Investigative Journalists Reveal Accumulated Wealth of Serbian Politicians · Global Voices
Cover photo of KRIK's database with properties of Serbian politicians featuring <PERSON>, <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and <PERSON>.
KRIK, a journalism network that investigates crime and corruption, began publishing a database listing the properties of Serbian politicians this week. The revelations have made front-page news in some newspapers and are fueling online debates.
Titled “Imovina političara” (Properties of Politicians), the database reveals the real estate and other possessions owned by leading politicians and members of their families, as well as business relations and run-ins with the law. The goal of the project, which is supported by the Open Society Foundation – Serbia, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and readers’ donations, is “to enable citizens’ understanding of who the people who run their state are.” (Editor's note: Open Society Foundations is a supporter of Global Voices.)
Serbians can now read that the family of Minister of Finance <PERSON> owns several houses and condos in Serbia and the US, or that the brother-in-law of Minister of Mining and Energy <PERSON> was convicted of producing amphetamines in a pharmaceutical company co-owned by the minister's sister.
KRIK has not revealed all the entries at once, but is publishing several profiles of politicians per day. Leading newspapers such as Blic and Danas have published front-page coverage of the database's revelations.
Profili sadrže informacije o stanovima, kućama, automobilima i kompanijama aktuelnih ministara, kao i detalje o tome kako su ih stekli. Iz baze može da se sazna koji političari su učestvovali u divljoj gradnji i imaju nelegalizovane objekte. 463
Tu su i podaci o podignutim kreditima, lizinzima, osobama sa kojima su sklapali poslovna partnerstva i prekršajima koje su počinili…
KRIK će bazu konstantno dopunjavati novim političarima i funkcionerima. Takođe će u već postojeće profile dodavati nove informacije.
Informacije u profilima zasnivaju se na zvaničnim dokumentima, a skeniranu dokumentaciju možete pogledati u svakom profilu.
Za procenu vrednosti nekretnina, KRIK je angažovao agenciju za promet nekretnina, koja je proračunavala tržišne vrednosti.
Each profile contains information about apartments, houses, cars and companies of current government ministers, and details about how they came to possess them. The database provides information on which politicians had been building without permits or own illegal buildings. There's also data about their credit, leasing, and about people who they've partnered with and committed offenses.
KRIK will constantly update the database with new profiles of politicians and officials. It will amend the existing profiles with new information.
The information within the profiles are based on official documents, which are available as downloadable scans.
To appraise the mentioned real estate, KRIK hired a real estate agency, which calculated their market values.
To protect the privacy of the politicians, their relatives and associates, the journalists had redacted some information available in the scanned documents, such as personal data and house numbers of the apartments. However, the street names are there in order to provide insight into the value of the properties in regard to their locations.
All this has generated lively discussions online, primarily through the hashtag #imovinapoliticara, which also means “the properties of politicians.” Journalists and other citizens have commented on the revelations and their implications.
Ministar <PERSON> je misteriozne ofshore firme koja je sklopila posao s Telekomom https://t.co/vssMry50AX #imovinapoliticara
— <PERSON> (@StevanOCCRP) December 19, 2016
Minister of defense is the director of a mysterious offshore company that made a contract with the telecom. 463