Novi Sad to terminate public-private partnership with Lithuanians in PUE Stan

Mayor of Novi Sad Milos Vucevic has stated that the City will terminate the agreement with the Lithuanian company on the public-private partnership in the PUE Stan.

In his statement for RTV, he said that the reason was that the private partner had not paid the capital contribution for the new company.

– The termination of the agreement proves that the city administration takes care of the public interest, but also the employees in Stan – Vucevic said.

Let us remind that the opposition had previously requested the termination of the agreement from the city authorities, as the private partner had failed to pay the capital contribution for the new company even with the extended deadline, thereby violating the recently signed agreement.

On the other hand, as 021.rs learns, the latest Official Gazette featured the decision of the City Council to allocate 100 dinars for the founding of the company to succeed the PUE Stan, in line with the agreement recently signed with Lithuanian company Busto Valda UAB.

Let us also remind that the opposition strongly protested over a month ago during the discussion about the signing of the agreement at the City Assembly, and Mayor Vucevic said that it was “a strategic decision”.

– This is a concrete proposition for how to keep as many jobs as possible and how the company can operate. I’ve heard and seen the criticism and I failed to understand what the counter-argument was and what should be done. I also didn’t hear or see, which I think would be fair, an explanation for how those who had left the PUE Stan with over RSD 800 million in debt had managed to do so. The debt is now around RSD 500 million, but the failure to solve the PUE Stan through a public-private partnership opens the possibility for the company to either go into bankruptcy, which means that the creditors will not be repaid, which includes unpaid employee salaries, and that everyone will lose their jobs, or that we will have to pay from the city budget, which means that we will not be able to realize some other projects – the mayor said at the time.

Let us remind that, under the agreement, Busto Valda UAB, which in fact has Lithuania’s Civinity behind it, should pay RSD 162 million as the capital contribution, which should also be used to pay the employees’ claims.

Under the Agreement on the Public-Private Partnership, it was previously envisaged that the private partner should have a 70% stake in the new company, Stan NS, and that the city’s stake would be 30%, with 15% belonging to the City and another 15% to the PUE Stan.

So far, there have not been other solutions for Stan, which is burdened by several million dinars of debt, surplus employees and other business problems that the local self-government expected would be solved through the PPP.

Grad Novi Sad

JKP Stan Novi Sad

UAB Busto valda

Clivinity

Stan NS

Milos Vucevic

public private partnership with Lithuanian company

PUE Stan public private partnership

public private partnership with Busto Valda UAB