Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office presses charges regarding termination of agreement with Kentkart

The Special Department for the Suppression of Corruption of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade has filed to the Higher Court in Belgrade information against Nenad Milanovic (39) due to reasonable doubt that, in March 2023, in the capacity of the head of the cabinet of the mayor of the City of Belgrade, he committed the criminal act of bribery while performing business activities.

Nenad Milanovic is suspected of having committed said criminal act in the procedure of the negotiations about the termination, by mutual consent, of the Agreement on the Public-Private Partnership in Performing the Activity of the Exploitation and Maintenance of the System for Ticketing and the Management of Vehicles in Public Line Transport of Passengers in Belgrade, which was signed in 2021 by the Public Partner – the City of Belgrade, City Administration, Secretariat for Public Transport of Belgrade and the Consortium represented by the Private Partner – Kentkart Southeast Europe Beograd doo, for a period of 13 years.

The suspicion is that Nenad Milanovic offered to a member and the director of Kentkart Southeast Europe Beograd doo, S. T. and V. V, to, when they agree to sign the Agreement on the Termination of the Agreement on the Public-Private Partnership, secure the signing of a new agreement between the PUE Naplata prevozne usluge Beograd, founded by the City of Belgrade, and Kentkart Southeast Europe Beograd doo, by fixing the public procurement procedure, so as to continue the business cooperation with the newly founded PUE Naplata prevozne usluge Beograd on the maintenance of the then system of ticketing and the management of public transport vehicles in Belgrade.

At the meeting with S. T. on March 1, 2023, Milanovic is suspected to have proposed to immediately open such a public procurement procedure and to enter the same without much public exposure, to have said that he would not let other bidders pass and that, in the case of competition, he would influence or intervene by terminating the public procurement procedure.

Then, at a meeting with S. T, V. V, a representative of the member of the Consortium from the Republic of Turkey and an unnamed interpreter, on March 9, 2023, he said that he advocated going into the process of a fixed public procurement procedure regarding that matter, as he believed that it would be the rightest thing to do and the safest for the participants.

There is also suspicion that he said that he would take responsibility for a continuation of the cooperation to be secured for Kentkart Southeast Europe Beograd doo through the public procurement procedure.

A jail sentence of three months to three years is proscribed for the criminal act of bribery while performing business activities.

In April 2023, BIRN published recordings from this meeting, in which Milanovic can be heard offering the bribe. Aleksandar Sapic reacted to the publishing of the recordings by saying that he had known about them a month before they were made public and that he had been threatened with them.

Kentkart SE doo Beograd

JKP Naplata prevozne usluge Beograd

Sekretarijat za javni prevoz Beograd

Više javno tužilaštvo u Beogradu

Viši sud u Beogradu

Grad Beograd

Kentkart

Kentkart Southeast Europe Beograd doo

PUE Naplata prevozne usluge Beograd

City Administration of Belgrade

Secretariat for Public Transport of Belgrade

Higher Prosecutor s Office in Belgrade

Higher Court in Belgrade

Nenad Milanović

Aleksandar Šapić

case Kentkart

Kentkart affiar

ticketing in public transport in Belgrade