The state of Serbia will allocate more than 26 million euros for car leasing over the next four years. The contract for renting more than 600 vehicles was awarded to well-known companies Porsche Mobility and Auto Čačak, which is owned by businessman Milenko Kostić, who is close to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
Despite numerous financial problems facing Serbia, state officials and public servants apparently still have to be transported in new, expensive vehicles. More than 26 million euros will be allocated from the state budget over the next four years for their “transport”.
According to available data, the Administration for Joint Services of the Republic Organs signed framework agreements in June this year for leasing cars from the Porsche factory, as well as with the group of bidders consisting of TDV Fleet, Auto Čačak promet LLC and Auto Čačak LLC.
When it comes to the group of bidders consisting of Porsche Mobility LLC Belgrade and PIA S (Porsche Inter Auto S) LLC Belgrade, the state will lease as many as 385 vehicles from them, at a price including VAT of 2,390,283,345 dinars, or 20.4 million euros.
These are various vehicles with engine power from 101 to 115 kilowatts for the Administration for Joint Services, which will lease the largest number of cars, as many as 331. Among them are 144 vehicles with power up to 115 kilowatts. The lease also includes four electric vehicles with power up to 85 kilowatts, while this procurement will also include 147 passenger vehicles with engine capacity up to 2,000 cubic centimeters.
The company Porsche Mobility, which is owned by Porsche from Austria, more precisely Porsche Bank AG Austria, according to data from the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR), is engaged in vehicle rental and leasing. The legal representatives of this company are Silvana Tričković and Dejan Pavlović, who are not known to the domestic public.
This group of bidders also includes the company PIA S, whose main activity is the maintenance and repair of motor vehicles, and which is owned by Porsche Holding from Austria (Porsche Holding Gesellschaft m.b.H.), whose legal representative is Austrian citizen Josef Graf.
Company close to SNS among the bidders
As for the second group of bidders, the state will lease a slightly smaller number of vehicles from them at a somewhat lower, but still multi-million-euro price.
According to available data, it is clear that the state will lease 240 passenger vehicles from the group of companies consisting of TDV Fleet, Auto Čačak promet LLC and Auto Čačak LLC, at a price including VAT of 811,413,504 dinars, or 6.9 million euros.
From this group of companies, the state will lease 141 passenger vehicles up to 1,000 cubic centimeters, 25 vehicles up to 2,000 cubic centimeters, and others. More precisely, different categories of vehicles will be ordered for different categories of users.
This second group of companies could also be called “family-owned”. Namely, the owner of one of the companies in this group, Auto Čačak, is Milenko Kostić, who is already known to the public as a close associate of SNS. Nova.rs previously wrote about the business activities of businessman Kostić, whose company bought the Belgrade Beer Industry in 2021 for 17.8 million euros, or at half the estimated value. For that money, it acquired extremely valuable property, with the most valuable asset being land in Belgrade near Mostarska interchange.
The company behind this businessman also purchased the IMT factory repair center in Dobanovci in 2023 for half a million euros, and this is just one in a series of business transactions involving state-owned companies.
Kostić’s companies have otherwise been frequent suppliers of cars to state institutions and public companies for years. In 2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs also purchased new vehicles from Auto Čačak for 8.1 million euros, while vehicles were also leased from the same company by the public company Roads of Serbia.
And just when it seemed that Kostić had taken enough, another company whose owner is his son Dušan Kostić has now appeared in the group of bidders for contracts and agreements with the state.
Namely, the owners of the company TDV Fleet, which according to APR data is also engaged in vehicle rental and leasing, are Vladimir and Dušan Kostić, and the company was founded in 2022.
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Source: Nova.rs, Foto: Vesna Lalić / Nova.rs