What is the endowment to us, and what are we to her

Last week, the Nikola Spasić Foundation awarded plaques and cash prizes to the best students of the Faculty of Medicine and Agriculture of the University of Belgrade - for the thirtieth time. So far, 332 students have been awarded.

Nikola Spasić, a merchant and great philanthropist, left all his property in his will dated February 9, 1912, for the establishment of an endowment, the value of which was equal to the property of the Nobel Prize at the time. He expressly forbade any alienation or sale of the property he had given to the Endowment and ordered that the real estate be leased at market conditions, and that hospitals and other buildings be erected and donations be made from that income.

The state, however, repays Spasić's endowment by carrying out the task entrusted to it.

At the end of last year, the Administrative Court ruled that the ownership of two floors at Knez Mihailova 33 in Belgrade, in the building that Spasić built for himself and where he lived for the rest of his life, still belongs to the company "Jugoelektro" and not to Zadužbina. It is 2.092,46m2 of business space, with a market value of around 15.000.000 euros.

"Can you imagine how many donations we could give from the rent of that space?", asks Vojin Đekić, manager of the Nikola Spasić Endowment, a lawyer by profession.

Let's say right away that the building in Knez Mihailova is entirely state property, and it turns out that the Administrative Court, by its decision, allowed the private "Jugoelektra" to become the owner of state property. The verdict was delivered in a surprisingly short time, in say six months, although it is usual for such proceedings to last about three years, and this leads one to think that this case was privileged.

"There is no document that those two floors are private property. It exists only if it is state-owned," says Vojin Đekić and emphasizes that there is not a single legal basis on which "Jugoelektro" could acquire two floors of state property.

All of this would not have happened if the municipality of Stari Grad, for reasons known only to it, did not conclude a contract on April 13, 1962 "transferring the right to use the first and second floors" to the company "Jugoelektro", which will pay the municipality "80.000.000 dinars" in three installments, and after the payment of the first installment, the municipality will "hand over to the user the conclusion of the NOO Stari Grad", on the basis of which "they will be able to be registered as the authority for the use of the first and second floors".

The Municipality of Stari Grad, therefore, gave "Jugoelektra" two floors to use, not to be their owner. And yet, this company tried to sell that space on two occasions.

In order to protect their property, the state and the municipality initiated a lawsuit against "Jugoelektra" and won it in 2007 with a final judgment of the First Municipal Court. On that occasion, it was determined that "the building at 33 Kneza Mihaila Street is the state property of the Republic of Serbia" and based on that verdict, "the ownership of the building in question should be registered in the land register at the competent court or cadastre".

However, this did not happen because on June 9 of last year, despite this final verdict, the Republic Geodetic Institute issued a Decision transferring the first and second floors at Knez Mihailova 33 to the private ownership of the company "Jugoelektro". He referred to the contract with the municipality of Stari grad from 1962, that is, the contract that became invalid by the aforementioned court decision that the building at Knez Mihailova 33 is owned by the Republic of Serbia.

On the occasion of this decision of the RGZ, the endowment filed a complaint with the Administrative Court and requested that the final decision of the RGZ be annulled. As mentioned at the beginning of the text, the Administrative Court ruled in favor of "Jugoelektra" at the end of last year.

"In this situation, there is an extraordinary legal remedy, that is a Constitutional appeal. We will try that too", says Vojin Đekić, noting that he doubts it will be worth it, because the fact that the Administrative Court ignored the existing court decision suggests that someone who has a great influence on the cadastre and state authorities is possibly interested in the whole story.

"JUGOELEKTRO"

Once a state-owned company founded as a company for the import and export of electrotechnical materials, "Jugoelektro" has become a trading joint-stock company. On the website, whose last change was in 2019, it says that it deals with representation and mediation, import and export of goods and services, obtaining permits and drawing up international contracts, and its users include TENT A and B, TE Kolubara, Kostolac, Morava, HPP Đerdap, Beogradske Elektrane, Petrolhemija Pancevo, Azotara...

According to data from the National Bank of Serbia, "Jugoelektro" has been blocked for the sixth year. It has one employee, the director, and it exists only on paper - under that name it is registered in the Agency for Business Registers, and its owners are UTP Trgovina from Kruševac with a fifty percent share, and Euro KB from Belgrade with another fifty percent. Euro KB has an owner, and the real owner of UTP from Kruševac is Human Art.

General director of "Jugoelektra" is Đorđe Avramović (1981), president of the supervisory board of JP "Putevi Beograd". In his biography published on the website of this company, it is written that he was an assistant doctoral student at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade at the same time as an associate engineer at the company "GM Water", and that from that position he became the general director of "Three Clusters", then the executive director of JP "Nuclearni objekti Srbije", director of Rare Mineral Resources, and that he has been the general director of "Jugoelektra" since 2014.

"Given that Jugoelektra's ownership over two floors of Spasić's endowment was confirmed by this decision of the Administrative Court, it is not impossible to expect that they will sell that space in order to get out of the blockade. So that money, instead of donations from our Endowment, will go into the pocket of a failed company. If the state would return these two floors and everything else that belongs to us after restitution, we could build one or two hospitals in Serbia within two to three years, so that people can be treated, because that is our mission and Nikola Spasić's testament obliges us to do so," says Vojin Đekić.

photo: promo

SPASIĆ FOUNDATION

The story of the work of the Nikola Spasić Foundation is completely opposite to that of "Jugoelektro".

The Nikola Spasić Endowment has been in existence for 102 years. Acting on Nikola Spasić's will, the Foundation built three hospitals: the City Hospital in Belgrade, the hospitals in Kumanovo and Krupanj, the home in Knjaževac and the Spasić Exhibition Pavilion at the Old Fairground.

In the last seventeen years, she bought and donated medical devices and equipment in the amount of about 927.200 euros to health institutions throughout Serbia, including a donation to the Republic Health Insurance Fund in the amount of 12.000.000 dinars (100.000 euros), as an aid in the fight against the epidemic of covid 19, as well as numerous donations of medical equipment to KBC Zvezdara and the "Nikola Spasić" Surgery Clinic in Belgrade.

In 2011, the foundation donated 1.000.000 dinars to the Serbian Orthodox Church for the production and installation of all four icons on the iconostasis in the Church of Saint Prince Lazar, in the crypt of the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar, and in 2023, 200.000 euros to finance the three-part archivolt of the portal at the entrance to the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar. In accordance with the order from the will, the Endowment has been supporting the Temple of St. Tryphon at the Topčider Cemetery, founded by Nikola Spasić, and financing the complete painting of the Temple.

Two years ago, the SPC awarded the Endowment with the Order of Saint King Milutin for its contribution to the Serbian people.

And now: if the state has neither laws nor the ability to get even one more hospital, it is not enough to protect its property from private interest, what else is it lacking?