An example of how confusing and full of questions, inconsistencies, intrigue and non-transparency everything is in relation to the historical project is the smallest aspect of the entire project - the stand, i.e. the "temporary object for promotion", i.e. the "first object of 'Belgrade on the water'", and in fact - an ordinary tavern
According to the spatial plan that details the area where it will be built, the "Belgrade on the Water" project will cover 1.852.683 square meters. It will have 1.034.000 m2 of residential space and 754.000 m2 of business space. 6128 tenants will live in 17.771 apartments, and 13.169 people will find work within the complex. Also, a 220-meter high tower is planned. However, apart from this plan and these (and similar) figures, there is not much strong evidence or guarantees that the complex will actually be built. For now, apart from the monumental model in the renovated building of "Belgrade Cooperative" and the workers who work daily to clear the Sava coast, not much can be seen from "Belgrade on the Water". Allegedly, only the Arab donation contract for the mentioned renovation was signed, but the public has not seen it yet.
In the struggle to understand what is available to the public, namely various official city and republic decrees, decisions, drafts, plans, which have 20 words in their titles, the most difficult circumstance is the lack of transparency in the entire process. Organizations dealing with the project also complained about it, and the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance reacted. In November last year, the IMF expressed concern about the justification of spending budget funds for this project.
When you dig a little deeper, you come to a new series of questions and ambiguities: what were the circumstances and whether the legally prescribed procedures were violated under which the crucial urban plans and strategies of the City and the Republic were changed, how will large sub-projects such as the relocation of the main railway and bus stations, who pays for marketing campaigns, how land expropriation and population displacement are carried out, which company has the opportunity to work on clearing the terrain...
At first glance, the "Belgrade on Water" project seems too complicated to understand. Listening to his main protagonists, it seems that they either do not understand him or do not understand him in the same way (more in the text "Easy formulas and big numbers").
An example of how confusing and full of questions, inconsistencies, intrigue and non-transparency the whole thing is, is the smallest aspect of the entire project - the stand, i.e. the "temporary object for promotion", i.e. the "first object of 'Belgrade on the water'", which is in fact - an ordinary tavern.
photo: m. MilenkoviฤFLAGS, UNANSWERED QUESTIONS, PLANS: The "Belgrade on the Water" area,...
PERMITS FOR THE DAY: At the beginning of August 2014, the lawn between the Lasta bus station and Sava, otherwise registered in the cadastre as plot 438/1, described as a "bank" and owned by the Republic of Serbia, was fenced off with an opaque green screen. The legally required construction board with a description of the works and the future building did not exist, although the construction workers worked hard. On a sheet of paper attached to the fence of the construction site, it was written: "Prohibited approach and passage through the marked area."
"It is a temporary building and will be demolished when the project 'Belgrade on the water' is developed and the time comes for something else to be built in that place," explained the mayor of Belgrade, Siniลกa Mali, on August 11. "Part of that building will be used for the promotion of this big project and its parts, and in the other part there will be a restaurant, so you can sit down," said the mayor. To the remark that a few hundred meters away, in the renovated "Belgrade cooperative", there is already an entire building dedicated to the promotion of the entire project, Mali replied: "There are never too many buildings for the promotion of such a large project."
The construction of a temporary facility, i.e. the stand was approved by the Department for property-legal, construction and communal-housing affairs of the municipality of Savski venac. More precisely, the company "Belgrade on the water" was approved to occupy plot 438/1 for the purpose of "setting up a stand for the promotion of the project". The JVP "Beogradvode", the JKP "Zelenilo Beograd" and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade also gave their consent. The permit is valid until July 30, 2015.
"When the term for which the decision was issued expires, the investor can extend it, and if he does not want to, he has the obligation to remove the erected object and bring the public area back to its original state," Duลกan Dinฤiฤ, the president of the municipality of Savski venac, told "Veฤernje Novosti" September 15, 2014
So, six days after the Government of Serbia founded the company "Belgrade on the water", its director Aleksandar Trifunoviฤ started collecting the necessary documentation for the construction of a 670-square-meter facility on a part of the Sava embankment. It took him less than 24 hours.
photo: phonet...Activists of the Citizens' Initiative We will not give Belgrade,...
We waited half a month for the construction board, and when it was finally installed, it contained a photo of the future building and information: the investor of the works is the company "Beograd na vodi doo", the contractor - the limited liability company "Millennium team", and the designer is "Studio Romb". At the top it was written in large letters: "Construction of a stand for the presentation of the project 'Belgrade on water'".
The representatives of the companies "Millennium Team" and "Studio Romb" did not answer the questions of the weekly "Vreme" about how they got into this business, with whom exactly they signed the contract and when.
