Concession without announced contract and study showing justification

The news that the concessionaire paid 501 million Euros of one-time concession fee in terms of Concession contract and thus became Belgrade airport operator for 25 years, was not followed by announcing the contract where all obligations which the Republic of Serbia took in charge can be seen, nor by announcing these parts of contract and annexes which were not marked  confident.

To make absurdity even greater, the study which has to show and prove why the airport is given under concession after all hasn’t been announced yet, after two-years presenting by the officials that the airport’s operations and incomes are well (although it denied revenue from the company Air Serbia).

Transparency Serbia requested for the mentioned study and for the act of concession in early 2017 from the Government and Ministry of construction, traffic, and infrastructure. The procedure that takes nearly two years is an opportunity to find various excuses that this important information is not communicated to citizens where several actors are involved.

Due to this fact, not only that it is not clearly presented to the citizens why the concession was the most economical type of development of Belgrade’s airport, but it cannot be certainly claimed that this analysis, whose preparation is a legal obligation, exists at all.

The government did not responded to TS request, due to the urgency was submitted, followed by the lawsuit  to the Administrative Court. The Ministry of traffic rejected the request, indicating that by the announcing of Concession act and Feasibility Study the vital interests of the Republic of Serbia can be jeopardize.

TS has filed an appeal against this decision to the Commissioner, but at the same time narrowed the scope of request, demanding from the Ministry to deliver only the parts of these documents from which it can be concluded whether the selected model of concession for Serbia is more favorable from alternative solutions (proceeding in the current way, investment of own capital or funds from the loan, selling the airport, another type of PPP).

After the Commissioner issued the decision according to which they have to submit documents, the new response arrived from the Ministry – that they do not have neither concession act nor study, but that these documents are in possession of the Government. On the new TS request to submit a document that will show how the documents were lost or relocated from the possession of the Ministry, the answer was that they have never had and have previously refused to submit them due to “a possible threat to the vital interests”.

The Administrative Court than ruling on the TS lawsuit, ordering the Government to decide by it, instead of ignoring the request. The Government has ignored this judgment, and TS also asked the court to pass an act on. At this point, the Government wakes up and issues a decision-refusing the request. TS file a new complaint to the Administrative Court in February 2018, due to the unjustified refusal of the request. By this complaint, the court could order the Government to provide the requested documents. However, the court in April returned the complaint and asked TS to provide evidence that the signatory of the complaint is the legal representative of the organization. TS submitted those evidences. Since then eight months have passed, the contract is signed, Vansi took over control and the Administrative Court does not answer, we have not seen the contract, as well as requested study.

One of the things that it is important to announce the contract is the possible takeover of obligations for construction the railway from the Airport to the City. The construction of this railway was announced by the deputy of Mayor. However, the news that “construction of the  railway is already negotiating with the Japan Government”  is confusing. From that news, it seems that this railway will not be constructed by the concessioner due to his own interests, but the state of Serbia or the City of Belgrade. Also, due to the circumstances that it is "negotiating" with the Government of another state on the construction of the railway, it indicates that another large infrastructure project exists that will win without competition, that could result with lower price/the most economic offer.