{"id":37138,"date":"2024-01-10T10:20:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T08:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=37138"},"modified":"2024-01-17T10:22:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T08:22:41","slug":"sns-denies-organizing-and-financing-work-of-call-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/sns-denies-organizing-and-financing-work-of-call-center\/","title":{"rendered":"SNS Denies Organizing and Financing Work of Call Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their response to the Agency<\/em>, the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> (SNS) denied any connection to the hostess agency M&J Lady<\/em>, responsible for organizing the call center, as well as the non-governmental organization Center for Education and Development of Youth in Belgrade<\/em> (CEROB), on whose premises payments were made.<\/p>

SNS says that the party is not the founder of the agency M&J Lady<\/em>, nor did they have any business collaboration with them. They also mentioned that they did not use their services and that this agency was in no way involved in SNS\u2019s election campaign.<\/p>

Regarding the photos and video footage published by CINS, taken on CEROB\u2019s premises during the payment of fees to those working at the call center, SNS claimed that there were no party symbols on these premises and that SNS was not the founder of the organization. According to their statement, they have no business collaboration or contract with CEROB.<\/p>

In the article<\/a> we published, we also mentioned how the call center’s work was arranged in a special WhatsApp group \u2013 CALL CENTER 2023. SNS denied having created or financed the group in their response to the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em>, claiming they were not aware of its existence, contents, or who created it.<\/p>

SNS also stated that there is no evidence that the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> “organized and financed the mentioned call center, made any payments, or engaged in any activities prohibited by law”.<\/p>

The Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em> also contacted M&J Lady<\/em> and CEROB in response to this complaint. In their responses, both entities denied any ties with the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em>.<\/p>

A CINS journalist was present while payments for work at the call center were being made at this association, and we also published a video documenting this. However, CEROB told the Agency<\/em> that “the economic entity M&J Lady<\/em> is not known to them, and they have never had any business collaboration with them”. CEROB also confirmed that no other business entities have used their premises.<\/p>

In the video published by CINS, Milena Markovi\u0107<\/strong> from M&J Lady<\/em> is seen participating in the payments for work at the call center and attempting to buy a vote from our journalist in exchange for her work at the call center. However, the hostess agency stated that they “were not engaged in any of the business activities mentioned in the complaint”.<\/p>

Based on the responses from the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em>, CEROB, and the hostess agency M&J Lady<\/em>, the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em> decided not to initiate proceedings against SNS. As stated in the decision published on their website, they do not have evidence that would indisputably establish whether the Law on Financing Political Activities was violated in this specific case.<\/p>

As a reminder, in early November, a CINS journalist infiltrated SNS\u2019s call center<\/a>, where over 300 people were engaged without contract. Their task was to call citizens and ask if they would vote for the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> in the elections.<\/p>

According to what we uncovered, a well-organized group was behind this, and the way they operate raises suspicions of vote-buying, funding using “black money”, and potential misuse of citizens’ personal data.<\/p>

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade<\/em> told CINS at that time that they would not initiate proceedings<\/a> ex officio; instead, the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) <\/em>and City Electoral Commission (GIK)<\/em> have legal authority and an obligation to determine irregularities and illegalities occurring during the electoral process.<\/p>

Meanwhile, MP candidates from the “Serbia against violence” coalition, Jelena Jerini\u0107<\/strong> and \u0110or\u0111e Pavi\u0107evi\u0107<\/strong>, filed criminal complaints<\/a> with the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office<\/em> against those responsible in this case.<\/p>

Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong> commented on the work of SNS\u2019s call center for Pink TV<\/em>, but did not respond<\/a> to the main findings published by CINS in its investigation.<\/p>

Thank you for reposting CINS articles! When doing so, you need to state that you have taken the story over from the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia, and provide a link to the article you are reposting.<\/strong><\/p>

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

After Transparency Serbia filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Agency on suspicion that the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) had violated the Criminal Code and the Law on Financing Political Activities by organizing a call center, the party denied these allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1378,"featured_media":36920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1571,1604,1497,1573],"tags":[1624,1611,2197],"class_list":["post-37138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fight-against-corruption","category-hp-slider","category-news","category-political-parties","tag-anti-corruption-agency","tag-serbian-progressive-party","tag-snss-call-center","ciTrackContent"],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Conversation-on-22vote-buying22-with-CINSs-journalist.jpeg","author_additional":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37138","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\/1378"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37139,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37138\/revisions\/37139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}