The price of the acquired sound cannons is several times higher than the Americans paid for the same device. And they are also prohibited by law in Serbia
The state bought two types of sound cannons from an American company, which, in addition to illegally selling them, also overpaid for all of them.
Total value of all sound cannons was 79 million dinars, which is about 674.000 euros, he claims Marinika Tepic, based on the documentation she attached.
The same devices were procured in 2021 by the American state of New Hampshire, he writes for The new economy Dunja Marić. The information was published for the first time on the X social network, and New Economy had access to the procurement document.
As stated in the document, New Hampshire acquired one LRAD 450XL device, exactly the type suspected to have been used at the protest in Belgrade. This device is said to have cost US$21.829. According to the exchange rate at that time, it would amount to about 2,2 million dinars. For the same device, Serbia paid more than seven million, that is, between three and four times more expensive.
Another type of this device, the LRAD 100X, New Hampshire paid $12.191, which would have been 1,2 million dinars at the current exchange rate. Serbia paid one million more for the same device.
Suspicion of corruption
Such price differences deepened suspicions that the procurement was not carried out in accordance with the rules.
Economist and former member of the Council for the fight against corruption, Danilo Šuković, tells Nova Ekonomija that in this case, it seems as if there was certainly corruption.
"If all the data we have is correct, there must have been corruption. There are no transports that could make a difference in the price of five million. Given that the purchase was made through an intermediary, that's where the corruption and irregularities occurred," says Šuković.
The fact that there was corruption is further indicated by the fact that the purchase was made through a direct contract with the selected company, without calling for a tender, although the available documentation was not marked as confidential.
"Any case in which the procedures are not followed to the maximum, where transparency is not ensured, stinks of corruption. It may be ugly to say that, but it is the truth", concludes Šuković.
We wanted to get a comment on the big price differences and expensive sound cannons from the Ministry of the Interior. Until the publication of this text, however, we have not received answers to the questions we sent to them. We also tried to find out from the company that procured sound cannons for the state, "Romax trade", at what price they acquired these devices from the manufacturer "Genesis" and how they formed the price at which they later sold them to the MUP. No answers came from them either.
Million-dollar company profit
The company "Romax trade", which provided the sound cannons, operates in Belgrade and Novi Sad. The Belgrade branch deals, as stated on the official website, with foreign trade of controlled goods.
On the company's website, it is stated that since 2016 they have been certified for access to classified information of the "confidential" level, and since 2017 "top secret".
In 2023, "Romax trade" generated revenue from the sale of goods of almost 3,5 billion dinars, i.e. 29,5 million euros.
Their profit at the end of that year amounted to two million euros.
Since the beginning of the year, this company has received 18 jobs from the Novi Sad water supply and sewerage system, and in the last year alone they signed more than a hundred contracts.
The owner of the company is Goran Rodić, unknown to the general public.
How much did it all cost?
Specifically, seven devices of the first type were about 52 million dinars including VAT, so the price per piece was about 7,4 million dinars.
The price of the second type of sound cannon, smaller, was about 26,6 million dinars, including VAT, for nine pieces. The price per piece was therefore about 2,9 million dinars.
As part of the same procurement, the MUP also bought a reflector and a power supply connection, which increased the cost to 81 million dinars.
The procurement was carried out in 2021, at the time when Aleksandar Vulin was the Minister of Police, by direct negotiation, without calling for a tender.
By the way, the document that Tepić showed was the minutes of the meeting related to the procurement, as well as the specification of the company "Romax Trade", which, at the request of the MUP, provided sound cannons of different volumes. According to her, Jugoimport SDPR was in charge of preparing the contract.
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