When the line is drawn on what the outgoing Government of Serbia did during its mandate, there is no doubt that critics will add to that list the list of scandals in which its members participated, the portal Nova.rs writes today.
Although they would like to be remembered only for their good results, some ministers will be remembered more for the affairs in which they participated.
The first line-up of the Government of Serbia was formed in August 2016, and it was headed by Aleksandar Vučić.
Almost a year later, in June 2017, Vučić handed over the "conductor's baton" of the building in Nemanja Street in Belgrade to Ana Brnabić, then Minister of State Administration.
From its formation until today, the Government of Serbia has been rocked by numerous scandals, but it seems that none of them were strong enough to bring it down or to encourage a minister to resign, writes Nova.rs.
That portal is a record of affairs by which, among other things, the outgoing executive power in Serbia will be remembered.
Nebojša Stefanović – fake diplomas and arms trade
The term "plagiarist" was associated with Nebojša Stefanović even when he was "playing along" at the position of Minister of Police in his first mandate.
This was preceded by an analysis of his doctoral dissertation, obtained on Megatrend, which was carried out by a group of scientists from England, establishing that a large part of the aforementioned dissertation was plagiarized.
During 2019, the opposition Alliance for Serbia stated that Stefanović's diploma of basic academic studies, also obtained at Megatrend (Sava centar branch), was also questionable. A few months later, a documentary show on N1 television called "Mega graduate" was broadcast, which dealt with the way in which Stefanović obtained his university degree and his studies at the Sava Center.
An additional reason for the "headache" in 2019 was Stefanović's arms trade affair from the Valjevo factory "Krušik" in which his father Branko was involved.
It is speculated that the minister provided his father with the necessary permits and a privileged position in the aforementioned trade.
Stefanović denied these allegations several times, and his position in the Government of Serbia was never called into question because of any affair.
For now, there are no announcements as to whether and which function Stefanović will perform in the next convocation of the Government. Nevertheless, it would be a big surprise if one of the most influential politicians in Serbia "raised" in the next card distribution, which is even predicted by some bookmakers.
Siniša Mali – advanced thanks to affairs
After the demolition in Hercegovačka Street, where it is suspected that his current colleague from the government, Nebojša Stefanović, played a role alongside him, Siniša Malog's career began to progress to the point that he was entrusted with the money of all citizens of Serbia.
He became the Minister of Finance.
Despite the belief of a certain part of the public that the Savamal case will end his political career, it seems that the rise of Siniša Malog started exactly after that April night in 2016.
He was not bothered by the statement of his ex-wife Marija, who stated in an interview with KRIK that he was the main actor in the events in Herzegovina.
"He told it like the most ordinary event - 'I had a problem, some people didn't want to move out. I organized a clean-up operation. People came in the middle of the night, a little bit there, something was half lit. I didn't do anything terrible. Those were, according to his words, some barracks there, huts," said Marija Mali at the time.
In addition to the demolition in Herzegovina, the name of Siniša Mali was associated with offshore companies.
It was stated that he owns 24 apartments in the luxury resort "Sveti Nikola" on the Bulgarian coast, and that only one of the apartments is registered to him, while he bought 23 on behalf of two offshore companies from the British Virgin Islands.
He was also in charge of the capital when the "Pistaljka" portal announced on its website that in December 2016 a tender for the procurement of New Year's lighting had been set up and that only one company could fulfill the conditions.
Part of the public precisely accused Malog of abusing public procurement, while the criminal complaint, which was later dismissed, was filed against him by the Initiative Ne davimo Beograd.
The list of affairs to which the name of Siniša Malog is connected continues with the story of the influence on the court when obtaining custody of the children, the information that he allocates 60 thousand euros per year for their education, which is far more than the annual income of the mayor of Belgrade.
However, the mentioned affairs did not significantly shake Mali.
Not even the last one, which got its epilogue after he had already sat in the minister's chair for a long time, when his doctoral dissertation defended at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences was annulled.
After more than five years of arduous process, the University of Belgrade only found out at the end of 2019 that Mali had plagiarized his doctoral thesis.
However, this was not a strong enough reason for him to resign, nor did this affair affect his further political development, on the contrary - he is perceived by the public today as one of the main favorites for the position of prime minister.
Vulina's aunt solved the housing issue
The "Aunt from Canada" affair was a hit story of the Government of Serbia in the summer of 2017.
