Serbia’s Graft Agency Ignores BIRN Probe Into Minister’s Husband’s Deals

BIRN contacted ACAS, asking whether it had started probing potential corruption worth tens of millions of euros in public procurement deals, which were won by companies connected to Bojan Kisic, husband of Justice Minister Nela Kuburovic. No response arrived by the time of publication.

The BIRN investigation, Company Linked to Serbian Minister's Husband Gets State Contracts, has revealed that, since 2013, the NITES companies have been awarded at least 27 public contracts in recent years worth around 26.8 million euros, mostly in consortium with powerful state companies and private enterprises linked with the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS. Kisic is chief executive officer of the Czech-based NITES A.S.

Besides being a minister's husband and an executive for NITES, Kisic is a brother of the epidemiologist Dr Darija Kisic Tepavcevic who is one of the leading members of State Crisis Committee dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

In April alone, under the state of emergency in Serbia, NITES won three contracts worth 3.2 million euros with the Ministry of Health, including for the maintenance of the health information system. Dr Tepavcevic did not respond to BIRN's questions about her brother's involvement in IT deals involving the public health system.

Questioned about BIRN's findings about the lucrative contracts companies connected to her husband made with the state, Minister Kuburovic denied any impropriety had occurred.

"Our country has one of the most developed corruption prevention agencies, which is an independent body and is solely responsible for deciding whether or not there has been a conflict of interest somewhere," Kuburovic previously told BIRN.

Not much hope of a thorough investigation:

Nela...