Public contracts for companies owned by officials' relatives
Category: Money and deals
Period: from 2013
This pattern tracks public contracts awarded to companies and organisations run by family members of Serbian Progressive Party officials. According to BIRN, NITES Group, one of whose directors is the husband of minister Nela Kuburović and the brother of Darija Kisić Tepavčević, won 27 contracts worth about €26.8 million, while companies and organisations belonging to the sister of minister Nemanja Starović received almost 26 million dinars. According to the IZRAZ initiative, companies owned by the parents of an SNS councillor in Zrenjanin received about 4.8 million dinars. According to Transparency Serbia, the Anti-Corruption Agency found no grounds for proceedings against the minister, and Starović and his sister did not respond to BIRN.
NITES Group and two officials
According to a 2020 BIRN investigation, companies in NITES Group, one of whose directors is the husband of then justice minister Nela Kuburović and the brother of Darija Kisić Tepavčević, won 27 contracts worth about €26.8 million between 2013 and 2020.
According to Transparency Serbia, the Anti-Corruption Agency concluded that there were no grounds for proceedings against the minister.
Minister Starović's sister
According to a 2026 BIRN investigation, companies and organisations belonging to the sister of European Integration Minister Nemanja Starović have received almost 26 million dinars since 2020, mostly through procurements by the Provincial Secretariat for Regional Development in which she was the only bidder.
According to Transparency Serbia, one of those procurements looks rigged, and neither the minister, nor his sister, nor the Secretariat responded to BIRN.
Companies of an SNS councillor's parents
According to the IZRAZ initiative, companies owned by the parents of Budimir Budimir, a Serbian Progressive Party councillor in Zrenjanin and acting director of the public utility company "Sečanj", received eight contracts between 2024 and 2026 from Zrenjanin's Vodovod water utility, where he had worked, and from the Nature Reserves institution, worth about 4.8 million dinars in total. It has not been established whether he took part in the decisions.
Participants
- Nemanja Starović: Did not answer questions about the business of his sister, whose companies received almost 26 million (commented on the case)
- Provincial Secretariat for Regional Development, Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-Government (AP Vojvodina): It awarded the minister's sister's company procurements in which it was the only bidder, and Transparency Serbia calls one of them rigged (responsible)
- City of Novi Sad: In 2024 it allegedly awarded 250,000 dinars to an organisation run by the minister's sister that was founded on the very day the funding call was announced (responsible)
- Gradske info (news site, Novi Sad): As the sole bidder, it won tenders from the Provincial Secretariat that were paid in advance, and Transparency Serbia calls one of them rigged (responsible)
- Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (until 2020 the Anti-Corruption Agency): Its register reportedly does not show that Minister Starović's sister has income from her firm (oversight and the public)
- Transparency Serbia: It assessed the procurements for minister Starović's sister as rigged, and six identical ones as market sharing (oversight and the public)
- BIRN: It reported that Minister Starović's sister has received almost 26 million dinars since 2020 (oversight and the public)
- Budimir Budimir: According to the IZRAZ initiative, while working at the Waterworks he secured contracts for his parents' firms, which it calls a conflict of interest (responsible)
- Public utility company “Vodovod i kanalizacija” Zrenjanin: According to IZRAZ, it signed five contracts, each under 999,999 dinars, with companies owned by the parents of its employee Budimir Budimir (responsible)
- “Nature Reserves” Institution, Zrenjanin: According to IZRAZ, it signed three contracts with companies owned by the parents of SNS councillor Budimir Budimir, which IZRAZ calls a conflict of interest (responsible)
- Zrenjanin initiative IZRAZ: It published data on contracts held by companies owned by an SNS councillor's parents, along with questions about his two public offices (oversight and the public)
Sources