Five years after he bought an apartment on Zvezdara in Belgrade, Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin had to explain where he got 244.620 euros for 107 square meters of living space.
Then he informed the public that he borrowed the money from the woman's aunt from Canada.
When asked how he managed to bring such a large amount of money into the country, bearing in mind that any amount greater than 10 euros must be reported at the border and explain the origin of the money, Vulin said that he brought in nine by nine thousand euros.
"Who told you it was brought in in one piece? Who tells you that nine thousand per thousand was not transferred, according to the law", answered Vulin to journalists who obviously did not believe that the minister visited his aunt in Canada so often.
It is interesting that Vulin is one of those who were linked to the case of Jovanjica, the estate where he once picked tomatoes.
In the same place, four years later, it was determined that there were 12 hectares of planted marijuana, after which the owner of the property, Predrag Kuluvija, who was said to have good relations with the top of the state, was arrested.
Zoran Babić and the driver who was driving the car at the Doljevac toll plaza
Before the fall of "Jovanjica", there was another civil servant on her property.
In question is Zoran Babić, former head of the parliamentary group of the Serbian Progressive Party and acting director of the Corridor of Serbia.
In addition to Jovanjica, Babić was the actor of another, much more tragic case.
Namely, he was in an official vehicle of the Corridor of Serbia that hit the car of Stanike Gligorijević at the Doljevac toll plaza, who died as a result of the accident.
In the police reports, it is stated that the vehicle, in which Babić was, was traveling at a higher than the permitted speed in foggy weather, but to this day the question remains as to who was actually behind the wheel that day, because the video, which is crucial for shedding light on this case, is missing two minutes.
After the accident, Babić resigned, but the Government did not find a replacement for him, so he continued to serve as acting director of the Corridor of Serbia.
Zlatibor Lončar and friendship with the Zemun clan
The relationship between the Minister of Health and members of the Zemun clan has long been talked about in public.
Even during the trial for the murder of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, the cooperating witnesses Dejan Milenković Bagzi and Miladin Suvajdžić stated that it was Lončar who helped the people of Zemun get rid of one of their opponents, by "injecting something" into him while he was lying in the hospital. infusion.
For this work, he was awarded an apartment in New Belgrade, which, according to KRIK, he "bought" from the wife of Sretko Kalinić, one of the most famous members of the Zemun clan.
That Lončar was really friends with the people of Zemun is also confirmed by the photo that Velimir Ilić released to the public in 2017.
It shows the current Minister of Health, visibly in a good mood, hugging Dušan Spasojević, the leader of this criminal group.
The claim that Lončar had close relations with the people of Zemun, but also with the clan of Darko Šarić, was made several times in public by the former head of the UKP, Rodoljub Milović.
Nenad Popović in "Paradise Papers"
According to KRIK from 2017, the minister without portfolio in the Government of Serbia in charge of innovation, Nenad Popović, transferred the operations of his companies to offshore zones and thus avoided paying taxes.
Thus, he became one of the actors of the international scandal called "Paradise Papers" and was on the list of those who hid wealth in tax havens and thus avoided the mandatory payment of taxes.
KRIK wrote that Popović's businesses and assets are worth at least 75 million dollars, and their market value is more than 100 million, which makes him by far the richest politician in the country.
Zoran Đorđević - no responsibility for the dead in nursing homes
And Zoran Đorđević, the Minister of Labour, Veterans and Social Affairs, also has an offshore company behind him, thanks to which in 2009, according to KRIK, he got a job with Telekom worth 87 thousand euros.
The recent affair at the Gerontology Center in Niš, when the coronavirus entered the institution and more than half of the users were infected, did not force the relevant minister to reconsider his responsibility.
And while the lives of 140 users of the Gerontological Center in Niš were put into question due to the carelessness of the authorities, the main news on the ministry's website was the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the breakthrough of the "Srem Front", along with Easter greetings.
That this was not the only case where an omission was made, is also shown by the fact that only a day before, the home for the elderly in Smederevo was closed, after two people died in it, and ten of its users were placed in the hospital.
Minister Đorđević did not offer to resign, nor was he dismissed because of this scandal.
