The intention of the ruling regime is to use several mechanisms to ensure that the only profit and benefit from the EXPO Belgrade 2027 international exhibition is exclusively the main promoters of this project from the top of the government and their related construction contractors and sellers of commercial and residential buildings.
In the coming years, our country will borrow huge sums of money in order to be able to build all that it promised when applying to host the exhibition. Then the state will establish a special company that will act as an investor in the construction, but also, if necessary, additional special purpose companies will be established for different locations. These companies will not be obliged to comply with the provisions of the law governing public procurement. This means that the entire infrastructure, all the showrooms, residential and business complexes, the national stadium, will be built so that the ruling regime through a business company will be able to choose its favorite construction contractors, without the obligation to prove that it is the best contractor, nor that it is a matter of rational spending of Serbian citizens' money.
Famous Article 14
In the famous Article 14 of the proposed law, it is written explicitly: "A special commercial company, as well as a special purpose company, will not apply the provisions of the law governing public procurement."
And then an unsuccessful attempt to justify and appease critical voices is added, by noting that: "Business companies from paragraph 1 of this article will regulate the rules of the procurement procedure and the obligation to ensure the transparency of the procedures in more detail in a separate act."
It is like if a driver in traffic were given the right not to have to follow traffic rules, but it is noted that he himself will determine the way in which traffic safety will be ensured when driving in which he can violate traffic rules.
A similar mechanism existed for three years in the so-called The Law on Line Infrastructure (Law on Special Procedures for the Implementation of Projects of Construction and Reconstruction of Line Infrastructure Facilities of Special Importance for the Republic of Serbia (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 9/2020). This law enabled strategic partners and/or contractors to for the construction of road sections, for example, they chose to go beyond the provisions of the Law on Public Procurement. National Assembly.
According to the template of the corrupt project Belgrade on water
However, an arsonist cannot be expected to put out a fire, and the ruling regime cannot be expected to deal with corruption in its own ranks when their power is based on that.
They plan to pay for their corrupt intentions by borrowing from the citizens of Serbia. The Serbian budget proposal for 2024, presented by the Ministry of Finance, foresees one billion euros in the next three years for the construction of the national stadium and facilities as part of the exhibition. At the next session of the National Assembly, there will most likely be two laws on borrowing in the total amount of 200 million euros for the construction of line infrastructure at the project locations.
The way of promoting the international exhibition as a project that will develop Belgrade and Serbia, as well as the mechanisms by which they plan to implement the project, are irresistibly reminiscent of a previous megalomaniac-corrupt project - Belgrade on the Water. And then the entire Sava Amphitheater was exempted from the previous urban and spatial planning of the city, just as the location of the project is now governed by spatial plans of special purpose areas. A company with the same name as the project was formed. It was then that the possibility of public land expropriation was introduced for the first time, i.e. pays with money from the budget, although it is not about the construction of public purpose buildings, such as a school, library or health center, but about the needs of a private-commercial project.
Even then, the restoration of the whole of Serbia was promised, and now EXPO 2027 is presented as an incredible international victory for a small country that enables the construction of another "landmark" of economic development. Back then, the billowing smoke screen was "the city's exit to the river", the construction of the tallest residential tower and the largest shopping center in the Balkans, and now it is the national stadium and an exhibition that is presented to the public as the mystical arrival of the biggest investors in Serbia.
In both cases, there was and is no calculation that would show that the projects are profitable for the citizens of Serbia, and yet they are the ones who pay for them, considering that the repayment of loans and credits for construction is on the shoulders of the citizens of Serbia.
The most valuable piece of land in the center of Belgrade was donated to Belgrade on the Water. They put us in debt through loans; took care of arranging the entire traffic and communal infrastructure from the city budget; made it possible to work without public procurement procedures, and it ended with the demolition of buildings in Hercegovačka Street at night. Unfortunately, shortly after the demolition, the guard of one building also died.
The city of Belgrade and Serbia donated a total of almost one billion euros when calculating the value of the land, the costs of moving the railway and bus stations, building the infrastructure up to the project line. On the other hand, the profit from the sale of apartments went almost entirely to private individuals. Serbia earned a total of 6 million euros. So much of the earnings was returned to the budget. So, every citizen of Serbia received barely a euro.
Representation of personal as public interest
Before us is the session of the National Assembly, but also the election campaign in which the ruling regime will try once again to present its corrupt actions as construction and economic virtues. In the end, it is clear when we look at Belgrade on the water and Lex specialis EXPO that they are "developing" Belgrade and Serbia exclusively for themselves, while they are taking away our streets, shores and public spaces, and leaving us with only debts.
It's time to put an end to it, it's time for change - change for our country and our future.
The author is a member of parliament of the Green-Left Front / Ne davimo Beograd
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
