ponedeljak, 19. januar 2015.

BUSINESSUre|uje: Mirjana N. Stevanovi}; Lektura: Ana Ron~evi}; Tehni~ko ure|ivanje: Slobodan Srem~evi} e-mail: biznisŸdanas.rs

It seemed in the beginning of2012 that the domestic au-thorities would finally ex-plain what had been hap-pening in 24 cases of com-promised privatizations.

The Presidential and Parliamen-tary election campaigns were infull swing in that time and flyingon the wings of promises relating,among others, uncompromisingstruggle against corruption, theProgressives won the majority ofthe electoral body. |In the sametime, Europe showed great inter-est in the cases and they announ-ced that it was not possible toopen the Chapters 23 and 24 untilsolving the cases. It was in Marchthat the European Parliament forthe first time voted for the Reso-lution on progress of Serbia. It wasprecisely said in the Resolutionthat solving of the cases was de-manded and as for the five biggestcases – privatization of Jugoreme-dija, Mobtel, C Market, SartidandATP Vojvodina, investigation ofrole of the institutions was de-

manded as well. Besides, in theirprevious correspondence withSerbian authorities, EuropeanCommission singled out the caseof ATP Vojvodina as the only ex-ample in which not the state butthe investor was the one who suf-fered the damage due to privati-zation.

In addition, the Resolution de-manded from the Serbian au-thorities to open the documentsrelating privatization which were

treated as the state secret. Atten-tion was also drawn to other re-ported irregularities, especially inthe areas of privatization and pu-blic procurements, due to whichthe independent state agencieswere invited to be more active inproviding a detailed investigationin order to bring the perpetratorsto justice. It was stated in the Re-solution from March, 2012, that„When fight against corruptionand organized criminal is con-

cerned, EP welcomes adoption ofthe laws and regulations in thisarea in Serbia but, in the sametime, it expresses its concern be-cause of lack of their implemen-tation as well as because of influ-ence of the authorities on thework of the independent institu-tions and media.“ These ques-tions are, even after three years,still current issues.

It is true that, as soon as thenew Government was establis-hed, there were several spectac-ular arrests and a team was for-med in the police whose task wasalso to investigate „the list of 24“.It seemed as if corruption repre-ssion and clarifying of the priva-tizations would be successful.Nowadays, when the results arebeing summed up, it is obviousthat not even one case from thelist has got its court epilogue.The team which had been for-med in the police was disbandedand there was not even one casein which the role of the institu-tions and originators had been

investigated. As for ATP Vojvo-dina, it is absurd that, instead ofcarrying out the investigation tofind out who was the one whoinflicted damage to the compa-ny, employees and owner as wellas to the City of Novi Sad budget,the police filed criminal chargesagainst the investor, Ilija Devi},who even spent more than amonth in detention.

These illogical points did notgo unnoticed by the EuropeanParliamentarians. It was said inone of the latest reports on pro-gress of Serbia which was publis-hed last year mid October that thecurrent Serbian Government and

Prime MinisterVu~i} showedstrong devotion to solving of thisproblem. However, „further effor-ts are generally necessary in orderto make the judicial authoritiesand prosecution more active“.

„We assess that, besides thedoubtless political decisivenessamong the state leaders, somestructures inside the state appa-ratus and judiciary, such as theSpecial Prosecutor’s Offices, havenot acted properly in the cases ofhigh-profile corruption“, the Eu-ropean Parliament concluded.Majority of domestic experts, aswell as the public, agree withtheir assessments. M. N. S.

European Officials on Progress of Serbia in Solving of 24 Compromised Privatizations:

Excellent, but not Sufficient

I n the litigation be-tween ATP Vojvo-dina and Ilija Devi}

as the intervener onthe side of the claimantagainst the prosecuted– the City of Novi Sad,The Supreme Court ofCassation issued thejudgement on 9 May,2013, saying that the City wasobliged to pay to the claimant theamount of a little less than 4 millionEuros, including the interest as well.The City paid the awarded dam-ages to the company, in that wayacquiring the right to claim re-course from the responsible per-son. Namely, according to the reg-ulations in the Article 172, Par. 2 of

the Law on Obligations,the legal entity whichpaid the damage com-pensation has a claim ofreimbursement fromthe person who, eitherununitentionally or byextreme negligence,caused the damage.However, the claim of

reimbursement expires six monthsafter the date of the damage pay-ment. Every citizen of Novi Sadwho is a taxpayer should for surewonder if the City of Novi Sad filedthe criminal charge against thoseresponsible for the damage withinthe statutory period. If not, who isresponsible for missing the dead-line? Emir Ja{arevi}, lawyer

