For the weekly "Vreme" I worked on a text about the public procurements that state companies and institutions awarded to VIP Security after their (then) co-owner and (then) director were arrested on suspicion of being part of a suspected organized crime group that she committed criminal acts of tax evasion and money laundering. Because of these arrests, the Ministry of Internal Affairs terminated the contract with the mentioned company.
The finding of my text was that the mentioned company still receives public procurements from state institutions - more than 30 million euros in the last two years - but also that the termination of this company's contract with the MUP is not a reason for it to be excluded from public procurements. Also, the finding of my text is that even the fact that the former director and former co-owner are under investigation does not mean that this company should be automatically excluded from future tenders.
That text was never published.
However, on June 8, 2023, Vremen published an article entitled "Who Guards Our Railways", authored by Petar A. Živković, which deals with the same topic, but with the opposite conclusions:
- that the bidder gave a false statement that he had not terminated the contract with the MUP (several interlocutors, experts in public procurement, told me that in this particular case the company was not obliged to report the termination of the contract at all because it was not terminated due to non-fulfillment of obligations) ;
- that this termination was a sufficient reason for the exclusion of this company from the public procurement procedure (and it was not, as confirmed by the interlocutors, and as confirmed by the Decision of the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures);
- that this "calls into question the legality of the entire public procurement procedure" (it is not called into question).
Also, in the published text, it is stated that the director of the "Railway Infrastructure of Serbia" Nebojša Šurlan did not answer the questions. The truth is the following: "Serbian Railway Infrastructure" answered my questions on May 23, 2023.
At the same time, "Infrastruktur železnice Srbije" and one of the companies mentioned in the published text (G4S Secure Solutions) in "Vremen" subsequently, at the end of May and the beginning of June, delivered to me the decision of the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures No. 4 -00-239/2023 from May 11, 2023.
In this decision, the Republican Commission determines that procurement number 78-2022, which is mentioned in the text published in "Vremen", is legal, i.e. that VIP Security should not have been excluded from this procurement.
However, the text that was published contained incorrect claims that the specific procurement was illegal, despite the already adopted decision of the Republic Commission.
For the sake of the public, interlocutors, institutions and companies that answered my questions, I note once again that the text published on June 8, 2023 in "Vremen" has nothing to do with my work and my findings.
Due to a serious and gross editorial error, another text was published instead of the text on which Radmilo Marković was working. I deeply and sincerely regret the above and apologize to Radmil Marković and the readers.
Philip Schwarm
