Local government centre: GSP owes suppliers 6.9 billion dinars as two tenders collapse in a single week

Belgrade's city transport company GSP currently owes its suppliers 6.9 billion dinars, of which 5.5 billion has already fallen due, said Nikola Jovanović, director of the Centre for Local Self-Government (CLS).

"A consequence of the poor financial situation, but also of catastrophic management, is the fact that two large GSP tenders have collapsed in this week alone," Jovanović said in a statement.

As he explained, the first tender concerned the purchase of 60 trolleybuses and drew no bids because the City failed to provide a guarantee, and no leasing company, he said, "is willing to work with GSP alone." The second was for 85 short trams and, although it was carried out, no contract was signed because, according to him, neither GSP nor the City has the funds to pay the agreed advance.

Jovanović holds general director Zoran Šarac chiefly responsible for the situation at GSP, claiming that Šarac has spent almost four years in what he describes as an unlawful acting-director status, along with executive director for the electrical subsystem Goran Manojlović.

"The fact that these two directors are trusted associates of Mayor Aleksandar Šapić cannot free them of objective and subjective responsibility for the collapse of GSP; it can only be an aggravating factor in some future review of the current processes," the CLS director said.