The way in which the case ofATP Vojvodina has beenconducted is simply a con-

sequence of the unreformed judi-ciary system the weakest links ofwhich are in police and prosecu-tion. Even the fact that EuropeanUnion has pointed to that fact doesnot comfort us, because there arestill no changes. Although thereare excellent professionals in both the police andprosecution who are trying to do their jobs, thereare too many of those who work according tothe system of listening. They assess the thingsgoing on among those in top government,those who make the decisions, as well as in thecentres of political, but economic power as well.The way in which they conduct the criminal pro-ceedings and the persons they prosecute are theactions by which they try to meet either sup-posed or real expectations of those being on the

top of the pyramid of decision mak-ing. That is why the anti-corruptionfight is not jeopardized in our coun-try and the foreigners are rightabout this issue – political will doesexist. But the key defect can befound in the way in which the policeand prosecution apply that in prac-tice – if they act extremely unprofes-sionally, if there is abuse, imputation,

selecting. It is clear to us who are close to thesecircles that there are mutual reckonings amongthem, paying back „the old debts“, satisfyingsome other structures, but there is also unwill-ingness and incompetence result of which istheir fear of losing their jobs and positions.Because of that, the best „solution“, in order notto be publicly polled, is to push the man intocriminal prosecution and let the things happenin the way they will in this or that way.

I really do not think that somebody from the

top government gives immediate directions bythe model „arrest this one“ or „investigate thatone“. On the contrary, I believe that when bigacts are concerned, everything functions in ac-cordance with the briefing system - if the policeclaim that there is a criminal act and the prose-cutor confirms that, it is quite normal for those inpower to demand for the person to be pro-cessed. And then we can hear „Vu~i} arrested“and „Vu~i} gave the order“. But, when the casecomes to the court, it is clear that the job was notdone professionally in the first phase. Then wewonder how it is possible that there are so manyacquittals, how many damage compensationshave been paid from the state budget due to un-justified persecution. Of course, there are thejudges who function in accordance with thisprinciple because of their own career and pro-motion and there is a slight difference there, so Iwouldn’t put all the judges in the same piece.

Nikola Stanojevi}, lawyer

It is said in the report on progress ofSerbia that there is no doubt that there is

political will in Vu~i}’s Government tosolve the high profile corruption cases,

but that certain structures in the state arenot ready for that.

Has the City Missed the Deadline forRealization of the Claim for Reimbursement?

Consequence of Unreformed Judiciary

PLUS

ATP Vojvodina - Chronicle of a Stopped InvestmentATP Vojvodina - Chronicle of a Stopped Investment

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Genesis of ATP Vojvodina caseO

n the auction in 2004,Ilija Devi} bought ATPVojvodina, and it was al-ready in the first yearthat he fulfilled the in-vestment plan, bought

about 30 new buses on lease, be-came official dealer of „Setra“ and„Mercedes“ and employed 200new workers. During the secondyear, based on the contract con-cluded with the City of Novi Sad,he began to build the internationalbus station on the ground belong-ing to ATP Vojvodina, and that in-vestment „weighting“ about 30million Euros was financed fromthe credit guaranteed by Devi}’spersonal property. Besides mod-ern bus platforms and the centralbuilding, there was also a serviceworkshop covering the area of4,000m² built according to the pro-ject of „Mercedes“ so that it couldbe their centre for this part ofEurope. Obligation of the City was,after completion of the bus stationbuilding, to redirect the traffic tothe new location. However, it hasnever been done, the new bus sta-

tion could not start to work and,under pressure of the credit in-stallments, ATP Vojvodina bank-rupted and 500 employees losttheir jobs. The contract concludedwith the City is still in force, but thestation does not work yet. Whydidn’t the state authorities investi-gate the case? The investigationwas redirected to determining pos-sible illegal elements in Devi}’sbusiness activities but the issuesconcerning ATP Vojvodin’s beingput on the „24 list“ haven’t beenconsidered. Namely, the EuropeanUnion demanded investigation re-garding the role of the institutionsin this and another 4 cases and thepublic would like, besides otherthings, to learn in whose interest itwas to destroy a good company.

