Following Ada, these companies signed a string of contracts backed by Serbian companies close to the ruling SNS and, in the case of one company, with a connection to Brnabic.

They were Energotehnika Juzna Backa, Resalta, Keep Light, Elektromontaza Kraljevo and Somborelektro.

Energotehnika – Juzna Backa is owned by Maneks, a company of Dragoljub Zbiljic, who was the guarantor of a bank loan SNS took for its election campaign in 2012.

Zbiljic has been investigated for business related crimes in the cities of Novi Sad and Kragujevac. The Novi Sad prosecutor dropped the case, while Zbiljic remains on trial in Kragujevac.

The Slovenian company Resalta, previously called GGE Družba za izvajanje energetskih storitev, is co-owned by PostScriptum, an investment fund of American businessman Mark Crandall.

Brnabic was a director at Crandall’s company Continental Wind Serbia until she became minister of public administration and local government in August 2016 and then, in June 2017, prime minister.

Six weeks after she took office as PM, companies now linked to her previous boss won a PPP contract along with companies owned by Hungarian partners in the eastern Serbian town of Petrovac na Mlavi.

Resalta won three more contracts and will be in charge of another two, previously won by ENEF Energetska efikasnost, which Resalta took over in late 2016.

Asked about Resalta’s involvement and her connection to Crandall, Brnabic told BIRN/Direkt36 she knew nothing about the tenders:

“This is the first time I’m hearing about this, and that has nothing to do with me,” Brnabic said.

“I cannot tell local governments what to do and how to do it, I don’t have that kind of power, so I can not speak about specific cases. The only thing is, I think it’s good that local governments are considering energy efficiency. That’s what’s positive. I have worked with Mark Crandall and that’s no secret […] I really don’t understand, does that mean that Mark Crandall cannot work in Serbia anymore?”

Crandall, likewise, told BIRN/Direkt36 he had no knowledge of Resalta’s work in LED lighting:

“My only involvement in the LED lighting market is very indirect, through the shareholding that Postscriptum Ventures SARL has in the Slovenian company called Resalta (originally called GGE),” he said.

“I am not even a member of the Board at Resalta although Postscriptum has nominated one member of the Board. PostScriptum does not own much of Resalta – something like 17 percent or thereabouts. And on the subject of LED lights I know absolutely nothing about what Resalta does, really nothing.”

Keep Light joined the group in September 2017.

Keep Light shot to notoriety last winter when it sold an 18-metre plastic Christmas tree to the SNS-run City of Belgrade for 83,000 euros. Vucic justified the outlay.

Elektromontaza Kraljevo, that partnered with Somborelektro and ELIOS SRB in Bor, is fully owned by Nenad Kovac, a business partner of Nikola Petrovic, the former director of the Serbian Electric Power Company and one of Vucic’s closest friends.

In a written answer, Elektromontaza said they won the contract because they “offered the best price in a lawful, transparent procedure.”

“But, you’ll continue to believe whatever you believe in, while we’ll continue to do what we do” they added.

Somborelektro, meanwhile, according to its financial reports, loaned around 577,000 euros in 2017 to Prointer IT, a SNS-linked business that, as BIRN previously reported, provided SNS with the infrastructure for election campaign phone calls to voters.

Somborelektro didn’t respond to BIRN/Direkt36 questions.

In a written response, Mayor’s office of the city of Bor said: “service providers were selected in an open public procurement procedure and there was no political influence.”

Questionable tenders specifications