Category: Money and deals
Period: from Oct 2023
Outcome: No one investigated (as of 5 Dec 2024)
Belgrade's Secretariat for Education and Child Protection, headed by Aleksandra Čamagić, awarded contracts for free English lessons in kindergartens to Akademija Oxford-Agent, a company from Jagodina, in 2023 and 2024. According to N1, the first was worth two million euros and the second, covering two school years, more than nine million, with conditions that shut out cheaper competitors. A rival school claims the tender was rigged. We found no action by the authorities, and no response from Čamagić or the City.
Mayor Aleksandar Šapić announced on 27 October 2023 that the public tender for free English lessons for all preschoolers had been completed. According to N1, the contract, worth two million euros, went to Akademija Oxford-Agent from Jagodina, together with the company Cambridge Academy.
Jelena Dinić, editor of the portal Vrtić info, told Mašina that, according to the contract she had seen, the price is around 45 to 50 euros per child per month, compared with 1,800 to 2,000 dinars previously, and each lesson is ten minutes shorter.
In August 2024, the Secretariat headed by Aleksandra Čamagić launched a new procurement. According to N1, a group led by Akademija Oxford-Agent, with Cambridge Academy and Grayson School, was selected for 881.1 million dinars excluding VAT. A bid from the Institute for Foreign Languages, 300 million dinars lower, was rejected for failing to meet the conditions on revenue and number of students.
After a complaint from the Institute, the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures partly relaxed the conditions, and it rejected a second complaint. Maja Mijatović of the Institute told N1 that the procurement was rigged for Oxford. As of December 2024, the lessons had still not begun.
Akademija Oxford-Agent was founded in 2011 by entrepreneur Rade Rakić. According to N1, in 2024 alone it signed another 16 contracts with ministries, municipalities and public enterprises, worth 47,440,546 dinars excluding VAT.
In 2019, BIRN reported that the IT High School in Kragujevac, which the company founded, gave students grades in medical subjects on plain paper with a stamp, even though it had no accreditation for a medical track. According to N1, a parent filed a criminal complaint over this; the prosecutor's office did not say what became of it.