In the time when the problemof the new bus station appeared, itwas speculated that there wereseveral groups interested in thematter, mostly from the world of„dirty capital“, who wanted to„take over“ the investment. Bank-ruptcy of the company was some-thing that suited them because

that would reduce the price of thefacilities. It has never been clari-fied why the City authorities par-ticipated in the matter and it is es-pecially interesting that the samecourse of ignoring the investorhas been kept by the then MayorMaja Gojkovi}, by the DemocratIgor Pavli~i} and current Progre-ssive Milo{ Vu~evi}.

There is also another version,an unconfirmed information co-ming from the European circles,according to which, along withthe concluding the contract be-tween Devi} and the City, negoti-ations had been conducted withcertain Russian through its Swissbranch and its substation in Ser-bia. The Russians had allegedlybeen interested in building of thegas power plants, but also in buy-ing of the City transport compa-ny, expecting that the contractcould have also included the new-ly built bus station of ATP Vojvo-dina. The course of the eventsfrom that period was in favour ofthis thesis since, in spite of the factthat the new bus station had thecontract concluded with the Cityof Novi Sad as well as all the nec-essary licenses, it has never man-aged to start its activities becausethe City authorities have not redi-rected the traffic to that new loca-tion. It has been speculated that inthis case the exchange of thesisoccurred or, in other word, the in-vestigation was turned from theones responsible for the damageto criminal prosecution of the in-vestor in order to hide role of thepoliticians from two in that timemost influential parties in NoviSad and the Province.

The Constitutional (In)Equality

According to the regulations ofthe Article 36 of the Republic ofSerbia Constitution, the same

rights protection is guaranteed beforethe courts and other state agencies.Then, protection of private, coopera-tive and public property (state proper-ty, property of an autonomous pro-vince property and local self-govern-ment) is guaranteed by the Article 86of the Constitution. All forms of prop-erty have the same legal protection.

This constitutionally proclaimedequality before the courts is very oftenturned into inequality if the party be-ing on the opposite side is the Repub-lic of Serbia, the Autonomous Provinceof Vojvodina, the City of Belgrade, theCity of Novi Sad, any other City or evena public company. There are many ex-amples from practice for this constitu-tional and legal (in)equality. For theneeds of this text, I will single out thefollowing:

In the dispute between the clai-mant ATP Vojvodina and Ilija Devi} asan intervener against the respondentthe City of Novi Sad, the SupremeCourt of Cassation (Council of the jud-ge Stojan Joki}) in its decision made on9 May, 2013, decided that the City ofNovi Sad and that time private com-pany ATP Vojvodina a.d. Novi Sad, hadconcluded absolutely void contract on8 May, 2006. Let me remind you, ac-cording to the contract ATP Vojvodinahad the obligation to build a new busstation on its own location, and theCity of Novi Sad had the obligation tomove the intercity and internationaltraffic from the old bus station to thenew one. The reason for finding thatdocument void was explained in thefollowing way by the Supreme Courtof Cassation:

„...The contract concluded betweenthe litigants is obvioulsy opposite to cer-tain social norms and principles of the

obligation rights as well as opposite togood business customs. Its execution inpractice would violate to a great extentmaterial goods to the detriment of theCity Public Transport Company (CPTC),and the litigants in the process actedwith a bad intention, i.e. an intention toinflict harm to the third party and pro-vide benefit to the claimant.“.... „The con-tracting parties were intending to movethe intercity and international traffic busstation service activities from 6 Ja{aTomi} Boulevard to newly-built bus sta-tion owned by the claimant. Althoughnot directly said, it means that this dis-ables doing of these activities by the thenand current executor of these activitiesCPTC and transfers all the activities to theclaimant. Hence, the question arises ifsuch a contract making which inflictsharm to the one who does these activi-ties and transferring of the activities tothe claimant can have legal effect in re-lation to CPTC. Can the respondent takesuch an obligation and execute it inpractice? In the opinion of he AuditCourt, such contracting is void.“

By taking such an attitude, the Su-preme Court of Cassation neglectedone of the basic constitutional princi-ples expressed in the regulations in theArticle 82 of the Republic of SerbiaConstitution: „Economic order in theRepublic of Serbia is based on the mar-ket economy, open and free market,freedom of entrepreneurship, indepen-dence of the economy subjects andequality of private and other forms ofproperty“.

