{"id":34956,"date":"2023-04-06T23:36:57","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T21:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=34956"},"modified":"2023-04-10T23:40:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T21:40:52","slug":"cuckovic-and-the-nursery-in-baric-the-meeting-that-changed-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/cuckovic-and-the-nursery-in-baric-the-meeting-that-changed-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"\u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107 and the Nursery in Bari\u010d: The Meeting That Changed Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sne\u017eana<\/strong>\u00a0wakes up before five in the morning to get ready for work. She then wakes her younger daughter up and before six, the two of them are already on the bus that takes them from Bari\u010d, where they live, to nearby Belo Polje. Sne\u017eana drops her daughter off at the nursery there and then takes the bus again to Belgrade, where she works.<\/p>

When she finishes work, Sne\u017eana takes the bus back to Belo Polje, picks up her daughter from nursery, and then takes the bus to Bari\u010d. They arrive home around five in the afternoon.<\/p>

Sne\u017eana is raising her two daughters alone, and since her father and brother work, she cannot rely on them to drop her daughter off. It would be easiest if she could take her daughter to a nursery in Bari\u010d.<\/p>

However, there is one problem \u2013 Bari\u010d does not have a nursery.<\/p>

There used to be one just a few minutes from Sne\u017eana\u2019s home, but it was in very bad shape \u2013 the walls were cracked and part of the ceiling had fallen. It was demolished about a year ago and the municipal officials promised to build a new modern nursery in its place.<\/p>

Sne\u017eana and other parents were happy with the news.<\/p>

She would no longer have to wonder whether her shift would be moved so that she could get everything done. Waiting for the bus, sometimes an hour and a half, has come to an end, she hoped.<\/p>

However, it would turn out that everyone rejoiced too soon.<\/p>

\u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107 and the nursery<\/h2>

Tuesday, 25 January 2022<\/p>

Miroslav \u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107<\/strong>, who at the time was the President of the Municipality of Obrenovac<\/em>, was sitting in one of the municipal halls. A meeting was supposed to start at any moment, the topic of which was the construction of a nursery in Bari\u010d. Four months earlier, together with the then Deputy Mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesi\u0107<\/strong>, \u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107 promised<\/a> that the people of Bari\u010d would get a new nursery.<\/p>

However, from the moment when the tender for the works was announced, there was no end in sight for months. The project was awarded to a consortium led by Modulor<\/em> two times. The process was slowed down by a rival consortium consisting of, among others, Concord West<\/em>and M Enterijer gradnja<\/em>. It first complained on its own, and then two more times on behalf of the consortium, with the last complaint being in January.<\/p>

In the past six years, Concord West<\/em> has participated in renovation projects of public facilities worth almost 16 billion RSD. State projects in which the Modulor<\/em> company participated were also of similar value.<\/p>

M Enterijer gradnja<\/em>, on the other hand, was a sole proprietorship until 2014, when it became a limited liability company. The papers for this change were submitted by Igor Isailovi\u0107<\/strong>, a lawyer with government ties. Since then, their income has increased sixfold, and their references include numerous state projects \u2013 the new building of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences<\/em>, as well as theatres in Belgrade and Ni\u0161. The company is currently building the villa of \u017deljko Mitrovi\u0107<\/strong>, the owner of Pink<\/em>.<\/p>

After the third appeal and the tender being paused again, \u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107 organized a meeting.<\/p>

In addition to \u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107 and his associates, the director and employees from the Public Construction Company<\/em>, which was in charge of the tender, were also present in the room. \u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107 criticized them for the fact that the procedure was taking a long time and that no contract had been signed. A member of the public procurement commission told him that everything was done in accordance with the Law on Public Procurement and that doing anything differently would have resulted in a violation of the said law.<\/p>

Miroslav \u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107 was not satisfied with that response. He asked the Secretary of the Municipal Assembly, Nada Mitra\u0161inovi\u0107<\/strong>, to schedule an extraordinary session of the Assembly at which a decision would be made to transfer the public procurement and the money for it from the Public Construction<\/em> Company<\/em> to the Municipality<\/em>.<\/p>

The lawyer of the Independent Journalists\u2019 Association of Serbia<\/em>, Rade \u0110uri\u0107<\/strong>, who has analyzed public procurement procedures for years, says that in this case the regulations have been circumvented.<\/p>

“You’re technically clean on paper, but you’re actually abusing the system. The procurement system is not designed so that you can transfer the procurement to another entity, so if someone cancels five times, you transfer the procurement to someone else \u2013 until it is accepted.”<\/p>

Miroslav \u010cu\u010dkovi\u0107,\u00a0Concord West\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0M Enterijer gradnja<\/em>\u00a0have not responded to our questions. The owner of the company Modulor<\/em> Mirko Luni\u0107<\/strong> told CINS that he does not remember the details of the procurement. He compared the deal with a rival consortium to tennis:<\/p>

“Imagine Novak<\/strong> and Nadal<\/strong> playing. In the end, they perform together at a tournament, play doubles. What does it matter? It’s all part of the sport.\u201d<\/p>

Everything was completed in the subsequent month and a half.<\/p>

At the beginning of February, the Municipality<\/em> announced the procurement for the construction of the nursery, to which only one consortium responded, consisting of the companies Modulor, Concord West<\/em> and M Enterijer gradnja<\/em>, which had now joined forces. They were awarded with the contract for the project, and the decision was announced on 15 March.<\/p>

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