{"id":29981,"date":"2021-04-13T13:09:09","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T11:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=29981"},"modified":"2021-04-22T16:13:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T14:13:44","slug":"conflict-of-interest-in-zitiste-serbian-progressive-party-alderman-gets-3-7-million-for-student-transportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/conflict-of-interest-in-zitiste-serbian-progressive-party-alderman-gets-3-7-million-for-student-transportation\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflict of Interest in \u017diti\u0161te: Serbian Progressive Party Alderman Gets 3.7 Million for Student Transportation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Municipality of \u017diti\u0161te<\/em>, near Zrenjanin, a yellow school minibus last year transported 23 elementary school students from their home to school and back.<\/p>

That image would not be unusual if the municipal administration in \u017diti\u0161te did not carry out public procurement in February 2020, which it had not foreseen a few months earlier. Although it had earmarked 4.5 million dinars for \u201cpublic transportation\u201d in the budget, the local administration added this procurement to the Public Procurement Plan subsequently, the same day it announced an invitation to bid.<\/p>

In the 10-day application period, just one company submitted a bid \u2013 Eko Line 2020<\/em> \u2013 and so there was no ranking. The company asked for 3,720,000 dinars, 30,000 less than the estimated value of procurement. A contract was concluded quickly.<\/p>

Nemanja Nenadi\u0107<\/strong> of Transparency Serbia says that the services should have been included in the procurement plan earlier:<\/p>

\u201cLate entry (\u2026) could have led to other companies having less time to plan their participation in that tender, but also that the company owned by the alderman may have obtained that information before its competitors.\u201d<\/p>

The head of the \u017diti\u0161te municipal administration, Mladen Ajdukovi\u0107<\/strong>, says that he does not know why this procurement did not immediately become a part of the Plan, but does not think it affected the competition:<\/p>

\u201cThis public procurement was posted on the Municipality of \u017diti\u0161te<\/em> website and on the Public Procurement Portal<\/em>. Those who follow the Portal<\/em> could have known.\u201d<\/p>

The one who managed to apply for the competition was Eko Line 2020<\/em>, the sole proprietorship of Dragan Rapai\u0107<\/strong>, a long-time Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> alderman in the Municipality of \u017diti\u0161te<\/em>. The company had been founded less than two months earlier, the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia<\/em> (CINS) has learned.<\/p>

Even though he was on the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> and New Serbia<\/em> election ticket called Let\u2019s Get \u017diti\u0161te Moving \u2013 Tomislav Nikoli\u0107, already in 2012, Rapai\u0107 took office in the local Assembly in 2016. His second term of office as alderman is currently in progress.<\/p>

When asked why he got into that business, Rapai\u0107 replies that he has to live off something, and an alderman\u2019s supplement is not it. He adds that he did not know he would win the tender, because \u201cit\u2019s all a lottery.\u201d<\/p>

He explains that he did not found the company solely for the sake of this public procurement, rather he intended to provide transportation to children with special needs. He claims that no one in the Municipality<\/em> even knew he had founded a company and that, even though he landed the procurement, the coronavirus epidemic disrupted his business:<\/p>

\u201cEverything had to be driven double. Forgive me [for putting it this way], I ate a piece of s*** by getting into the whole thing in the first place. You understand? You have a sum of money to use, and here they\u2019re tearing up school timetables.\u201d<\/p>

Neither Rapai\u0107 nor Ajdukovi\u0107 could specifically say how much was ultimately paid for this job due to the coronavirus pandemic. While Ajdukovi\u0107 claims that probably 50 percent less money was given, Rapai\u0107 thinks he was paid the whole sum.<\/p>

Rapai\u0107 also supported the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> with 40,000 dinars in 2018 and with another 40,000 in 2019. Ajdukovi\u0107 donated the same amount in 2018. The administration is the student transportation contracting party, while \u017diti\u0161te Mayor Mitar Vu\u010durevi\u0107<\/strong> signed the contract with Rapai\u0107.<\/p>

Nemanja Nenadi\u0107 believes that these officials should have addressed the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em> due to potential conflict of interest:<\/p>

\u201cBoth the head of the municipal administration and the mayor are in a dependent relationship with the alderman, given that the Assembly controls both and oversees their work.\u201d<\/p>

\"\"
\u017diti\u0161te town center; Photo: Zoran Dedi\u0107<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Agency<\/em> representatives confirmed to CINS that there was a conflict of interest. By checking official records, they determined that, despite having been obliged to do so, Rapai\u0107, Vu\u010durevi\u0107 and Ajdukovi\u0107 had not notified them of that.<\/p>

\u201cThe Agency will launch procedure against them to decide on the existence of violation of provisions of the Law on Prevention of Corruption,\u201d reads the reply.<\/p>

Rapai\u0107 says that only later did he find out it was a conflict of interest, but did not answer the CINS journalist\u2019s question about why he did not inform the Agency<\/em> then. He claims that this was one of the reasons why he had verbally offered his resignation as alderman to the party and the Municipal Assembly.<\/p>

\u201cI didn\u2019t get an answer. Is that a problem now? I can submit [my resignation] now.\u201d<\/p>

Although he says it bothers him that he had a conflict of interest last year, Rapai\u0107 could not explain why he took part in public procurement this year, too.<\/p>

Asked if he knew it was a conflict of interest, Ajdukovi\u0107 replies that he did not even know Eko Line 2020<\/em> was Rapai\u0107\u2019s company. Had he known, he says, he probably would have reported it, if that is a legal obligation.<\/p>

The Agency<\/em> states on its website that it recommended Vu\u010durevi\u0107\u2019s dismissal from the position of mayor in November 2018. First, they handed him a warning for not having transferred his management rights in the Primo Trade<\/em> company within 30 days after the date of his election. Since he failed to do so even after the warning, they recommended that the local assembly dismiss him. Vu\u010durevi\u0107 was not dismissed and was re-elected as mayor in 2020. You can find the Agency<\/em>\u2019s procedures against officials from 2010 to November 2018 in CINS\u2019 database<\/a>.<\/p>

CINS did not get any answers to questions regarding this public procurement from the mayor. Vu\u010durevi\u0107 told the CINS journalist that he could not talk and that he would call her back, but did not do so by the time the article was published. Representatives of the municipal administration did not say why this procurement was not part of the initial Public Procurement Plan for 2020, why it was added to the Plan on the day of announcement of the invitation to bid, and other questions, either.<\/p>

Same procurement more than a million dinars cheaper this year<\/h2>

Procurement of the service of transporting elementary school students in the territory of \u017diti\u0161te ended up in this year\u2019s Public Procurement Plan. Even though he offered a lower figure than before, about three million dinars, this time Rapai\u0107 had competition and did not get the job. The winner was the Banat Trans<\/em> transportation company with a conspicuously lower bid \u2013 about 2.3 million dinars without VAT.<\/p>