By this decision the Supreme Courtof Cassation protected „social interest“which also means „social property“,and that is a form which was a relic ofthe former socialist system. On thecontrary, current Constitution of theRepublic of Serbia in its Article 86, Par.2, prescribes and gives order for the ex-isting social property to be transfor-med into private property under theconditions, in the ways and by dead-lines stipulated by the law. It clearlyderives from this constitutional regu-lation that private property is the mainsupport on which the economyshould be based and that is the issuewhich should be primarily recognizedby the Supreme Court of Cassation.However, the Supreme Court of Cassa-tion's decision sends totally differentmessage: All forms of property are notequally legally protected. Society pro-perty and society interests are themost important, although the time ofsociety property is behind us. The

worst possible message here is thatthere is nobody to protect private pro-perty and private interest, and that allother forms of property are subordi-nated to public property.

According to the Article 10 of theLaw on Obligations, the parties whichconclude a contract are free within theboundaries of compulsory regulations,public order and good customs to reg-ulate their mutual relations at their freewill.

According to the regulations of theArticle 22. of the Law on Obligatins,when legal entities establish the oblig-ation relations they act in accordancewith their general acts. But, the con-tract which has been concluded or so-me legal act which has been perfor-med contrary to these acts remain inforce, unless the other party knewabout that or the law defines it in a dif-ferent way. Devi}, as the Director ofATP Vojvodina, at the moment of thedisputed contract concluding did notknow and did not have to know if theCity of Novi Sad as the contracting par-ty and the Mayor as its assignee andthe City executive body had got theconsent, approval, directions or opin-

ion of the City Assembly. It is supposedthat the Mayor is familiar with his/herjob. It is generally known that the pub-lic of the City of Novi Sad, every alder-man of the Assembly and the Assem-bly as a whole knew about the negoti-ations, intentions and the contracts,but nobody opposed to the then CityGovernment in relation with conclu-sion of such a contract. The Assemblyof the City of Novi Sad voted for chan-ges of the urbanistic conditions andbuilding of the new bus station.

According to the regulations of theArticle 266 of the Law on Obligations, acreditor has the right to get commonand lost benefit compensation whichhad to be foreseen by the debtor in thetime of the contract concluding as apossible consequence of the contractbreaching, and with the view of thefacts he was familar with or had to be fa-miliar with in that time. The City of NoviSad as a contracting party was familiarwith and was aware of the size of ATPVojvodina investment as well as of theconsequences of breaching of the con-tracted obligations. That was taken intoaccount by the Court of Appeal which,in the second instance proceedings fordefining the damage which ATP Voj-vodinasuffered due to breaching of thecontract, implemented the regulationsof the Articles 266, 269 and 189 of theLaw on Obligations. On the other side,even if the Mayor did sign the contractshe did not have the authority for, or sheexceeded the authority, responsibilityof the defendant for the damage com-pensation is also based on the regula-tions of the Article 172 of the Law onObligations which says that a legal en-tity is responsible for the damagecaused by his/her institution to the thirdparty while performing or in relation toperforming his/her functions.

Even in case the contract is void, ac-cording to the Article 108 of the Law onObligations, the contractor who is guilty

for conclusion of a void contract is re-sponsible to his counter contractor forthe damage he suffers due to the voidcontract, in case the one did not knowor, due to the circumstances, did nothave to know about the reason for nul-lity. The attitude of the Supreme Courtof Cassation that Ilija Devi} as a privateerand ATP Vojvodina as a private compa-ny are equally responsible for conclu-sion of the void contract and that Devi},while concluding the void contract, hadto take care of the interests of a publiccompany even more than about inter-ests of his own private company, is op-posite to the regulations in the Article86 of the Constitution of the Republic ofSerbia.

The gist is that the City if Novi Sadmustn't have entered the negotiations,conclude the contract, let someone in-vest enormous amount of money, evenlet the one to pledge his assets for theinvestment and then the City failed torespect the contractual obligations. TheCity of Novi Sad paid the damage com-pensation in the amount of about 4 mil-lion Euros. The damage suffered by ATPVojvodina and Ilija Devi} is over 30 mil-lion Euros. Where is justice in this case?

In the text author's opinion, arbitraryinterpretation and arbitrary implemen-tation of the material law by the Supre-me Court of Cassation to the detrimentof the claimant ATP Vojvodina and theintervener Ilija Devi}, Constotutionallyguaranteed rights to have fair trial aswell as the right on equal legal protec-tion have been violated. The SupremeCourt of Cassation's legal attitudes, as-sessments and implementation of ma-terial law did not have their foundationin factual situation determined in thefirst instance and second instance pro-ceedings. Of course, the final decision ismade by the Constitutional Court ofSerbia or the Court in Strazbourg.

