City of Belgrade through its secretariats, concluded contracts worth at least 85 million euros in 2025 without tendering public procurement.
Although the Law on Public Procurement foresees certain cases in which it is not really necessary to call for a tender, in Belgrade such contracts were not an exception, but made up a significant part of spending. Bypassing the tender is dominated by the Secretariat for Transport, writes Dunja Marić for New Economy.
During the last year, twelve city secretariats, in addition to the jobs that were concluded after tenders, also contracted those to which the Law on Public Procurement does not apply. Such contracts related to various goods, services and works.
Otherwise, certain procurements are exempted from this law, for example if the value of the contract is low.
Thus, during the year 2025, the city secretariats concluded contracts to which the Law on Public Procurement was not applied, with a total value of at least 10 billion dinars, i.e. around 86 million euros. All amounts are without VAT.
Who negotiated how much?
Let's go in order. Last year, the City Secretariat for Education and Child Protection signed non-tender contracts worth more than 540 million dinars, about 90,9 million dinars for works and another 450 million dinars for services.
Then, the Secretariat for Transport awarded about 7,4 billion dinars to contracts without a tender. Specifically, for the procurement of various goods, this Secretariat gave about 1,5 million in one year, while the remaining billions were given for the procurement of services.
Photo: Tanjug / Filip KrainčanićCity bus
This is also the city secretariat that, of all, awarded contracts without a tender in the largest amount.
Next is the Secretariat for Social Protection, which during the last year gave 38.720 dinars for various goods outside the tender, and about 1,5 million for services. Total - exactly 1.566.720 dinars.
Then, the Secretariat for Sports and Youth contracted the procurement of goods without a tender in the amount of 997.600 dinars. This is one of the three secretariats that awarded jobs without a tender in the amount of less than one million dinars.
Last year, the Secretariat for Property and Legal Affairs gave 10,9 million dinars to work without tenders. Of that, one million related to the procurement of goods, and 9,9 million to the procurement of services.
The Secretariat for Finance is one of those that awarded the fewest jobs outside the tender. Namely, in this way, they concluded only contracts for the procurement of services, in the value of 293.000 dinars. However, it should be noted that the documentation published on the Public Procurement Portal and analyzed by New Economy does not state how many such contracts were concluded, but only the total value.
Next is the Secretariat for Energy, the second that exceeded the amount of one billion dinars when awarding a contract without a tender. More precisely, this Secretariat gave about 1,1 billion for works, and another 3,7 million for services. In total, it is exactly 1.116.425.113 dinars.
Photo: Wikimedia / Mihailo GrubićNew Belgrade heating plant
Next is the Secretariat for Public Transport. In the last year, he concluded contracts worth 908.272 dinars for the procurement of various goods without a tender. When 753 million for works and another 22,6 million for services are added to that, we arrive at a total amount of 776.488.650 dinars.
Then, the Secretariat for Investments concluded without tender contracts for the procurement of services worth 18,6 million dinars.
Next is the Secretariat for Administration, that is, the city secretariat with the smallest amount allocated for jobs without public procurement. Specifically, this secretariat provided 237.700 dinars for services for one year.
It is followed by the Secretariat for Inspection, Supervision and Communication. During the last year, he signed contracts worth 102,6 million dinars without a tender. Of that, 74,6 million dinars were given to works, and about 28 million dinars to services.
Finally, the Secretariat for General Affairs gave, without a tender, about 13,8 million dinars for goods, as well as another million dinars for works and 130 million dinars for services. That is a total of about 144,7 million dinars.
Thus, the total amount of about 10 billion dinars, or 85 million euros, is reached.
Although most secretariats are dominated by contracts concluded through public procurement, this is not always the case.
Photo: Tanjug/BeoinfoBelgrade kindergarten
Who doesn't call for tenders?
In particular, the Secretariat for Inspection, Supervision and Communication, which awarded contracts worth 102,6 million dinars, i.e. about 875.000 euros, without a tender, did not conduct any public procurement procedure. And why is that so?
First of all, the Secretariat gave about 74,6 million dinars for works without a contract. As explained, this applies to contracts concluded under certain conditions. The first is that the client, that is, the Secretariat, exercises control over the company with which the contract was concluded, similar to the control it exercises over its organizational parts. The second condition is that the company with which the contract was concluded, over which the client exercises control, performs more than 80 percent of its activities in Serbia in order to perform tasks entrusted to it by the client or other persons over whom the client has control. Finally, the third condition is that there is no participation of private capital in the controlled legal entity that has a decisive influence on making or preventing decision-making.
Although it was stated that all three conditions were met, there are no further details about these contracts. It was not stated to whom they were assigned, nor what jobs were contracted.
Even the Secretariat for Sports and Youth, in addition to contracts worth almost one million dinars without tenders, did not carry out any procurement.
Where do non-tender contracts dominate?
On the other hand, the Secretariat for Transport did conclude some contracts through public procurement, but their value was lower than the jobs that were concluded without a tender.
Specifically, the contracts concluded by this Secretariat without a tender were worth about 7,4 billion dinars last year. Contracts for the procurement of goods, worth a total of about 1,5 million, were concluded without tendering because, as stated, they are procurements from customers who are "holders of the exclusive right on the basis of which they are the only ones who can perform a certain activity in a certain geographical area", as well as because the value of some procurements was less than a million dinars.
On the other hand, contracts for the procurement of various services were worth exactly 7.397.232.654 dinars - that is, about 63 million euros. These contracts were concluded without a tender for the same reasons as in the case of the procurement of goods.
When it comes to public procurement, the Secretariat concluded a total of 15 contracts worth 1.260.325.773 dinars, or about 10,7 million euros. Also, three framework agreements worth 201,3 million dinars, i.e. 1,7 million euros, were concluded.
The framework agreement, by the way, is a kind of "umbrella" contract, on the basis of which individual contracts are then signed as needed by the client. It generally lasts until the expiration of a certain period or until the intended funds are used up. It is often awarded in cases of procurement of security services or procurement of beverages.
Finally, the Secretariat for Transport signed two amendments to the contract, the value of which was about 535 million dinars.
So, when everything is added up, we arrive at the data that the Secretariat spent 63 million euros on procurements that were not covered by the Law on Public Procurement, and 17 million euros on those covered by this law.
The situation is similar in the Secretariat for Energy, which contracted jobs worth a total of 1,1 billion dinars, or 9,5 million euros, without a tender.
On the other hand, in public procurement procedures, whether open procedures or framework agreements, "only" 31,8 million dinars were given.
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