Cuckovic: URS did not syphon money out of SIEPA

BELGRADE - During their time in the government, the United Regions of Serbia (URS) did not syphon money out of the Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) through party members, URS Presidency member Miroslav Cuckovic has said.

On a TV B92 talk show late Sunday, Cuckovic said that the former SIEPA officials who have been recently arrested for office abuse - including a former minister of telecommunications who is also a URS member - are innocent.

Former SIEPA director Jasna Matic was arrested on March 26 alongside three other former SIEPA top officials on suspicion of office abuse.

The four have been placed in 30-day detention.

They have been charged with having made illegitimate payments based on "copyright contracts for non-existent work" between 2006 and 2013 and embezzling around RSD 120 million of budget funds, as well as obtaining RSD 90 million of illicit gains for themselves and other persons.

Matic is a victim of a system anomaly that allows for fees based on service contracts to be paid out to experts in addition to their salaries, Cuckovic said.

Based on recommendation from the EU, variable pay has been given to employees of public enterprises since the regime change in 2000, and the same applied to SIEPA and other parts of the public administration, he explained.

"SIEPA is a rule rather than an exception, and we will change that mechanism or put over 2,000 officials in Serbia behind bars," Cuckovic said.

Asked whether part of the fees that SIEPA employees had to return to the agency actually went to the URS, Cuckovic said that the party has taken no money whatsoever from SIEPA, adding that the investigation will prove this.

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