EPIC-SCALE THEFT AT EPS? “Rigged procurements have turned Serbia from an electricity exporter into an importer!”

Serbia Center (SRCE) said today that “epic-scale theft” through what it claims are rigged and financially inflated procurements of equipment and services, along with political favoritism in staffing and the elimination of experts, are the key reasons why the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) has gone from being an exporter to an importer of electricity.

SRCE’s Energy and Mining Committee stated that, as a result, key overhauls of generating units have been postponed for years, while at the same time, it claims, the Kolubara Mining Basin (RBK) has been destroyed.

The committee assessed that, when looking at the individuals involved, the “key line in the destruction of EPS” is based around Aleksandar Vučić and Milorad Grčić, stating that Vučić appointed Grčić to head RBK in October 2012, where he remained until October 2015.

“Six months later, after Vučić’s ‘Mića’ pushed the key system for lignite production in Serbia to start rolling and plunging into an abyss from which it has never returned to this day, he appointed him to the even more responsible position of EPS director,” SRCE said.

The statement adds that Grčić remained at the helm of EPS until January 2022, when, according to SRCE, problems at EPS during the winter of 2021/2022 reached unprecedented levels.

SRCE also claims that the “enormous import of coal,” often, as it says, of questionable quality and quantity, as well as electricity imports, benefits electricity traders.

“Vučić’s decades-long cooperation with his ‘Mića’ gave rise to and paved the way for a new branch of the SNS economy – coal imports,” Serbia Center said, adding that, according to its claims, Zvonko Veselinović took the leading position in coal imports for EPS.

“The saga of Vučić and his ‘Mića’ has catastrophic consequences for the citizens of Serbia that will take decades to remedy after they are gone. If Vučić’s era continues for some time yet, it is clear that not even a stone will be left standing of EPS,” SRCE said.