by exploiting and exceeding the limit of her official authority and by failing to perform his official duty, seriously violated the rights of others, namely the right to life and bodily integrity, added the prosecutor.

She was in charge of making decisions regarding the mentioned project, and submitted reports, minutes and other documentation to her superiors, knowing that the Report on the Technical Inspection of April 4, 2024, which includes the Technical Inspection Record of April 5, 2024 and the proposal for trial work, was not done in accordance with all the regulations and rules of the profession, as well as that the works on the building were not completed, as a result of which it was approved trial operation of the Novi Sad Railway Building facility for a maximum of one year.

On June 12, 2024, Slobodanka K. issued a decision by which she formed a joint Commission for the internal reception of wing "B" at the Novi Sad Railway Station with the task that the Commission should carry out the internal reception of the lobby of the wing "B" of the station building of the Novi Sad Railway Station, so that by accepting the lobby of the wing "B" passengers would be able to use the lobby and all its contents, even though the internal reception as such is not regulated by any regulation, which is why, after the internal reception and handover of the building between contractors and investors, the lobby of wing "B" was put into operation on July 5, 2024.

She knew that the work on the lobby of wing "B" was not finished, because she had not received a confirmation of this from the expert supervision, and she was aware that by not following the regulations and technical rules, she could endanger safety.

In this way, the irregularities that led to the collapse of the canopy to the ground in front of the front facade of the vestibule "B" of the station building of the Novi Sad Railway Station on November 1, 2024, according to the prosecutor.

The Prosecution proposed to the court that the defendants Milutin S. and Biljana K. be extended detention, as well as that Slobodanka K. be extended the measure of the ban on leaving the apartment with electronic monitoring so that they do not repeat the criminal offense in a short period of time, as well as that they be ordered to be detained due to disturbing the public.

Source: New Economy