The Freedom and Justice Party (SSP) pointed out today that in the budget of the Republic of Serbia for 2024, 2027 billion dinars are earmarked for the Expo 22,6 project, and that the Ministry of Finance did not specify in what way, for what purpose and with what purpose money to be spent, even though it is a legal obligation.
"The progressive government plans to spend a total of more than 90 billion dinars for this project in the next four years." Although the laws require otherwise, for that project we do not have a justification study, a cost benefit analysis, or any other analysis or plan that would show the justification of the project," the SSP said in a statement.
Member of the parliament group Pravac Evropa - SSP, PSG, Reokret, Sloga, Dr. Vladimir Obradović, asked a question to the Minister of Finance Sinisa Mal on September 13 and did not receive an answer within the 30-day period specified by the Rules of Procedure, according to the SSP, emphasizing that he had asked the same question to the minister During a short public hearing in the National Assembly, "but apart from populist stories, no document was made available to the public for inspection."
"If this is as good a project as the Government and Minister Mali present it, the question arises why they hide the documentation, why they don't share it with the people so that we can all look forward to this excellent undertaking," the statement said.
At the same time, the SSP emphasizes that public investments in the Expo 2027 project with the National Stadium of 35,6 billion are more than public investments in health (15,8) and education (17,6), which together total 33,4 billion. Noting that there are no publicly published investment documents for the Expo 2027 Project, the SSP states that the Lex Specialis, which "suspends certain laws in order to legalize robbery" runs parallel to the Budget Law.
"The most worrying thing, Transparency Serbia and the Fiscal Council warn, is the suspension of the provisions of the law related to public procurement, which opens up virtually unlimited liability for corruption of epic proportions," SSP warns. A similar law related to line infrastructure was passed by the Government in 2020 and contained essentially the same provisions.
That law was criticized by the European Union, so the National Assembly repealed it in 2023.
"Now we understand that it was actually a cheap political maneuver by the progressive government, by which we repeal disputed provisions in one law, and re-introduce them in another." We suggest to the Government to abandon this special law, or if they don't, we sincerely advise them to add an amnesty from the Criminal Code to it because it is possible that it will be useful to them in the future," the SSP said in a statement.
MJ/FoNet
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