Energotehnika Južna Bačka from Novi Sad is one of the companies that did the most business with the state last year and among those that received the most valuable contracts.
According to the research conducted by the Toplički centar za demokratiju i ljudska prava, the mentioned company “won” 4 out of the 100 most profitable public contracts in 2020 thus earning almost 20 million euro in the process. Also, it was the only bidder in each of these bids.
The data show that the largest number of contracts among the 100 most valuable in 2020, concluded individually or as members of a group of bidders, were given to NIS a.d. Novi Sad (12 contracts), Termomont d.o.o. (5), MPP Jedinstvo a.d. Sevojno (4), Energotehnika Južna Bačka d.o.o. Novi Sad (4), Soft 4 Smart d.o.o. Beograd (3), Emporio Team d o.o. Beograd (3), Oracle Srbija & Crna Gora d.o.o. Beograd (3), Elektromontaža d.o.o. Kraljevo (3) and Khaoticen d.o.o. Beograd (3).
Energotehnika Južna Bačka from Novi Sad is at the top, but it did very well with contracts worth a total of 2,311,201,000 dinars or 19,654,429 euro.
In 2019, the company managed to conclude a total of 122 contracts with the state in a single day. This happened on 14 May 2019, and only a few days earlier it had signed 44 other contracts. That year, it secured a total of 337 public sector tenders, for a total of 261 working days.
It is symptomatic that only two or more bidders participated in just 22 of the 337 public procurements awarded to Energotehnika Južna Bačka; in the remaining 315 there were no other bidders. Even last year, in all four public tenders in which it won, Energotehnika Južna Bačka was the only bidder.
Energotehnika has been doing lucrative business with the state for years and as a result, earned millions in profits. As revealed once by the investigative website, KRIK, in the period from 2013 to 2016, it earned about 110 million euro from public contracts, often under suspicious circumstances. The contracts include pumping water out of the flooded mine on Tamnava, entrusted by the state to a consortium led by Energotehnika, although the company did not have the necessary experience. Another such contract stipulated the sale of used pumps to the public company Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), at a price almost twice as high as new ones. Both cases were reported by BIRN.
The owner of the company, Dragoljub Zbiljić, is publicly linked to the Serbian Progressive Party. He denied it, saying that he is not a party member, but is “a sincere admirer of what Aleksandar Vučić is doing”. However, BIRN revealed that Zbiljić was the guarantor of the SNS party for a loan of about half a million euro which the party was granted before the 2012 elections.
Although Dragoljub Zbiljić is the sole owner of the company, as KRIK reported, he relied on the businessman Nenad Kovač, known to the public by his nickname ‘Neša Roaming’, during the purchase of the company, who acted as guarantor. Moreover, Zbiljić was not able to make important decisions on the company’s affairs on his own, but had to have the approval of one of Kovač’s managers for a while.
Kovač is also a long-term business partner of Nikola Petrović, former director of Elektromreže Srbije (EMS) and the best man at the wedding of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić.
(Nova, 03.06.2021)
https://nova.rs/vesti/biznis/20-miliona-za-juznu-backu-nase-pare-u-njihovim-dzepovima/
This post is also available in: Italiano