The author is a lawyer from Belgrade

Nikola Stanojevi}, lawyer

How is Organized Criminal Proved?

The most outstanding illus-tration of the game playedby the institutions in thecase of ATP Vojvodinawas the moment of IlijaDevi}’s arresting. What

makes the absurd even bigger is thefact that the judicial authorities, ina painstaking trial, made the finaldecision that the damage inflictedon the company whose majorityowner was Devi} was made beca-use of the fact that the City and Re-public authorities had not fulfilledtheir obligations from the contract.Due to dereliction of the institu-tions and state agencies which wereinvolved in the proceeding, the ne-wly built bus station and the ac-companying facilities could notwork, could not acquire incomeand settle liabilities. That is why thecomplete company with 500 em-ployees went into bankruptcy, theemployees were sent to the bureauof labour and the property of themajority owner, who had been ac-quiring the property during 30years of being a successful busines-sman, was threatened by mortgageactivation -Nikola Stanojevi} says.

He reminds us that it was deter-mined by the final court judgementthat the City of Novi Sad had to paydamage compensation of 4 millionEuros ATP Vojvodinaand it was fi-nally done, although that normallyautomatic procedure was accom-panied by many obstacles.

- And instead of directing thecriminal proceeding towards thepersons from the state structureswho caused the damage to theCity, to its taxpayers, the company,its employees and the owner, theydirected it towards Devi}. Theywere trying to criminalize him andto attribute him with some allege-dly criminal actions in his businessactivities in order to find an excusefor the failures made by the insti-tutions and the City structures.The police which, by the way, hadbeen investigating the business ac-tivities of Devi} and ATP Vojvodi-na for many years, was used forthat classic thesis replacement.The same people from the policewho had continually been havinginsight into these documents since2006, because they had almost

constantly been in the companytogether with the excise men andother inspections, now foundsome elements of a criminal act.The issues in question are the pa-pers taken out of complete busi-ness activities context, with recy-cled, partially and selectively col-lected evidence. Even constructedin this way, even by definition theyhave nothing to do with the orga-nized criminal attributed to Devi},and even less with the damagewhich was made as result of thefact that the City did not respectthe contract - Stanojevi} explains.

He pointed out that if there hadbeen actual failures or illegal ele-ments in business activities during2006 and 2007 and if Devi} shouldhave been processed, then eitherthe Tax Administration or policehad been obliged to file misde-meanor or criminal charges six orseven years ago.

- What prevented them fromdoing that in that time? Even thenDevi} was not the darling of gov-ernment because, if he had been,he would not have had problems

in Novi Sad with the radicals, orwith the Ministries led by the so-cialists, democrats and Dinki}’s ex-perts. If the police were not profes-sional then, how can we believethat they are professional now be-cause, I would like to remind you,they are the same persons whoused to check up business activitiesof the company during last few

years but two years ago as well, butthat time as members of now al-ready disbanded work group who-se task was to solve the cases of 24compromised privatizations poin-ted out by the European Union –our interlocutor says.

He claims that during the lastdays of the year 2013 which wasdefined by the current govern-ment as the deadline for solving of„24 list“, this case was simply la-beled as „a solved case“ in such away that the police gathered allthe papers and pushed the in-vestor, the only one from the listof cases who suffered the damage

unlike other cases in which thestate was the one suffering the da-mage, into prosecution to the Pro-secutor for organized criminalwho is, as our interlocutor says, inno way in charge of this matter.

- The police found the only „jus-tification“ for the proceeding be-fore the Prosecution for organizedcriminal by constructing the dam-age in amount of 200 million di-nars which Devi} allegedly had in-flicted upon the company throughmutual borrowings and contractson cooperation between ATP Voj-vodina and his mother companyMankop. Nobody mentions thatonly selected documentation wastaken into consideration and thatin the process neither basis norpurpose were considered; they didnot value the amount of moneywhich Devi}, when needed, had in-jected into the company – empha-sizes lawyer Stanojevi}.

He adds that even the crown-ing proof has not been taken inaccount – that money and prop-

erty were not “sucked out” of ATPVojvodina but on the contrary, 30million Euros was invested into it,new facilities were built, the busi-ness activities were expanded and200 new workers had been em-ployed. In other words, the own-er did not take money out of thecompany he had bought, he hadnot bought yachts and aircraft,but he was developing businessand building the company.

