"Not that I should resign, but I and everyone else should be held criminally accountable!" This is what the mayor of Belgrade is like Aleksandar Šapić in April 2023, he commented on allegations that his chief of staff had received a bribe in the case of the Turkish company Kentkart.
He then said that if it turns out to be untrue, those who falsely accused them will also have to answer. As the final judgment of the Appellate Court in Belgrade, two years later, still states that the head of the mayor's office, Nenad Milanović, did accept a bribe and was sentenced to a suspended sentence of eight months in prison and a three-year ban on holding office, the question that the opposition is now asking Šapić is - will he fulfill his promise?
Confirmed the recording
The investigation against Milanović came about after BIRN published the article "The recordings reveal that Šapić's chief of staff offered to set up a tender for Kentkart" and audio recordings on which Milanović can be heard offering to the representatives Kent map that they will arrange a tender for a new job - maintenance and improvement of the ticket collection system and management of vehicles in public city transport - if they agree to the mutual termination of the ten-year contract, signed in 2021.
During the trial, Milanović confirmed that he offered Kentkart to be awarded the job in a new tender, but that he actually lied in order to terminate the previous contract.
Requirements
The Freedom and Justice Party, the Serbia Center Party and the Movement of Free Citizens have now called on Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić to resign.
"If at that time he knew how to say that he was ready to bear the consequences and, as he said, not only resignation but also criminal responsibility, now is the time. Let him liberate Belgrade from its simpleton, arrogance, corruption and destruction," said Mila Popović from SSP.
She assessed that Milanović did not work independently, but implemented Šapić's ideas.
On the same occasion, the city board of the SRCE party is also demanding the immediate resignation of Šapić, with the assessment that the final judgment against the former head of his cabinet is proof of how SNS governs Belgrade.
"When the head of the cabinet, as the mayor's right-hand man, offers to rig the tender in exchange for terminating the contract, it is a clear signal that corruption is embedded in the very foundations of the city government," the SRCE party believes.
Stefan Simić, a member of the Movement of Free Citizens in the Belgrade Assembly, believes that Šapić must resign immediately, adding that the final verdict against Milanović is not only a personal shame of one man, but a political responsibility of the mayor.
"In February, the city unilaterally terminated the contract with Kentkart, and already in March, Šapić's closest associate offered the same company a new job with a bribe. This is not an incident - it is a pattern of behavior of the authorities who think that the city is their private company, and public tenders are goods for trade," Simić emphasized for N1.
He warns that the citizens of Belgrade are already paying for the consequences of such a policy, adding that because of such a move, the Kentkart company initiated an arbitration against Serbia before a court in Washington and that the proceedings are still ongoing.
