{"id":27100,"date":"2020-06-19T18:08:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T16:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=27100"},"modified":"2020-11-20T18:00:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T16:00:22","slug":"mps-get-millions-for-fuel-solely-based-on-their-own-statements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/mps-get-millions-for-fuel-solely-based-on-their-own-statements\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs Get Millions for Fuel Solely Based on Their Own Statements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several hundred meters away from the National Assembly<\/em>, in downtown Belgrade, is a three-room apartment owned by former Ni\u0161 mayor and Democratic Party<\/em> (DS) whip, Goran \u0106iri\u0107<\/strong>. It took journalists of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia<\/em> (CINS) three minutes on foot to get from \u0106iri\u0107\u2019s apartment to the entrance to the National Assembly.<\/p>

Although he has owned an apartment and garage near his workplace since 2008, according to research conducted by CINS, from early 2016 to late 2019 \u0106iri\u0107 collected just over 1.5 million dinars<\/a> from the parliament because he had come to sessions driving his own vehicle. \u0106iri\u0107 also works as a special advisor at the Post of Serbia in Belgrade.<\/p>

When asked on what grounds he had received money for fuel when he was living in the capital, \u0106iri\u0107 replied that he went to Ni\u0161 \u201calmost every weekend:\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI live in Ni\u0161, in a family house, and I have an apartment in Belgrade. I have been traveling between Ni\u0161 and Belgrade for twelve years for family reasons. I travel to Ni\u0161 almost every weekend.\u201d<\/p>

He says that he sometimes heads south on workdays, too, but he does so in the evening so that he can return to Belgrade in the morning.<\/p>

\u0106iri\u0107 further claims that he received money only for days when he traveled to Belgrade for sessions. However, based on that calculation, \u0106iri\u0107 was supposed to have taken money only occasionally; however, the data CINS obtained show that this MP attended at least 23 sessions of parliamentary committees over the course of one year and took money for 20 of them.<\/p>

Official parliamentary documents show that from July to late October 2016 and from May to September 2017 this MP was on payment lists for coming to practically all the sessions and meetings of committees he had attended \u2013 including the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending<\/em>. Out of the three sessions for which \u0106iri\u0107 did not take money for fuel, he attended two without reimbursement, while for the third one he left the collection of fuel expenses to a female colleague from the party. Furthermore, \u0106iri\u0107 attended plenary sessions, for which his travel expenses were also covered.<\/p>

After the CINS journalists asked him to comment on these findings, \u0106iri\u0107 stopped answering.<\/p>

Besides \u0106iri\u0107, Darko Laketi\u0107<\/strong>, an MP of the Serbian Progressive Party <\/em>(SNS), has had a seat in parliament since 2014. Two years later he became assistant director of the Clinical Center Dr. Dragi\u0161a Mi\u0161ovi\u0107<\/em>, and in December 2019 he replaced that job with the position of teaching assistant at Belgrade\u2019s Faculty of Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>

Although Laketi\u0107 has been working in Belgrade for a long time now, according to parliamentary records his place of residence is Prokuplje. He has no real estate in his name in the town, whereas he owns a 3.5-room apartment in Belgrade\u2019s Vra\u010dar district, not far from Church of Saint Sava, as well as a small commercial venue in the same building. The Ju\u017ene Vesti<\/em> website in 2018 reported<\/a> that Laketi\u0107 was charging fuel for coming to the parliament, even though his fellow citizens claimed that he did not live in Prokuplje, while CINS\u2019 database shows that he continued to travel in 2019 and that in the course of four years he received 2.9 million dinars on account of fuel expenses.<\/a><\/p>

The CINS journalists were told twice at the Vra\u010dar address that Laketi\u0107 was not there, while the neighbors we ran into confirmed that he and his wife lived there. In a conversation over the telephone, Laketi\u0107 himself said that he was in Prokuplje, but declined to answer our questions. Laketi\u0107\u2019s next-door neighbor in the town confirmed to us that the MP had been there for a while and that he came there often:<\/p>

\u201cHe goes away for maybe two, three days, maybe five, it depends, but he\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>

Dragan Dobra\u0161inovi\u0107<\/strong>, president of the Coalition for Oversight of Public Finances<\/em> NGO (Koalicija za nadzor javnih finansija<\/em>), described the practice of MPs who have apartments in Belgrade taking money for fuel as \u201cpathetic.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThey are playing around, reporting what is more favorable for them based on their own interests, so that is certainly abuse. (\u2026) They are (legally) allowed to do that, but by doing so they are practically cheating the competent bodies,\u201d Dobra\u0161inovi\u0107 told CINS.<\/p>