- In the criminal charge filed bythe police and because of whichDevi} spent around a month in de-tention, according to the positivelaw regulations, there is not anyother element of organized crimi-nal. There is no conjunction withthe institutions but on the con-trary, they ignored the contractwhich is still in force. For the deedsattributed to him by the policethere are not responsible personsfrom the state agencies or localself-government. Neither Devi}has got an organized group of 10 -15 people through whom he doessomething with certain intention –the lawyer emphasizes.

He also says the expert’s evi-dence has been expected to be com-pleted these days, and that is a stan-dard procedure when criminal re-sponsibility is determined. Ofcourse, it would have been naturalto do the expertise before beginningof the procedure, having in mindthe amount of time the police hadspent on investigation of 24 com-promised privatizations and evenmuch before that on investigationof business activities of ATP Vojvo-dine and Devi}. But, even done inthis way, it is legitimate -he says. Healso adds that the order demandingthe investigation was too wide andthat includes the things it shouldnot include, as if said „search andfind no matter what“

- We are waiting for the exper-tise results, but I have already beeninformed that the experts haven’tgot the documentation from ATPVojvodina and Mankop. Thesetwo companies, once belonging toDevi}, are now in bankruptcy andthey are managed by trustees, i.e. itis a director in ATP Vojvodina inwhich reorganization has beenadopted. In principle, both of themare now in a hostile relation to-wards Devi}, and the right ques-tion now is why they do not wantto give the documentation - Sta-nojevi} points out. M. N. S.

Emir Ja{arevi}

Classic thesis replacement occurred becausethe police and the Prosecutor’s Office initiated

criminal prosecution against the damagedone instead of directing the prosecution

against the persons from the state structureswho caused damage to the City,

its taxpayers, the company and the owner

If He Sues the State, he Will be Arrested

The criminal proceeding conducted now against Ilija Devi} have nothing to dowith solving of the 24 compromized privatizations. Devi} himself is now directing theprosecution agencies towards possible offenders of the criminal acts which causeddamage to the City and the company. The court determined the damage made to ATPVojvodina, employees and trustees by making their final judgements for the amountof 4 million Euros. This damage will be significantly increased when the process forthe personal damage compensation initiated by Devi} has been completed. That iswhy he filed criminal charge against that time Mayor and the responsible personsfrom the City authorities. This is the point at which, having in mind the amount ofmoney and the fact that there was correlation within the state institutions startingfrom Republic up to the City ones who prevented the new bus station from starting itswork in spite of the valid contract, we can talk about organized criminal. But, insteadof investigating whose interest was to disable work of the bus station and seize Devi}’sproperty, the police and prosecution are sending the following message: If you suethe state, you will be criminalized and arrested – says the lawyer, Nikola Stanojevi}.

More Sources

Corrections

In everyday life, when court jud-gements are concerned, there aremore and more comments such as:„Court judgements are not to becommented but they are to be exe-cuted.“ The author of this text wouldrearrange and expand it in the fol-lowing way: „Court judgements areto be executed in the same way, nomatter who the executive debtor.Because of the public, because of Ser-bia as a legal state, each court judge-ment coming out of a court should bepublicly, expertly and responsiblycommented as much as possible.“

Although the Constitution guarantees equal legal protection of allforms of property, in practice is the interest of private property subordinated to the interest of the public propertyThe City of Novi Sad as a contracting party was informed about and was aware of the size of ATP Vojvodina investment and the consequences of non-compliance with contractual obligationsAccording to the Obligation Rights Rules, a creditor has the right on the damage and lost benefit compensation which had to be predicted by the debtor in the time of the contract concluding as a possible consequence of the contract breaching

The process of solving 24 compromised privatizations has been being con-ducted under full attention of Brussels, meaning that the European parliamen-tarians are constantly getting the information from several sources. It was lastyear January when Ilija Devi} was talking to the European Commission repre-sentatives in Strasburg about the case of ATP Vojvodina, and in December he wasinvited to Brussels where he had two separated meetings in the Cabinet ofFederica Mongherini, High Representative of the European Union for ForeignAffairs and Security Policy and with David Mc Allister, the Special Rapporteur ofthe European Parliament on Serbia. Heads of these institutions were interestedin getting information on the course of the investigation, but also on the role ofthe political parties which were taking turns in power in Novi Sad and Vojvodinaduring the last eight years.

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Ilija Devi} has addressed the Prosecutor's Office about twenty times since 2008.

Where are the criminal charges dissapearing?

Although Ilija Devi} hasfiled so far around 20criminal charges againstformer and currentlea-ders of Novi Sad, but al-so against the Republic

ispectors, as far as public knowsonly one of them has been solvedand – dismissed.

