{"id":33390,"date":"2022-03-21T08:36:32","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T06:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=33390"},"modified":"2022-03-23T15:28:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T13:28:42","slug":"spss-millions-inheritance-from-communist-times-bringing-in-budget-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/spss-millions-inheritance-from-communist-times-bringing-in-budget-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"SPS\u2019s Millions: Inheritance from Communist Times Bringing in Budget Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the center of Kragujevac, the Dom samoupravlja\u010da<\/em> building from the 1970s is host to the premises of the Socialist Party of Serbia<\/em> (SPS). In the same cold-looking concrete building, there is one 35-square-meter office of the City Administration<\/em>.<\/p>

This institution rents the space from SPS and, according to the party\u2019s financial reports, paid about 114,000 euros in rent from 2015 until the end of 2020.<\/p>

This is just one of the pieces of real estate that this party, as the successor of the former League of Communists of Yugoslavia<\/em>, has at its disposal. According to the latest SPS financial report, they own real estate worth about 13.8 million euros.<\/p>

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Building in which SPS is renting premises to the City Administration of Kragujevac; photo: CINS<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The fact that the currently strongest party in Serbia, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), is behind SPS in terms of the value of its business premises with assets worth less than 2 million euros<\/a>, perhaps best illustrates how valuable SPS\u2019s assets are compared to other parties.<\/p>

\n
Zoran Stojiljkovi\u0107; photo: N1 <\/figcaption>\n <\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>Former Chairman of the Board at the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em>, Zoran Stojiljkovi\u0107<\/strong>, explains how SPS had an advantage over other parties from the very beginning due to the properties it inherited.<\/p>

\u201cThey inherited those properties invoking that kind of tradition, numerous memberships, membership fees,\u201d he says, adding that they are now facing problems in proving that they are the actual owners.<\/p>

Professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences<\/em> Du\u0161an Spasojevi\u0107<\/strong> believes that this undoubtedly puts this party in a more favorable position compared to other parties because it gives them a kind of security.<\/p>

\u201cThis was quite clear when the Democratic Party (DS) faced its crisis. Just imagine how much slower that crisis would have been if DS could have guaranteed employees, offices, if it had not born any costs (…) It is never just a matter of the will of the voters, but also of resources to a large extent,\u201d Spasojevi\u0107 emphasized.<\/p>

Data collected by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia<\/em> (CINS) and published in its database of party financing<\/a> show that in the period between 2015 and late 2020, about 2.3 million euros went into SPS\u2019s accounts from the tenants of their business premises. Research has also shown that tenants include numerous public institutions that rent premises from SPS, even though there are vacant city-owned premises.<\/p>

Stojiljkovi\u0107 believes that the premises that political and social organizations receive should be used for party purposes, and that any renting out is manipulation. He sees renting out to public institutions as just another way for this party to take out budget funds.<\/p>

\u201cIt is an unacceptable practice, even if not legally sanctioned,\u201d says Stojiljkovi\u0107.<\/p>

Public institutions as SPS tenants<\/h2>

Out of about 2.3 million euros that the Socialist Party of Serbia<\/em> earned from renting out real estate over a six-year period, it received at least 840,000 euros from public institutions. These include ministries, municipalities, public companies and museums, among others.<\/p>

In this way, SPS rents out its real estate in the center of Petrovac na Mlavi. The Homeland Museum<\/em> of this town is located in the magnificent pre-war building of the old Post Office, which is a protected cultural asset. According to data from the party\u2019s financial reports, the Museum<\/em> paid almost 30,000 euros for a 120-square-meter space that includes four offices, a kitchenette, and a gallery space.<\/p>

The Director of this Museum<\/em>, \u017daklina Peri\u0107<\/strong>, says that the plan is to move to city-owned premises, but adds that they currently have nowhere to go.<\/p>

“We have an old elementary school here that has been abandoned (\u2026) and there are plans to move the Museum<\/em> there. But that building is in quite a poor state, and a large investment is needed,” Peri\u0107 says.<\/p>

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Building of the Petrovac na Mlavi Homeland Museum; Photo: Facebook\/ Petrovac na Mlavi Homeland Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>

 <\/p>

Sessions of the Assembly of the Municipality of Ra\u0161ka<\/em> are being held in a hall owned by SPS, for which the Municipality<\/em> has allocated nearly 35,000 euros over five years, according to the party’s financial reports.<\/p>

The Municipality<\/em> did not respond to the questions CINS sent via e-mail.<\/p>

When asked to comment on agreements concluded with public institutions, the Socialist Party of Serbia<\/em> says that these primarily involved \u201cspatial-technical conditions that are in complete accordance with the mentioned institutions\u2019 needs for carrying out their regular activities\u201d.<\/p>

CINS journalists have uncovered certain agreements with the institutions showing rent amounts that significantly differ from what is stated in SPS\u2019s financial statements. None of the people we spoke to could give us a clear explanation as to how this happened.<\/p>

For example, as can be seen in one of the contracts, the City Administration<\/em> of Kragujevac paid SPS about 4,300 euros without taxes in 2018 for rent. At the same time, the party\u2019s financial reports show that in that year, this city administration paid SPS two and a half times more \u2013 over 10,000 euros. Similar discrepancies exist for other years as well.<\/p>