The illegal building on Pančićev vrh - the shame of the entire Government
Ever since it was announced to the public that on Pančićev vrh on Kopaonik, one of the most strategically important locations in Serbia, there is a facility of almost a thousand square meters, there has been a "ball rolling" about responsibility between the Ministry of Police, headed by Nebojša Stefanović, and the Ministry of Construction, Transport and infrastructure led by Zorana Mihajlović.
Originally, the demolition of the illegal building was scheduled for August 8, 2018, but it was canceled the day before, due to a lack of police assistance.
Explaining the absence of members of the MUP, Stefanović referred to the laws, saying that police assistance is not possible unless evidence of an attempted demolition has been submitted.
On the other hand, his colleague from the government, Zorana Mihajlović, claimed that her ministry could not demolish the building without the assistance of the police, as this would endanger the safety of employees in her ministry.
According to Insider, she then said that the building inspector who worked on the case stated in an official note and statement that she had been warned to be careful because these are dangerous people and that she was afraid for the safety of her family.
According to Zorana Mihajlović, that documentation was submitted to the Ministry of the Interior.
Minister Stefanović responded to Insider's questions by claiming that the police had not received the report, but did not specifically answer the question of whether the MUP had been informed in any way that the inspectors had been threatened.
This stalemate between the two ministries, which showed all the powerlessness of the rule of law system, lasted more than two years, and the epilogue is the investor's decision to start the removal of the building herself.
Nepotism and nepotism - partnership affairs of other members of the Government
Minister without portfolio in charge of regional development and coordination of the work of public enterprises, Milan Krkobabić, was on the radar of the Anti-Corruption Agency at the end of last year, which recommended that he be dismissed from his position.
The reason given was that he participated in the appointment of his son Stefan to the position of Acting Director of the public company Stara Planina and thereby came into a conflict of interest.
Resignation or dismissal never followed.
The public in Serbia recently learned that companies close to Bojan Kisić, the wife of the Minister of Justice Nela Kuburović and the brother of Dr. Darija Kisić Tepavčević, who in the public figures as the future Minister of Health, received 27 contracts with public companies and ministries.
BIRN's research showed that from 2013 until today, the companies of the NITES group, one of whose directors is Bojan Kisić, signed 27 contracts worth around 26,8 million euros in Serbia alone, alone or in a consortium with other companies.
In April 2020 alone, NITES concluded three contracts with the Ministry of Health, with a total value of 3,2 million euros.
In a response to BIRN, Minister Nela Kuburovic denied that she was connected to the company where her husband works.
"I am in no way connected with the company where Bojan Kisić works, nor am I able to influence the operations of a multinational company that operates around the world. The government and ministries have strict procedures when it comes to doing business and concluding contracts with different companies, which imply early recognition of a possible conflict of interest," said Kuburović.
The current minister of sports, Vanja Udovicic, also has the affair behind him.
In March 2018, Blic announced that Udovicic transferred 143 million dinars to the phantom company "European University Games 2020 Belgrade", which was founded with forged documents and without a decision of the Assembly of the University Sports Association of Serbia (USSS).
According to Blic, sportsmen from Serbia did not participate in the Universiade the following year, because the ministry headed by the former water polo player did not pay the USSS money.
The previous year, the junior high school graduation was disrupted by information that a mathematics test had been stolen, which led to the arrest of the father of one high school graduate, an employee of the printing company Politika AD.
This situation was partly caused by the decision of the Ministry of Education to change the place of printing of tests, which was originally in the Banknote and Coin Production Institute.
The relevant minister Mladen Šarčević did not resign because of the whole situation, although many believed that he was the most responsible for the fact that the tests were stolen.
Ana Brnabić's political career was also born from the affair
Ana Brnabić's name became known to a large number of people only after the "Windpark" affair.
In 2015, the Telepromter website published the transcript of a telephone conversation between the sister of the then Minister of State Administration Kori Udovički, Lidija Udovički, and the former president of the Democratic Party, Bojan Pajtić.
As it was stated, Udovicki said in the mentioned conversation that the godfather of the then Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and the director of Elektromrež Serbia, Nikola Petrović, tried to collect a racket of two million euros from the American company "Continental Wind Partners" in order to connect their wind farms to the electricity grid system.
Then, unknown to the general public, Ana Brnabić debunked that story, stating that Petrović did not racketeer her employer.
After this event, the political rise of Ana Brnabić began, who first took over the ministerial post of Kori Udovički, and a year later became prime minister.
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