Gordana Popovi}, the BasicProsecution Deputy in Novi Sad,found out that „there are not ele-ments of a criminal act for ex offi-cio prosecution“ without evenhearing either the criminal char-ges applicant, the investor Devi}or Emir Ja{arevi}, the lawyer forthis part of the litigation. The cri-minal charges were filed becauseThe Steering Committee of ATPVojvodina (composed of the bi-ggest trustees, primarily represen-tatives of Credit Agricola Bank)had given the order to the lawyerto withdraw from already filed in-creased and expanded demandfor determination of total damagemade due to the City’s failure tomeet the contractual obligations.Otherwise, the demand was ex-panded in accordance with thejudgement of the CommercialCourt of Appeal which had giventhe order in the second instanceproceedings to determine totaldamage inflicted not only in thebusiness activities of the newlybuilt bus station but also the dam-

age inflicted to the whole compa-ny and its owner. Withdrawalfrom the demand means damageto more than 400 of other trusteeswho could expect, if proved in thelitigation, to collect high procent-age of their receivables. TheProsecutor’s Office did not findthe criminal offense in the act ofthe Steering Body and the lawyer.

Destiny of other charges filedsince 2008 is unknown, althoughDevi} several times has asked ifthe charges have been dismissed,

if any investigations have beeninitiated or if they are curently inthe process of solving. Even Da-nas didn’t manage to get the in-formation, although we have de-manded that from the Prosecu-tor’s Office a few times. One ofthe answers was that some othercases were registered under thenumbers we gave them. Tryingto learn something about destiny

of the charges, Anti-corruptionAgency reached further than ot-hers. When that institutionasked what was going on withthe charges, they got the answerthat they had been sent to theProsecutor’s Office in Novi Sad.That is where every trace ofthem disappears.

Yet, even the Agency was notmore successful when in the be-

ginning of 2012 it filed the crim-inal charges to the Prosecutor’sOffice for Organized Criminalagainst the then Mayor of the Ci-ty of Novi Sad, Igor Pavli~i} andthe City Council members. It wasclaimed in the charges that, abu-sing the office, they had inflictedmulti-million damage to ATPVojvodina. The Agency statedthen that the damage inflicted toATP Vojvodina and its majorityowner Ilija Devi} exceeded 100million Euros.

„The criminal charge was fileddue to the established suspicionthat, from the day of the officetaking, the officials and respon-sible persons of the City of NoviSad used to abuse their authorityand mandate thus inflicting mul-ti-million damage to the City ofNovi Sad, ATP Vojvodina, com-pany from Novi Sad, to Ilija De-vi}, the buyer and majority own-

er of the company and to the mi-nority shareholders“, the Agencystated in the charges. „The docu-mentation indisputably showsthat the investor has met all hiscontractual obligations, while theCity of Novi Sad justifies its failureto meet the contractual obliga-tions by the court proceedingsconducted before the Commer-cial Court for the damage com-pensation, and the very damagewas caused exactly by the City’sfailure to meet the obligations „, itis further added and the judge-ment of the Commerical Court ofAppeal from Belgrade is quotedas well. According to the judge-ment, the damage is 388,9 milliondinars (4 million Euros by thethen exchange rate) and it wasonly for the first four months dur-ing which the bus station did notwork, while today the damage forthe buyer and the company ismore than 100 million Euros.Thereby, „the answers sent in re-ply to the Agency’s written de-mand, Pavli~i} undoubtly con-firmed that all the decisions andsigned contracts were legally validand that no proceedings were ini-titated in order to annul or chan-ge the decisions „, the Agencyadded and recalled that the Com-mercial Court of Appeal fromBelgrade made the judgement in2010 in favour of ATP Vojvodina.The charges filed by the Anti-cor-ruption Agency were also dismis-sed by the Higher Public Prose-cution in Novi Sad within only 15

days from the date of filing andnot even one of the defendantswas heard.

Devi} continued to file thecharges. The last in the line wassent to the Prosecutor’s Officemore than a month ago, and itwas filed against the then Mayorof Novi Sad, Maja Gojkovi}, andseveral former and current Cityofficials among which is alsoIgor Mirovi} who was the Di-rector of the Institute for theCity Development from 2004 to2008, and today is a functionaryof the Serbian Progressive Party.Devi} blames the City officialsbecause they first in the years2005 and 2006 made the deci-sion and concluded the contractwith him on building a new in-tercity bus station in Novi Sad,and then they began to obstructrealization of the contract anddeliberately impeded beginningof the bus station work. Becauseof such an attitude of the City,the courts in charge alreadymade the judgement that theCity of Novi Sad had to paydamage compensation of about4 million Euros to ATP Vojvo-dina.