Head of the Department for the Development of Human Resources in the City of Kragujevac<\/em> Zorica Savkovi\u0107<\/strong> says that she herself noticed inconsistencies.<\/p>

\u201cSomething was not quite clear to me, so I did a little research on that topic and got an explanation that some previous contracts from some previous years were not paid for, that there was an ongoing lawsuit, and that these were some lawsuits being paid for in that way,\u201d she explains.<\/p>

\u017daklina Peri\u0107, Director of the Petrovac na Mlavi<\/em> Homeland Museum<\/em>, a cultural institution for which there is also a discrepancy, also suspects that these are subsequently collected debts.<\/p>

\u201cI know that since I have been Director, there were some debts and a different amount was paid every year, but every year there were 12 payments, maybe 13 or 14, but it comes to the same thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>

\u201cNon-existent\u201d lease<\/h2>

In addition to financial inconsistencies, research carried out by CINS also shows that the Public Utility Enterprise \u201cPut\u201d from Novi Sad, according to SPS\u2019s financial reports, paid this party more than 1.2 million dinars for rent in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n

However, the public enterprise has denied the existence of such a cooperation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe official records of the Public Utility Enterprise \u201cPut Novi Sad\u201d contain no contract or invoice for the said period,\u201d Head of the Legal Affairs Department of this enterprise Miroslav Laslovski told CINS.<\/p>\n

However, SPS claims that there were invoices.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the Agreement on the lease of business premises from 2013, PUE \u201cPut Novi Sad\u201d was in 2016 repaying its debt in the name of a lease stemming from 2014, and the remainder of the debt was paid back during 2017,\u201d according to SPS.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>The amounts listed in SPS\u2019s financial reports differ even in the case of the Novi Sad Parking Service<\/em>, where according to the contracts, 40,000 euros less were paid than stated in the SPS financial report.<\/p>

This public enterprise claims that the SPS also included utility bills, even though the contract defines that the institution itself should cover those costs.<\/p>

SPS told CINS that the discrepancies are due to previous debts and utility costs. They state that the City Administration<\/em> in Kragujevac had owed money that it repaid in later years.<\/p>

\u201cThe City Administration of Kragujevac<\/em>, as a lessee of business premises, according to the initial situation from 2017, had a debt from previous years in the amount of less than 5 million dinars, which they started repaying in 2017,\u201d the SPS states.<\/p>

However, even when this debt is included, the values \u200b\u200bfrom the contract and financial statements do not match.<\/p>

City-owned facilities vacant while institutions pay SPS<\/h2>

In many cities in Serbia, such as Ni\u0161, Kragujevac and Novi Sad, public institutions and enterprises rent premises from the Socialist Party of Serbia<\/em>, despite the fact that there are properties owned by the city that have not been rented out.<\/p>

One such enterprise is Objedinjena naplata<\/em>\u00a0from Ni\u0161.<\/p>

The Director of this public enterprise, Jelena Stojanovi\u0107<\/strong>, has told CINS that they paid rent to SPS for premises that are across from their headquarters.<\/p>

CINS research has shown that, according to the data from the party\u2019s financial reports, Objedinjena naplata<\/em>\u00a0has been paying SPS about 9,500 euros per year since 2016. However, in 2021, the cooperation ended, and they moved to city-owned premises. Director Stojanovi\u0107 says she does not know why they did not move to the city\u2019s premises earlier.<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t know, I\u2019m not really the right person to ask. As soon as the City took ownership of the building in Generala Milojka Le\u0161janina Street, of course we immediately moved there and we\u2019re paying rent to the city, and it\u2019s logical that we pay rent to our founder,\u201d Stojanovi\u0107 said.<\/p>

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SPS premises in Ni\u0161; Photo: CINS<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Zoran Stojiljkovi\u0107 believes that the reason for renting out SPS premises is due to the fact that SPS is part of the government and has priority rights.<\/p>

\u201cIf I had a couple of pieces of real estate that I can rent out, and I was part of the government, then the government or parts of government, such as municipalities or institutions, would pay me as a participant in government, sooner than they would rent a different space,\u201d Stojiljkovi\u0107 points out.<\/p>

Du\u0161an Spasojevi\u0107 finds it inconceivable that someone would rent premises from a political party when there are vacant premises available.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s quite certainly a pre-planned transfer of funds to the party\u2019s coffers. (\u2026) I find it inconceivable that Assembly sessions are held in party premises (\u2026) Of course, it is a question of specific institutions \u2013 what they have at their disposal in the city in question,\u201d says Spasojevi\u0107.<\/p>

He also says that such situations should be better regulated by some law in the future.<\/p>

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More information at: <\/span>cins.rs\/en\/terms-of-use<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) has for years been financing its work by renting out real estate inherited from the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. Their \u201ctenants\u201d include many municipalities, public companies and institutions, which is assessed as unacceptable by experts who spoke to CINS. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1352,"featured_media":33358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1492,1573],"tags":[1938,1656,2131],"class_list":["post-33390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigative-stories","category-political-parties","tag-political-parties","tag-public-money","tag-sps-en","ciTrackContent"],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/SPS-Kragujevac.jpg","author_additional":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33390"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33400,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33390\/revisions\/33400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}