Contract on management over Železara - argument in favor of harmfulness of classified contracts

Transparency - Serbia (part of the Transparency International) believe that the current debates on business of Železara in Smederevo, at the time when it was owned by the state and managed by the company of Mr. Peter Kamaras, are the latest evidence of harmfulness of classified contracts and the consequence of non-compliance of the Law on Free Access to Information.

We remind that more than a year ago, when the "rescue" contract on management over Z Železara was signed, press conference was organized where the speakers were the highest representatives of the Government of Serbia. However, words of praise on that arrangement and promises on its success were not sufficient reason to acquaint the public with the contractual provisions. On the contrary, the Ministry of Economy has done what nobody had done before - not only they did not submit a copy of the contract at the request of our organization, neither immediately, neither after the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance had ordered this in his final, binding and enforceable decision, but they had denied access to these documents even to the Commissioner himself. http://www.transparentnost.org.rs/…/8300-zelezara-najdrasti…

Opposite to the confidentiality of this contract, which was kept by the Ministry of Economy even at the cost of paying fines, the contract on selling Železara to the Chinese Hesteel, from April 2016, had been immediately released http://www.privreda.gov.rs/ugovor-o-prodaji-zelezare/ However, the public never received official information on business success of previous management. At the end of June 2016, plenty contradicting information on this has begun to appear, from the side of Železara, the Ministry and Kamaras, in which they are accusing each other for bad decisions or results. All this seem impermissibly confusing for citizens, which, until recently, have been receiving by same actors only information about the positive results of the company which had managed over this state-owned enterprise.

Worst of all, in the opinion of our organization, is that the information, during the past year and now, are unverifiable. In fact, even the public has available full information on business results of Železara in the past year, they would have nothing to compare them with and to assess whether there is a place for responsibility of our state representatives or basis for compensation from the managing company. In fact, the contract which determines the rights and obligations of Serbia and the company of Mr. Kamaras, neither today, when the state representatives are claiming that the company has "violated contractual obligations", has not been published. In the event that the managing company had violated the contract, the part of responsibility for that would certainly belong to the Ministry of Economy, which is without any legal basis, according to our assessment, all the time insisted on confidentiality of this arrangement, thus enabling to possibly harmful actions remain unnoticed.

Transparency - Serbia

Belgrade, July 6, 2016