Devi} also filed criminal char-ges against the current Mayor ofthe City of Novi Sad, Milo{ Vu-~evi}, and his deputy Miroje Jo-vanovi}, because they had beenputting pressure on judiciaryand prosecution and they had al-so been preventing execution ofthe final court decision.

Majority owner of ATP Vojvodina and his family members claim that they areexposed to constant pressure.

Threats and „Indecent“ Proposals

Ihave tried several times tosolve the problem of ATPVojvodine by some agree-ment, because the damagewhich will eventually haveto be paid, either by judge-

ment of our courts or the court inStrasbourg, is going to be extre-mely heavy burden for either No-vi Sad or the state budget. I havebeen invited several times to talkto the persons from the Cabinetof Aleksandar Vu~i}, before andafter he became the PrimeMinister. However, there haven’tbeen any constructive suggesti-ons. One of these meetings wasalso attended by the Director ofthe Department for Fight againstMoney Laundering. I guess itshould have frightened me. But,I earned my funds in this coun-try, I was managing a companyfor thirty years and I did not

bring my money from some is-land. Even when i invested, themoney was not „taken out of amatress“, but the money camfrom the loans I had been regu-larly repaying until the Govern-ment of Novi Sad prevented mefrom working - Ilija Devi} says.

He also says that the Directorof the Customs Administrationwas present at one of these met-ings in the Cabinet and that wasrather strange.

- I did not understand why

these persons were involved inthe conversation, but duringthat meeting a possible solutionofferred for the problem wasproposal of a non-governmen-tal organization which thoughtthat a just epilogue would be myhanding over the built facilitiesand ATP Vojvodina to the Cityand in return to get a lot belon-ging to the City Trafficc Compa-ny. I could not accept it as a seri-ous offer – Devi} says.

He also adds that eight years

lasting fight to preserve thebusiness he has created and de-veloped, has been ccompaniedby various kinds of pressure sf-fecting even his family. Beforeany even a bit important courtproceeding, there were frequenttelephone calls in which theywere threatened or „friendly“warned to give up.

- In the beginning, they usedto tell me that I was not capableof coping with that business,that somebody would not let

me do such an important busi-ness, that such an issue was in-tended for „bigger“ players.When the work group for 24privatizations, there were somepeople who was formed, therewere people who „were givingme friendly advice“ to leave thecountry because I would be ar-rested. But I did not inflict dam-age to my country so that Iwould have to run away. I havebeen fighting all the time to savemy funds and work places Iused to open – he says.

The culmination of pressurewas, however, in the time whenDevi} was in detention. Peoplewearing balaklava masks werevery often walking around thefamily yard and that shouldhave probably frightened hiswife and daughters who livedthere. The police were everytime informed about „the visi-tors“, the patrols were comingand, in spite of the trails of the„visits“, it has not been foundout who the visitors were andwho the organizer was.

Not even the criminal charges filed by theAnti-corruption Agency in the beginningof 2012 had sufficient number of documents to be processed The last criminal charges filed by Devi}were against the Assembly President and the then City officials

One of semi-official proposals offerred to Devi} was to handover ATP Vojvodina together with the facilities to the City and inreturn to get some lot belonging to the City Traffic Company Telephone calls, threats or „friendly“ advice and night visitors with„balaklava masks“ are part of the mechanism which should havemade the owner give up the fight for protection of his own funds

Under the Spotlight

Devi} has forwarded the crimi-nal charges filed so far against theCity and Republic officials to Euro-pean institutions. They are closelyfollowing work of domestic judicia-ry in the cases of 24 compromizedprivatizations, especially the case ofATP Vojvodina for which they haveestimated that, unlike the othercases, the investor but not the stateis the one who suffers damage.

Protection

It is interesting to mentionthat one of the City Council mem-bers included in the criminal char-ges filed by the Abti-corruptionAgency was Gordana Pu{i}, wife ofBogdana Pu{i} who was in thattime Deputy Chief of the CriminalPolice Department and who wasthe Head of the work group for in-vestigation of 24 compromizedprivatizations.

Foto: Stanislav Milojkovi}

Foto

: Dra

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Goji}

/ Be

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Ilija Devi}