Deputy Mayor Popović Resigned After Losing the Tender

It has been decided that the fish ponds will be sold to the company Silurus, which offered 200,000 kuna less than Popović’s company, but already has that area under lease. Popović claims that Silurus will sell the complex for a significantly higher price than the one for which it is being purchased.

Written and recorded by: Marija Birtić

Dissatisfied with the decision of the City Council of Donji Miholjac, which awarded the right to purchase part of the Donji Miholjac fish pond to the company Silurus instead of his family farm OPG Popović, Deputy Mayor Zvonko Popović submitted his irrevocable resignation last week.
– When I heard that the city where I live would sell a thousand hectares of fish ponds for 3.5 million kuna, I realized that I could not sit idly by and let someone buy something worth 3.5 million euros for 3.5 million kuna. As a responsible politician, I resigned because the Council did not decide whose offer was the best according to the tender conditions, but made a decision contrary to the legally prescribed criteria. I considered that a sufficient reason to step down as deputy mayor, which I would have done even if it were any other company and not my family farm – says Popović.

The highest and most favorable offer

The City Council of Donji Miholjac announced a public tender for the sale of agricultural land owned by the Republic of Croatia in the area of Donji Miholjac for the purpose of fish farming as a unique production-technological unit. Of the total area of the fish ponds, which spans 929 hectares in the first round for which the tender was announced, 291 hectares are being sold. The starting price is 1,257,591 kuna. The tender was responded to by the fish farming farm Silurus with an offer of around 1.3 million kuna, which has almost the entire area under fish ponds leased, and the family farm Popović, which offered 1.5 million kuna.

– It is not a matter of which offer is the highest, but which is the most favorable. The law allows for the selection of the most favorable offer for which not only the price matters. Because who guarantees that he will succeed in purchasing a fish pond where fish has been produced for 45 years. It is not the first time in Croatia that the most favorable offer has been assessed as the one with a lower amount – says Dr. Anđelko Opačak, director and co-owner of the fish farming farm Silurus, who is also the head of the Department of Fisheries at the Faculty of Agriculture in Osijek. According to Opačak’s opinion, there is nothing questionable in the decision of the City Council of Donji Miholjac, since Zvonko Popović is not registered for aquaculture nor does he have references in that field. If the fish pond had been sold to him, it would have jeopardized the business of the current company Silurus and the fish pond would have been split as a production-technological unit.

– I am convinced that no one responsible in this country would allow that. Moreover, Popović does not know that the strategy of the Republic of Croatia is precisely to stimulate entrepreneurs who work on fish ponds so that they can further invest in their maintenance and development. That is why the starting price is relatively low, as Silurus will invest another two million euros in the next four years to restore the fish pond to its original state – explains Dr. Opačak. To be able to achieve that investment, Dr. Opačak sold 26 percent of his stake in the share capital of the company Silurus to Agroholding owned by Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank a little over a month ago. Agroholding will support the company with two million euros with which Silurus will achieve its business plan in the next four years.

The fish pond must not become arable land

However, Zvonko Popović doubts such intentions of Silurus. He believes that the tender for the privatization of the fish pond was initiated because if Silurus does not become the owner of the fish farming areas, it would enter bankruptcy for the second time, which is why it sold its stake to Agroholding. Popović also states that the City was in a legal dispute with the company Silurus because it had not paid the lease for the fish ponds, and the lease was paid only shortly before the tender to suspend the legal dispute, but Mayor Željko Macanić says that this is not true and that the company Silurus settled all its obligations before applying for the tender. The City Administration of Donji Miholjac sent an inquiry to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management regarding the possibility of repurposing the fish pond into arable land. Two months later, Minister Petar Čobanković signed an opinion stating that ‘it is neither justified nor expedient or possible to repurpose the fish pond into arable land.’

– There was a concern and responsibility of the City and the Council that by purchasing those areas instead of fish, vegetables or something similar would not be grown, as Popović stated that he needed certain arable areas for potato production – says Dr. Opačak. After the Ministry confirmed the impossibility of repurposing the land, Dr. Opačak addressed the City Council to present the program and vision for the development of the fish pond for the next ten years at the next Council meeting.
– When I presented the fish pond at the Council, everyone was present except Popović, who, according to his official duty, should have been present. Now I know that he intentionally was not present because he knew he would apply for the tender – says Dr. Opačak and continues: – I, like many councilors, was surprised that Popović applied for the tender on the last day because we believe that he, as an official and responsible person in local government units, abused his position. As deputy mayor, he was aware of Silurus’s plans from the first day of our negotiations, he exploited our plans and vision, which, in my opinion, is a conflict of interest, not to mention the moral value of such a person – claims Opačak.

Popović: – I am not in a conflict of interest

– Why would it be a problem for me as an entrepreneur to apply for a public tender and invest my capital in one of the new projects? If the starting price had been determined by the Administration in which I sit or the Council from which I came to the position of deputy mayor, I might be in a conflict of interest, but since everything is transparent and it is a public tender, I cannot be in a conflict of interest in any case, except that my interest does not coincide with the interest of the other party that applied for the tender – says Popović and announces that he will file a criminal complaint because he believes there is reasonable suspicion that Silurus was favored and that everything was rigged.
– I do not want to sit in a government that makes such decisions. In a conversation between the Council President Zoran Kovač, today’s Mayor Željko Macanić, Dr. Opačak, and myself, Dr. Opačak stated that he had a buyer for the fish pond for four million euros. I think it would be very useful for Dr. Opačak and his ‘associates’ to renew contacts after such a decision by the Council – Popović ironically concludes.