Belgrade police, following an order from the public prosecutor’s office, arrested the mayor of Obrenovac and 14 other individuals on corruption charges.

The arrest of Obrenovac Mayor Milorad Grčić pertains to his tenure as general director of Serbia’s public electricity company, EPS, from 2016 to 2022. According to the prosecutor’s office, he is suspected of “abuse of office in procurement tenders, accepting bribes, and other criminal offenses” that allegedly caused public losses exceeding one million euros. The arrests of the other suspects are also linked to this case.

It is worth noting that around ten days ago, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, seemingly to defuse public and student outrage, announced imminent police operations targeting corruption. The opposition accuses the prosecutor’s office of once again serving Vučić’s political interests and only acting when ordered to do so. The corruption investigation into EPS reportedly began in 2019-2020, according to prosecutor Bojana Savović, who spoke to the N1 television network. She had been investigating a case involving the embezzlement of $7.5 million within EPS but claims the case was taken away from her, and she was politically removed from the department responsible for combating corruption.

Milorad Grčić is a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). In 2012, when SNS came to power, he was appointed general director of the EPS lignite mines “Kolubara” in Obrenovac. The fact that he did not provide a university degree justifying his appointment sparked backlash and mockery. The opposition sarcastically referred to him as the director of the country’s largest lignite mine whose only prior experience with coal was that he owned a barbecue restaurant before entering politics.

This did not stop his rise, and in 2016, then-Prime Minister and current President Aleksandar Vučić appointed him general director of Serbia’s public electricity company. At that time, Grčić presented a degree from a private university based in some small Serbian town.

Mismanagement and the appointment of unqualified individuals to key positions in the mines led, in December 2021, to a halt in electricity production due to a miscalculation of underground reserves. As a result, power plants were receiving coal with low carbon content, causing massive power outages affecting 136,000 households. Serbia was then forced to import electricity from abroad. Under public pressure, Grčić resigned a month later but was subsequently appointed deputy mayor of Obrenovac. In the July 2024 elections, he was elected mayor of the city under the banner of the Serbian Progressive Party.