Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
26.06.2015.

Facts against untruths



Given that the daily "Kurir" continues the persistent disregard of truth and publicly places the alleged affair about the procurement of reinforcement of the two facilities in Bezanijska Kosa, we inform the public that the facts show the opposite and that Bratislav Gasic in no way abused the function of the Minister of Defence in the implementation of the public procurement procedure.

The claim OF "Kurir" that "the reinforcement was still purchased, and at the insistence of Minister Gasic" is extremely malicious and not based on any fact that would make such claims justified. The law does not provide for the engagement of the Minister of Defence in the proceedings and the Minister does not make the decision on the purchase.

On the contrary, the facts are quite different and the public need to know them. The construction of these facilities in Bezanijska Kosa started back in 1992, but thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Defence they were finished only in recent years. The important fact is also that the public contract for the disputed reinforcement was launched on 21 February 2014, that is, before the appointment of Bratislav Gasic as the Minister of Defence. As for the firms in Krusevac that "Kurir" has mentioned, we point out that these companies have for a number of years been involved in the realization of valuable construction projects of the Ministry of Defence and are not associated with the purchase of the disputed reinforcement.

That the procurement procedure was conducted in full compliance with the law, it has been confirmed by the Public Procurement Office of the Republic of Serbia as well, which, at the request of the Ministry of Defence, and not the Military Security Agency, as "Kurir" also stated tendentiously, established that the procurement was implemented in accordance with the Law on Public Procurement.

The newspaper "Kurir" acted very unprofessionally and fully disregarded the fact that the Ministry of Defence said in response to the questions of the editorial offices, where it points out that the acquisition of reinforcement for the construction of buildings in Bezanijska Kosa was realized through public bidding, fully transparently, through advertising at the Portal of the Public Procurement of the Republic of Serbia. The entire amount of reinforcement was obtained in accordance with the approved technical documentation (main Project for construction) and the applicable technical standards, and the fact that in 2009 the standards changed only contributed to gaining more quality products on the market. So it is fitting that the acquired reinforcement is of even better quality and, quite contrary to the assertions of daily "Kurir", provides better quality of the built facilities.

Therefore, it is not any "rotten" iron, as "Kurir" said, or reinforcement which has been out of use since 2009. It is true that in the tender documents in the public procurement the information about the reinforcement from the project is explicitly included, which was conducted in 1989, but it complies with the latest regulations and has been audited by an authorized company, registered for these matters. We emphasize the fact that the reinforcement of the old type and tags that are listed in the daily "Kurir" are no longer manufactured and cannot be purchased on the market. However, new reinforcement has been acquired and built into the construction of the object, all in accordance with applicable standards and a higher quality level of the type of reinforcement than the one listed in the newspaper "Kurir". Please note that the correct amount of reinforcement has been built in according to the adopted project, with constant inspection and acceptance by the supervisory services for each position of the constructed part of the structure before the start of concreting.

The information in the newspaper "Kurir" that living in such facilities will "jeopardize the security of the citizens" is also absolutely incorrect, and the real situation regarding the construction of the two buildings is quite the opposite, namely that, with the installation of new fittings under the new standards, the derived structural system is significantly more stable and stronger.

Regarding the purchase price of the armature, everything was done in the legal procedure of public procurement in the "open procedure" and in that moment, that was the market price. The secret of the higher price is not in the alleged abuse, but that the special purpose processed reinforcement was procured, and not the standard kind, which is certainly cheaper.

These are the facts and the truth that the public needs to know. The Ministry of Defence will, in the interests of truth and timely providing of information to the public, through the Directorate of Public Relations, provide all relevant information about this and other issues, for full transparency regarding the work of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces.
 
MOD
Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia, Bircaninova 5 street, Belgrade
Questions of citizens: brziodgovor@mod.gov.rs, media requests: info@mod.gov.rs
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