Companies and organisations linked to Ognjana Starović, the sister of Minister for European Integration Nemanja Starović, received almost 26 million dinars through public tenders and procurements of local, provincial and national institutions, mostly for media services, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Serbia (BIRN) reported today.
The Gradske info portal, owned by Ognjana Starović, received 2.5 million dinars last year from the Provincial Secretariat for Regional Development, Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-Government through two public procurements for information services, in both of which Starović’s company was the sole bidder.
“This is a truly astonishing case of rigging a public procurement for several reasons. That the procurement was rigged can be very easily concluded from the extremely detailed description of the conditions that every potential bidder had to meet,” said Nemanja Nenadić, Programme Director of Transparency Serbia (TS).
According to the tender documentation, the Provincial Secretariat was seeking a company that would inform citizens about the activities of the institution, promote EU integration and regional cooperation, and it prescribed in detail the conditions bidders had to fulfil, including that the company must have five drones at its disposal, each weighing more than 595 grams and not capable of flying faster than 15 metres per second.
“On the other hand, the bidder could be a company that does not have a single cameraman, photographer or person skilled in operating drones, a company that has never produced a promotional video,” Nenadić stated.
BIRN’s article notes that neither Ognjana Starović nor the Provincial Secretariat for Regional Development, Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-Government responded to questions regarding the public procurements awarded to the company Gradske info.
According to data from the Serbian Business Registers Agency, Ognjana Starović was during her career a legal representative of three associations, a sole trader, and finally the owner of the company Gradske info. Through each of these five legal entities she received budget funds from 2020 to the present.
Her sole trader agency, and later the company Gradske info, received a total of 8.7 million dinars through six public procurements of the Provincial Secretariat for Regional Development, Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-Government and one procurement of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund from 2021 to the present. She was always the only bidder. All services were paid 100 per cent in advance, as stated in the contract award decisions.
Although in previous years the Secretariat’s procurements in which Starović won contracts followed a uniform pattern – she would usually receive funds through two procurements with identical requirements and conditions – the conditions of last year’s public procurements were alarming for anti-corruption experts. For the production of 10 promotional videos lasting between 10 and 50 minutes, 10 news items and 10 social media posts, the Secretariat required that the bidder must, in addition to drones weighing more than 595 grams, have among other things seven cameras weighing between 1,600 and 1,680 grams and five cameras weighing more than 650 grams (with battery). The bidder also had to commit to delivering video and other materials within 30 minutes at the request of the Secretariat.
The Secretariat simultaneously announced six identical procurements – two were awarded to Starović, two to the company Hashtag Digital Media Group, and two to the company Vesti sa severa. Vesti sa severa, owned by Danilo Babin, is the owner of Hashtag Digital Media Group.
Notably, in June 2025, at the moment when the Secretariat awarded the contracts for these six public procurements, all three companies were registered at the same address on Svetozara Miletića Street in Novi Sad. In addition, with the exception of one procurement of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund from July 2023, these three companies have received all public procurements in recent years exclusively from the Provincial Secretariat for Regional Development, Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-Government.
(Nova Ekonomija, 30.01.2026)