Peter Kamaras sues Serbia – HPK Engineering damaged in arrangement with Zelezara Smederevo?

The agreement on professional management of Zelezara Smederevo signed with Peter Kamaras on March 21, 2015, might cost Serbian taxpayers dearly.

As Politika learns unofficially, Kamaras has initiated an arbitration procedure against the Republic of Serbia, as he believes that the agreement the state signed with HPK Engineering has not been honored. However, it has been impossible to learn how much the former professional manager of the steel mill is asking for.

Despite leaving a loss of EUR 144 million behind him, Kamaras believes that he is the damaged party in this case. The management of the Smederevo steel mill terminated the contract with Kamaras in July 2016, after the arrival of China’s Hesteel to Smederevo.

Serbia thanked HPK for the cooperation, because, as it was said at the time, the company “failed to adhere to the obligations defined in the contract”. On the other hand, Kamaras expected at the time to be awarded on the basis of that same contract and that he would be paid a bonus.

The public, however, has never seen the contract Kamaras signed with the state. The first request for a copy of this agreement was submitted to the Ministry of Economy by the organization Transparency Serbia, only three days after it was signed.

Since the contract was not delivered, Transparency addressed Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, who penalized the ministry several times over the issue. In the meantime, several more requests had been sent to the Ministry of Economy.

The then minister of economy, Zeljko Sertic, stated at the time that he would break the law if he were to publish the contract without consent of the partner, HPK Engineering.

HBIS GROUP Iron & Steel d.o.o. Beograd

Železara Smederevo d.o.o.

HPK Engineerig B.V. Holland

Vlada Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Transparentnost Srbija Beograd

Poverenik za informacije od javnog značaja Srbija

Hesteel Smederevo

HPK Engineering

Peter Kamaras

Smederevo steel mill

Rodoljub Sabic

Zeljko Sertic

Zelezara Smederevo management

sale of Zelezara Smederevo

privatization of Zelezara Smederevo