Godjevac: Procedure to Purchase 85 Trams Frozen Due to Bidders’ Complaints

trams (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/)

Ana Godjevac, vice president of the Belgrade chapter of the Freedom and Justice Party, said on Feb. 9 that the procedure for the purchase of 85 trams had been frozen due to complaints filed by bidders, just like the purchase of 150 buses that was suspended in January.

Godjevac said that since the Serbian Progressive Party came to power in Belgrade, the city had faced suspended and annulled procurements, questionable procedures and warnings from the International Monetary Fund that the budget “must be additionally controlled,” the Freedom and Justice Party said in a statement.

“This is what happens when you have an administration where the former chief of staff to the mayor was twice convicted in first-instance proceedings for rigging tenders. When Mayor Sapic’s chief of staff is involved in fixing contracts, the consequences do not disappear when they leave office, what they leave behind is a compromised system without credibility,” Godjevac said.

“This is the price we pay for their policy: a city without vehicles, without trust and without reputation. Belgrade today is not suffering because of one mistake, but because of a model of governance used by Sinisa Mali first, then Goran Vesic and finally Aleksandar Sapic, in which tenders were political spoils and the public interest a mere afterthought,” she said. Godjevac also explained that serious companies today “shy away” from Belgrade tenders, which is why procedures collapse and international institutions demand additional oversight.