Insufficient number of public-private partnership projects - 31 projects approved in 4 years

(Photo: Edhar/shutterstock.com)

Due to lack of funds, Belgrade opted for partnership with private owners which, apart from investing financial assets in the project offer knowledge and experience. Their plan is, as they say, to, among other things, build waste waters treatment plant, replace lifts and public lightning in the upcoming period. The first contracting totaling more than million euros could be signed soon.

The mayor of Belgrade, Sinisa Mali, says that at the moment PPP project for public transport has been implemented so that private transporters would be attracted which would, together with GSP, transport citizens as of January 1 which is a ten-year project.

- We want to find partner which will, together with the city of Belgrade, build facility for production of electricity from waste and which will manage Vinca landfill and environmental problem which we have since Vinca is the least maintained landfill in this part of Europe – Mali says.

Public and private partnership has been used for a long time in many countries. For instance, they have been present since mid-19th century in France. These kinds of solutions can be useful for citizens but only if the procedure is fully transparent. Expert public invites authorities to publish their website registry of signed contracts.

- A few months ago, a trustee reacted and asked for the registry to be formed. The fact that it cannot be supervised how someone is implementing commitments is a big problem if you do not have a publicly announced contract – Zlatko Minic from Transparentnost Srbija states.

Dragan Stevanovic, state secretary at the Ministry of Trade expects that development of registry will end by the end of the year and adds that, if deadline is extended, it will not take long.

The problem for experts is the fact that the Law on public-private partnership and concessions governs that it is not applied in case when Serbia steps in PPP with foreigners based on the international agreement, They say this left the space for correction since some legal provisions which should prevent it are not used.

Before deciding to step into PPP, it is necessary to do Feasibility study which should show how profitable or unprofitable some other forms of solving problems are.