The Belgrade authorities will allocate 8.7 billion dinars (almost 75 million euros) from its budget for the procurement of cameras and related systems intended to improve security in schools and kindergartens as part of the Smart City Belgrade project.
The contract has been awarded to companies linked to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) – Prointer and Atlas Security, Nova Ekonomija has reported.
The document in question is a Conclusion of the Temporary Authority of the City of Belgrade, the body that governed the capital from the end of October 2023 until June 2024, headed by Aleksandar Šapić. Nova ekonomija notes that the public knows almost nothing about the large sums of money allocated to the “Smart City Belgrade” project, as it has been classified as “top secret”.
As specified, the Conclusion authorises the heads of the Secretariat for Education, the Secretariat for Defence Affairs and the Secretariat for Inspection to conclude a Framework Agreement worth 8.7 billion dinars (74.6 million euros) for the procurement of services titled “Establishment of a security platform in school and preschool facilities in the territory of the City of Belgrade within the ‘Smart City Belgrade’ project”.
Under the Conclusion, the city secretaries are authorised to conclude the agreement with the public utility company Infostan Tehnologije and a group of four private companies: Prointer Sistem, Atlas Security, Energosoft ITSS (a subsidiary of Prointer) and Alef Distribucija Adria.
The document is dated 29 March 2024 and is marked with the confidentiality level “top secret”.
Nova Ekonomija recalls that the Prointer Company became known to the public because an SNS call centre was located on its premises ahead of the December 2023 elections.
In addition, the SNS previously used this company’s telephone exchange during election campaigns, and according to media reports, Prointer significantly increased its revenues after the SNS came to power.
The company has been linked to a former SNS official and former president of the Football Association of Serbia, Slaviša Kokeza, who disappeared from public view after, in 2021, tabloids accused him of cigarette smuggling and mentioned him in the context of an alleged plot to assassinate Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
It is also noted that Atlas Security is a private security company that the media associates with the SNS due to the numerous contracts it has received from state bodies and state-owned companies.
Alef Distribucija Adria is registered for the wholesale trade of computers, computer equipment and software, and is owned by the Czech company Alef Nula, whose owner is the Prague-based investment fund Dibiti. Nova ekonomija recalls that Alef Distribucija Adria, together with Prointer, has received public procurement contracts from the Belgrade Secretariat for General Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.
It is also explained that establishing a security platform in school and preschool facilities, as part of the Smart City Belgrade project, involves installing cameras covering school and kindergarten entrances and courtyards, as well as networking them and monitoring them from a command centre.
The Framework Agreement is a kind of umbrella contract, on the basis of which individual contracts are subsequently signed as needed by the contracting authority, and it remains in force until the expiry of a specified period or until the allocated funds are spent.
The Conclusion does not indicate what that period should be, nor is it known whether any amendments or annexes to the Framework Agreement have been made in the meantime that would change the value of the contract or any of its other elements. Nova ekonomija also notes that there is no trace of this procurement on the public procurement portal.
Nova ekonomija also sent requests for information on spending under the “Smart City Belgrade” project to several city secretariats, most of which did not respond, while the Secretariat for Defence Affairs refused to provide the data, citing the “top secret” classification.
Under the law, this classification is applied “to prevent serious damage to the interests of the Republic of Serbia”.
Earlier this year, as Nova Ekonomija recalls, Deputy Mayor Vesna Vidović said that by March video surveillance should be installed in all Belgrade nurseries, while more than 5,000 cameras are already installed in elementary schools.
She said that footage from the cameras is monitored by licensed operators. She did not specify who exactly carries out the monitoring, who procured the cameras, who integrated the system, or how much it all costs.
(Forbes Serbia, 09.02.2026)