By the way, "Millennium Team", owned by Stojan Vujek and Ivan Boลกnjak, is the same company that, from 2010 to 2012, with "Srbijagas" or with its mediation, concluded a number of millions of contracts for gasification in Serbia. Let us remind you that these were preparatory works for the "South Stream" project - later it failed... In the election campaign of 2012, SNS official and current Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajloviฤ called this company "Ivica's company" and brought doubt the legality of those contracts. During the same campaign, SNS again mentioned the dubious operations of the company "Millennium team":
"One of the closest associates of the deputy president of the Democratic Party, Dragan ฤilas, Cvijo Babiฤ, vice-president of the city board of the DS and director of the PUK 'Belgrade Water Supply and Sewerage', damaged the city of Belgrade for 107.317.696 dinars in just one procurement, due to the non-publication of the tender , and entering into a deal with the company 'Millennium team', and thus grossly violated the Law on Public Procurement. With that, they illegally obtained a multimillion-dollar benefit," the progressives said in a statement.
PRICE OF TEMPORARY FACILITY: Activists of the "Ministry of Space" collective and the "Ne da(vi)mo Belgrade" movement asked Aleksandar Trifunoviฤ in September how much the construction of a "temporary stand" costs. "We still do not have data on the exact amount of the construction cost, considering that the construction is still in progress, and in this regard, we could not even determine the exact amount of funds for that purpose," replied the director of "Belgrade on Water".
photo: m. Milenkoviฤ...models
They sent him the same question in October, and the answer was: "The installation of the stand is financed by a foreign partner, and we have no data on the price of the stand, nor have we determined the funds for that purpose."
In January of this year, young activists asked the same question for the third time, and Trifunoviฤ answered that the price and financing of the construction of the stand "are the business of our foreign partners, as well as the management of the temporary facility, after construction."
On the other hand, "Veฤernje Novosti" announced on November 29 that the construction of the stand costs 500.000 euros, and Mayor Sinisa Mali confirmed in August that the stand was paid for by an "investor company from the UAE" and that it was a "donation".
By the way, according to the city's legal acts (Decision on the general planning of the city and Decision on the conditions and manner of placing temporary facilities on public areas in Belgrade), a temporary facility is a "small prefabricated facility, kiosk, summer garden and other similar facilities for the sale of food and other products retail, for the provision of catering and craft services and for the satisfaction of other needs of citizens (telephone box, public toilet, etc.)". In addition, "the user cannot lease or sublease the installed temporary facility, that is, transfer it for use to another person by a contract on business-technical cooperation or any other contract."
In addition to the dubious speed of obtaining permits for the construction of a temporary facility (which has 670 square meters, the construction of which cost - perhaps - half a million euros and which looks like fensi restaurant), as well as the non-transparent selection of contractors, the question of what the promotion program of the "Belgrade on the Water" project will look like in the facility that received the construction permit precisely because of that promotion stands out from the whole story.
The fourth question is what will happen to that facility after the municipal permit expires in five months.
The model of "Belgrade on the water", admittedly, confirms its "temporary nature". Namely, on the part of the model where plot 438/1 is located, there is a much taller and larger building. A few meters from him, in the water and in the place where the raft "Lasta" used to be,
on the "Belgrade on the Water" model, a building similar to the one we are writing about is planned...
Digression: the last party on the "Lasta" raft near the place where the temporary facility is today was held on October 4, 2014. Then the guests celebrated the end of the summer season of that raft, after which it was closed and moved to the "Shipyard" for overhaul.
Five days later, "Blic" reported the news about how the Tax Administration closed "Lasta" and two other popular places for going out with a "major action" due to "non-issuance of fiscal invoices and undeclared workers".
PETTY THEFT: At the end of October, the company "ล trafta" was established in the Agency for Business Registers, fully owned by Miroslav Kesiฤ; Andrej Kesiฤ was appointed director, otherwise mentioned in the media as the manager of popular Belgrade night spots - "Play", "Magacin", "Cinema". The registered capital of the newly founded company was 5000 dinars, and the address where the company is registered is the apartment where Ljiljana Kesiฤ lives.
The company is registered for "activities of restaurants and mobile catering facilities". According to the Government Decree on the classification of activities from 2010, the activities of restaurants and mobile catering facilities include "the preparation and serving of food to guests, whether they are served at the table or serve themselves from displayed dishes, whether they eat prepared meals in the facility, carry them with themselves or that they be delivered to them" etc.
Not long after, on Infostud, a job search site, published an ad in which the restaurant "ล trafta" - described as "the first facility within the project 'Belgrade on the water'" - announces a competition for the positions of chef and pizza master, noting that candidates "must be cultured, hard-working and responsible people". The deadline for applications for six positions was mid-December 2014.
"ล trafta" enters the new year with a new name - "Sava Nova", and a large illuminated inscription with that name was placed on the west wall, and "Beograd bistro" below.
Miroslav and Ljiljana Kesiฤ could be the parents of "Sava Nova" director Andrej Kesiฤ. By the way, his name is on the American website jail.on and in the database of legal criminals in the USA. Therefore, in 2013, Andrej Kesiฤ was arrested in California for petty theft. The dates of birth of the director of "Sava Nova" (December 30, 1969) and the one arrested in California also match. Although visible works were completed at the beginning of the year, "Sava Nova" is still closed. A man in a green fluorescent vest is by the door around the clock, and people are often circulating inside. One evening in February, in the company of a dozen people, tennis player Novak Djokovic was also sitting inside. No one answers the telephone number of the address where the company "Sava Nova" is registered.
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