Behind Stefan Nemanja’s “secret” price: stealing public money? – Society

Why would the price of a monument be kept as “confidential” information, when there are clearly prescribed conditions of what is kept secret, unless there is corruption and a lack of transparency behind it, say Danas interlocutors?

This is how they evaluate the information that Danas published in yesterday’s edition – that the costs of making and erecting the monument to Stefan Nemanja in the Sava square in Belgrade are kept “secret” until 2023, which is why the City Secretariat of Culture Belgrade declined to provide this information. professors from the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy who requested it.

Namely, five professors, Dubravka Stojanović, Ognjen Radonjić, Sasa Brajović, Nenad Makuljević and Milan Vukomanović, sent a request to the city authorities to obtain data on the amount of money that was allocated from the budget of the city of Belgrade for the monument.

Following management’s silence on this request, they also approached the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, but only to obtain a response from the Secretariat that this information is confidential.

The response of the Ministry of Culture, to which Danas had access, establishes that the amount of the transfer destined was determined by the Conclusion of the Government of RS of July 18, 2018, as classified information, with the degree of secrecy “Confidential “and the term of storage until 2023. years”.

Therefore, they point out that “the Secretariat did not have the opportunity to provide the information requested to the information seekers.”

They also point out that the public contracting procedure for the construction of the monument was carried out in compliance with the Public Procurement Law, taking into account the data for which the degree of secrecy was determined as “confidential.”

Nenad Makuljevic, a professor of art history who is among the signatories of the application, points out to Danas that the decision to keep the costs of the entire process of erecting the monument to Stefan Nemanja secret is surprising and incomprehensible.

– The monument is being erected as a public building in a public space, and according to the decision of the state leadership, it is obviously financed from the (government) budget. That is why declaring costs in secret is in total contradiction with the public character of the monument, the transparent spending of citizens’ money and the idea of ​​a democratic state. It is important to note that in the history of Serbia, this is the first monument whose costs are declared secret. Such a thing was impossible in previous political systems, as well as in organized democratic societies, Makuljevic noted.

The architect Ljubica Slavković points out in a conversation with Danas that it is very unusual for this information to be secret if everything is paid for with money from the budget.

– Citizens have the right to know how that money is disposed of, especially when it is about something representative such as a monument. It reminds me of Skopje in 2014, because Belgrade has been developing for a long time in the manner of a monumental construction, offering a kind of colorful lie, and the underlying interest is corruption and theft of public money. The same case was with his “Unknown Hero”, that is, the monument to Alexander the Great, when in the end it turned out that other materials were used and he was paid fabulously. When that secret was broken, it became clear that the first and basic function was to steal public money, and everything else was to cover the eyes of the public, Slavković emphasizes.

He adds that he also does not believe that we will find the right price in 2023, because by then the government will try to draw attention to other issues and compare it with temporary building permits, which often become permanent.

Nemanja Nenadić from Transparency Serbia explains to Danas that there are very clear provisions when something is declared “secret” or confidential information and that she does not see why that would be the case with the price of the monument.

– It does not occur to me what the Government of Serbia would determine for such a procedure, as there are reasons why secrecy is declared. The only thing that comes to mind are some international reasons, as the monument was delivered from Russia. But although there are reasons, I do not think they are justified because in a democratic society, it is normal for citizens to receive information about what is paid with public funds – says Nenadic.

Monument unveiled in 2023.

Nemanja Nenadić also made an interesting proposal to the city authorities: that the ceremonial inauguration of the monument take place only when the period of confidentiality of information about its price expires.

– If the price information is already marked as secret until 2023, then the grand opening could be carried over to that year. In order not to leave a shadow of doubt on the monument of doubt, Nenadic points out.

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