Behind the Scene Games Over Telekom Serbia

A sharp battle over the companies and influences within them is underway. Especially over those which aren’t completely bankrupt, and have some kind of future. The DOS leaders have started pushing “their” people to the top positions in those companies, from general managers to members of the board of directors. Somewhat by accident, more due to the unpreparedness of the new government, Drasko Petrovic started heading Telekom Serbia, a man who formally doesn’t belong to any of the key democratic parties, but in bygone does he was, despite his youth, an esteemed member of at least three of them. The syndicates pushed him through and the foreigners (Italians and Greeks, the Serbian government’s partners in Telekom) didn’t have anything against it. Zoran Djindjic, apparently, wasn’t satisfied with this personnel solution, and stated that “an amateur can’t drive Formula 1”. His personnel appointees on the federal and republic level, Boris Tadic and Marija Raseta-Vukosavljevic, assisted by the president of Belgrade’s government Nenad Bogdanovic, have started taking the wind out of the new acting director. And they were soon presented with a chance – the director who was appointed by the foreign Italian partner (Kristofoli) requested an urgent purchase of a “certain number of base stations and other specific equipment”, since the existing mobile telephony network is so overloaded that the “future operation and survival of the overall system is in question”. Simultaneously, the Italian urgently obtains a tender from Italian Ericsson, whose two invoices amounted to 48 million Deutsche marks. Petrovic, being a new, young and ambitious manager, writes to Sweden’s Ericsson requesting a tender for the same equipment, which has already been received from the Italian “sister” company. The tender from the headquarters is submitted and reads – 23 million Deutsche marks for the same equipment. Italy’s Ericcson – subsequent control will establish that all of its tenders, including those which had already gone through, had prices which were at least 40 percent higher than the realistic ones – urgently sends off a new tender, seriously reduced, but still 40 percent higher. As our people would say, someone had seriously built himself into this deal. However, the republic minister Marija Raseta – Vukosavljevic summons director Petrovic by fax to an urgent meeting, and the fax starts off with the following words: “Dear Mr. Draskovic”. Even Froyd would turn in his grave over this, at least twice. The minister, otherwise a former CIP employee, meaning that she was a co-worker of Serbia’s great constructor Milutin Mrkonjic, now already in true thriller style, relays the message to Petrovic “from the boss, that he will be arrested unless he behaves”. He answers that the only boss he has is “in heaven”, and that he refuses to accept terminology which is characteristic of the Sicilian Mafia. The conflict within DOS breaks out, the name of Nenad Bogdanovic is toyed with as the new first Telekom man and Andrija Bendarik is also mentioned as a transitional solution. An entire mess, in which the most serious arguments are drawn such as, “theft”, “damaging contract”, “overstepping authority”, “signature without a deposited signature”, “advance payment of 30 percent in cash” were launched to justify the urgent removal of Drasko Petrovic. The entire case reaches the president of FR Yugoslavia Vojislav Kostunica, whose only comment to it all is “criminal”, so that the item under which Petrovic was to be blown out of the field was removed prior to the session of the republic parliament, on the insistence of some ministers who knew more about the whole problem. And then the lights are turned off in the Balkan pub – orchestrated attacks on Petrovic are launched from various sides, certain  media outlets which weren’t repulsed by such a role in the previous regime either give their full contribution, so that one can already say that the acting Telekom Serbia’s general manager is now a former one, only he doesn’t know it yet. Or refuses to accept it. Without any intention or wish to arbitrate or to take sides in this dispute, a person, if at all honest, simply has to raise certain logical questions: who is opposed to Telekom’s modernization, which includes an expansion of its capacities, an introduction of roaming, replacement of the old equipment? Does that maybe disturb those who are in favor of introducing a third mobile operator, where an inferior Telekom would increase the possibilities of earnings for that third one and would include higher prices.