In the Ministry of Mining and Energy (MRE), only two republican mining inspectors were engaged in 2020 and 2021, only one in the following year 2022, there were three of them last year, as many will work in 2024. The same ministry hired two more republican geological inspectors in 2020, 2021 and 2022, last year there were four, and this year there are three of them, according to the text published by the association Prvi Prvi na skali.
The association obtained this data from MRE through a request for free access to information of public importance.
The Ministry replied to this association that in 2020, the republic’s mining and geological inspectors performed 192 regular inspections, 54 extraordinary inspections, and there were no official advisory visits. In 2021, there were 119 regular inspections, 110 extraordinary inspections and 22 official advisory visits.
Furthermore, according to the data for 2022, there were 100 regular inspections, 58 extraordinary inspections and five official advisory visits, while in 2023 there were 165 regular inspections, 89 extraordinary inspections and 18 official advisory visits.
Individual data were not provided – how much was the performance of the mining and how much of the geological inspectors.
In the last four years, a total of 24 administrative disputes were conducted: in 2020 (four), in 2021 (15), in 2022 (three), in 2023 (two).
“All these disputes were initiated against the Ministry of Mining and Energy, lawsuits were filed against the administrative acts of the MRE,” the answer reads. The MRE explained that it was the defendant party, but did not specify who initiated the lawsuits practically against the State of Serbia.
The Association also received from MRE the annual plans of inspection supervision of the department of the Republic’s Geological and Mining Inspection for the period from 2020 to 2024.
According to the plan for the year 2023, subjects for supervision and exact dates have been registered (the period of the so-called coordinated, joint inspection supervision). With the mining inspection, only three companies were registered – Ziđin, EPS and Bosilmetal, at five locations: Ziđin kuper Bor (RBM Majdanpek branch), Ziđin kuer doo Bor (RBB Bor branch), Ziđin mining Bor, JP Elektroprivreda Srbije (RB Kolubara), Bosilmetal (Bosilegrad).
For 2023, the company Euro lithium Balkan is also listed, but beyond the mining inspectors, already within the scope of the Geological Inspection, the Environmental Protection Inspection, the Water Inspection and the Agricultural Inspection.
In the plan for the year 2022, in addition to Zidjin, EPS and Bosilmetal, the company Rio Sava Exploration, a daughter company of Rio Tinto, appeared as a subject for supervision, and the object of inspection supervision was also guard field number 1561 – Jadar.
The Mining Inspection was not designated for supervision, but the Geological, Water, Agricultural and Environmental Protection Inspections. The supervision was planned for the third quarter (July-September). In 2023, there was no longer a subsidiary of Rio Tinto to supervise.
The Ministry refused to provide answers to the questions on which subjects regular and extraordinary inspection supervision and preventive actions were carried out in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, how many actions were taken based on petitions by individuals, and how many by petitions by legal entities within the scope of the inspection of supervision in the same years and to which entities the petitions referred, and how many criminal proceedings were in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 and against which entities.
