Probe Launched into Serbia Power Monopoly

The Serbian Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime has ordered the police to investigate allegations of wrongdoings in the state-run power company, EPS.

The allegations are contained in a report of the Anti-Corruption Council and concern "substantial discrepancies in the quantities of electricity imported and exported by the public company EPS from 2010 to 2012".

The Prosecutor's Office has now ordered the Criminal Police Administration to investigate the claims from the report, "and provide additional information regarding the import and export of electricity", Organized Crime Prosecutor Miljko Radisavljevic told Tanjug news agency.

In the report made public on April 16, the Council pointed to substantial discrepancies in the quantities and prices of electricity imported and exported in the said period, which caused a drop in EPS revenues of about 30 million euro.

The probe into EPS comes after Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, in his expose of the new government’s programme on Sunday, said EPS would be privatized.

Milan Djordjevic, from the EPS workers’ union, said privatization would not benefit ordinary citizens as the price of electricity would go up.

Privatization “is not surprising, given the fact that [Kori] Udovicki has obtained a ministerial post in the new government, and this is in line with the stance she took on EPS when she was energy minister in 2002 and 2003”, Djordjevic said.

As energy minister in early 2000s, Kori advocated restructuring EPS, which unions strongly opposed.

EPS has been facing financial difficulties for a while. In February 2013, the indebted state-run power monopoly asked the government to loan it 450 million euro to avoid going bankrupt.