Belgrade to procure benches, fences, columns and waste baskets through public-private partnershis – City expecting EUR 15 million from concessionaires

Procuring and installing benches, fences, columns, sign-posts and waste baskets in Belgrade will from now on be carried out through public-private partnership with elements of concession, as stated in the decision adopted by the Assembly of the City of Belgrade on October 4.

Assistant head of the mayor’s investment and infrastructure cabinet, Dragutin Nenezic, said that that was the first time that the public-private partnership had elements of concession.

– The conditions are met to sort the area of urban equipment and street furniture in the central municipalities in a unique manner. Through this concession, we aim to fully equip the city center with urban equipment elements at the expense of the private sector, that is, the future concessionaire – he said.

Nenezic said that the elements could be divided into those that could be used commercially and those that couldn’t.

– The latter include waste baskets, benches, fences, columns, sign-posts and so on, and the future concessionaire will procure those at its own cost and hand them over to the city to install and maintain. The total amount expected from the future concessionaire is EUR 15 million, Nenezic said and added that the replacement of bus stops was also included.

Talking about these latter elements, he said that the future concessionaire would be paying a fee for them, with expected advance payment of EUR 10 million.

– The total expected amount during the concession period is also around EUR 15 million – he added and explained that it meant EUR 15 million of direct contribution to the budget plus as much as would have been spent on public utility enterprises, otherwise in charge of those jobs.

Opposition MP Zoran Alimpic (Democratic Party) called such a decision strange and corruptive and said that it pertained to the city’s resources. The Democratic Party voted against the decision.

– The Assembly of the City of Belgrade intends to place a tender for the lease of the space to the company which answers the tender for 25 years, an unusually long period, and the decision also means that two thirds of the money the company is supposed to pay, around EUR 10 million, need to be paid right away for this assembly to spend, and for the company to only pay the public area occupancy fee in the following years, which is around EUR 200,000 a year – Alimpic said.

Grad Beograd

Demokratska stranka - DS

street furniture

public private aprtnership

Dragutin Nenezic

waste baskets

benches

fences

columns

sign posts

bus stops

Zoran Alimpic