Published documents on the collapse of the canopy are incomplete
During the 40 days since the tragedy in Novi Sad, state authorities, and primarily the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, have rejected requests from journalists, organizations and individuals to present contracts, projects and information on the supervision of the reconstruction of the railway station, citing the protection of criminal proceedings. The Government of Serbia, whose Prime minister, Miloš Vučević, found it "strange" and "incomprehensible" on the morning of 11 December 2024 that students were demanding that the documentation be published and explicitly claimed that the documents were "taken by the prosecutor's office"[1], the very next morning, and after the "request" of[2] President Vučić, made a decision on the publication of the documents.
However, from the very wording of the Government's decision, one can sense the incompleteness of the documentation. Namely, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure has been ordered to make publicly available all documents that are "at the disposal of the Ministry" and that "relate to the possible commission of a criminal offense due to the collapse of the canopy on the station building in Novi Sad, on 1 November 2024."[3] In other words, those documents that for any reason this ministry does not have (although perhaps it should) will not be published, as well as those that the ministry does not believe are related to the possible commission of criminal offenses.
As a result, among the 195 documents on the Government's website, some concerning the financing and contracting of the reconstruction of the Novi Sad railway station were not published. The contract concluded by the Government of Serbia and the Infrastructure of Serbian Railways with the consortium "Joint Venture of China Railway International Co.Ltd & China Communications Construction Company Ltd" on 28 May 2018 for the section from Novi sad to Kelebija is conspicuously missing[4]. As Transparency Serbia pointed out at the time after unfounded claims that documents cannot be published without the consent of the Chinese side[5], this contract does not provide for this. In May 2021, the Ministry of Construction submitted a contract for this and a number of other projects to Transparency[6], only to change its practice afterwards.
Annex No. 4 of the contract has now been published on the Government’s website [7], from which it can be seen that a price increases due to additional works that have been agreed, but not Annexes 1-3. Annex No. 1 should contain the prices that were agreed in 2021 for certain parts of the work, including the reconstruction of the station building in Novi Sad. What this document, even if it was published, does not contain is information on the basis of which the representatives of the state of Serbia concluded that the price they will pay for the works is realistic. This information is crucial for considering the financial side of the reconstruction of the railway station. When the standard public procurement procedure is applied, if there are no discriminatory conditions, the tender would show how much money someone would be willing to do the job for. In this case, the entire work (all works from Novi Sad to Kelebija) was awarded without a tender, with reference to an intergovernmental agreement.
Although the contractor is a Chinese consortium, it has been agreed that at least 46% of the value of works, goods and services will be from Serbia or other countries, except China. Subcontractors are selected by a Chinese consortium, following the public invitation to tender, whereby "it must not restrict competition" and "must ensure that the selection is made publicly and transparently". Ministry and Infrastructure Railways provide consent to engage subcontractors. On the other hand, the contractor (Chinese consortium), as stated in the contract, is responsible for any failure to perform the obligations of the subcontractor. It is still unclear whether and in what way the obligations on the selection of subcontractors were respected, because we did not find public calls and information on the selection of subcontractors on the websites of the members of the Chinese consortium, Ministry or Infrastructure Railways.
In the documents published on the Government's website, a list of 16 hired subcontractors can be seen,[8] but not what the tasks of each of these companies were, or how they were selected. That is why most of the request for access to information submitted by Transparency Serbia to the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure[9], which the Ministry rejected[10], citing the alleged jeopardizing of the investigation, is still relevant. With this request, we requested copies of the contracts by which all works performed at the Railway Station in Novi Sad were contracted, as well as information on how and according to what procedure the subcontractors were selected. The rejection of this request due to the alleged endangerment of criminal proceedings is particularly unfounded in a situation where, according to the information published so far[11], the procedure is not conducted at all due to a possible violation of regulations when contracting work, but only in connection with omissions in design, execution of works and supervision.
The publication of all this information is especially important in the context of the data published on 22 November 2024 in Nova ekonomija[12] – that according to the CIP estimate from 2020, the designed works on the station building were worth around three million euros, while former Minister Vesić stated that almost 16 million euros were paid for them. Although the estimation may not faithfully reflect the value of the works, due to the increase in the price of materials and labor in the meantime or for other reasons, such a large difference once again raises the question of what data and analyses the representatives of Serbia, in the absence of a bidding, concluded that they are paying the real price of the works through this arrangement.
Transparency Serbia calls on the Government and the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure to publish contracts, annexes to contracts and all other relevant information, not only on the railway construction project, but also on all other projects that have not been contracted on the basis of the Law on Public Procurement.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZgSnD90TmI
[2] https://www.blic.rs/vesti/politika/aleksandar-vucic-najavio-dokumentacija-o-rekonstrukciji-zeleznicke-stanice-od-sutra/rxjd252
[3] https://www.srbija.gov.rs/vest/843958/doneta-odluka-da-dokumentacija-o-padu-nadstresnice-u-novom-sadu-bude-javno-dostupna.php
[4] https://www.transparentnost.org.rs/images/projekti/javnoprivatnapartnerstvasrbija/Komerc%20ugov%20Novi%20Sad%20-%20Subotica%20-%20drz.gran.%20-%20Kelebija%2028.05.2018%20c%20SRB.DOC
[5] https://www.transparentnost.org.rs/sr/aktivnosti-2/saoptenja/12775-ne-postoji-osnov-za-tajnost-ugovora-o-rekonstrukciji-novosadske-zeleznicke-stanice
[6] https://www.transparentnost.org.rs/index.php/sr/projekti/187-pogled-na-javne-nabavke-i-javno-privatna-partnerstva-u-srbiji
[7] https://media.srbija.gov.rs/medsrp/dokumenti/41%20Projekat_15.03.2024.pdf
[8] For example, here: https://media.srbija.gov.rs/medsrp/dokumenti/102%20Izve%C5%A1taj%20mese%C4%8Dni_jul%202024.pdf
[9] https://www.transparentnost.org.rs/images/Zahtev_MGSI_-_Radovi_%C5%BDSNS.pdf
[10] https://www.transparentnost.org.rs/images/Odovor_Infrastrukture_-_uskra%C4%87ivanje_pristupa_informacijama.pdf
[11] https://novisad.vjt.rs/aktuelnosti/12-12-2024-saopstenje-za-javnost/
[12] https://novaekonomija.rs/vesti-iz-zemlje/sa-tri-na-16-miliona-evra-zasto-su-poskupeli-radovi-na-zeleznickoj-stanici-novi-sad
