Transparency Serbia official says key document missing

Transparency Serbia (TS) Program Director Nemanja Nenadic told N1 that a crucial document that was not explicitly mentioned in the list published by the School of Civil Engineering in Belgrade is Annex 1 of the contract for the railway works. This document has not been published in its entirety. It is document number 196 from the list available on the Serbian government website.

“The pricing table was omitted, which would show how much the Serbian government committed to paying for specific sections of the railway line and the reconstruction of the Novi Sad and other train station buildings,” said Nenadic.

He emphasized that the pricing table would reveal how much the Serbian government committed to paying for the station works in June 2021. Currently, only information regarding how much the price has increased due to additional works (Annexes 2-4 to the contract, which have been published) is visible. When it comes to the Novi Sad train station, additional works worth nearly three million dollars were agreed upon.

The missing information about how much the Serbian government committed to pay for the reconstruction of the Novi Sad station in mid-2021 is particularly important in light of what has been published so far. According to the cost estimate from the Serbian Institute for Transportation (CIP) project, the value of the works was estimated at 3.5 million euro. Public statements by former Construction Minister Goran Vesic and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic reveal that around 16 million euro (15.85 million euro) was paid for the reconstruction of the train station building, said Nenadic.

He noted that the 3.5 million euro cost estimate is also cited in the CIP project from April 2021, which was available to the Serbian government before it committed to paying the still undisclosed sum.

“If we assume that 15.85 million euro was actually paid, and that nearly three million of that amount was for additional works, we could conclude that the originally agreed price was around 13 million euro. Whether this is actually the case could be seen from the table in Annex 1, which has not been published. If these assumptions are correct, there would be a very significant difference between the cost estimate, the only one published so far, and the commitment made in the contract annex,” Nenadic told N1.

Therefore, Nenadic argued, it is crucial that the other documents be published so as to show how the Serbian government assessed and determined that the Chinese consortium’s offer was realistic and that that is the price that should be paid.