KAMARAS: HPK Management did a good job of running Zelezara

(Photo: YouTube/screenshot)

- HPK Management did nothing wrong. All accusations are malicious and completely fabricated – wrote Kamaras in his letter to the media.

He added that the situation in the steel market in the first three months of 2015 had been favorable, but that the results of Zelezara Smederevo, managed by Bojan Bojkovic and Ivan Milosevic under control of Assembly of Zelezara and the Minister Zeljko Sertic “were a complete disaster”.

- The losses, despite good financial shape as the Government of Serbia injected 100 million USD into the plant in December were huge and can be hardly explained in any other way than mismanagement – writes the former director and adds that the iron ore market was going down, and that Bojkovic was buying iron ore from suppliers whose prices were going up.

“One ton of hot metal was 470 USD per ton, HPK decreased it to 256 USD per ton”, writes Kamaras.

He also claims that contracts and all legally binding documents had to be signed by one of the two KPMG monitors Ivan Milosevic or Mladjan Marjanovic, who were in charge of supervision. As he says, HPK couldn't sign anything without them.

- All payments can be executed only after KPMG monitors approve it in the system. If they do not, the payment cannot be executed at all. They used this power once in all those months. They did not release a perfectly correct and clean payment to this date. HPK could not do anything about it. Nothing, not one pencil or piece of paper could have been bought without signature of the KPMG/Government – Kamaras adds in his letter.

On June 25, the management of Zelezara Smederevo terminated the contract on running the company with the company of Peter Kamaras HPK Engineering and HPK Management, as it failed to perform its obligations under the contract.

The agreement between the Government of Serbia, HPK Engineering, HPK Management and Zelezara Smederevo on running Zelezara was signed on March 21, 2015, and HPK took over the management on April 20.

KPMG: We don't respond to comments on our work

The company KPMG has announced that it is familiar with the contents of the letter that Peter Kamaras has sent to the media, but that it is the practice of KPMG not to respond publicly to comments on the work of the company and its employees, “not even when those comments are not true”.

- The company KPMG, between April 25, 2015, and June 25, 2016, had a signed agreement with Zelezara Smederevo on providing services of supervising the restructuring. In that period, KPMG kept reporting to the owner of Zelezara Smederevo, the Government of the Republic of Serbia, about all aspects of the restructuring – states the announcement of this audit company.

As it is stated, the contents of all reports were fully in compliance with KPMG's obligations under the contract, just as their work in the mentioned period was fully in compliance with the standards the company maintains throughout the world.

THE MINISTRY: Kamaras' comments malicious and biased

The Ministry of Economy has also made an announcement regarding the letter of Peter Kamaras. They state that the words of the director and owner of HPK Management are an attempt to shake off the responsibility for the termination of the contract, in front of business circles and local and international public.

- The main goal of the Ministry of Economy was to maintain the production capacities of Zelezara Smederevo to the largest extent possible and to provide the prerequisites for a long-term employment of workforce and realizing Serbia's further economic advancement. We are proud of the successful completion of the process of signing the agreement with the high ranking Chinese company Hesteel and the fact that, in the coming period, Smederevo will be the driving force of the metallurgy sector and the entire economy of the Republic of Serbia by contributing to the increase in the national product, which, according to EBRD's estimations, will be 3.8% in 2017.

The Ministry of Economy has criticized Kamaras' allegations as malicious and biased.

- Unfortunately, this is not Mr Kamaras' first strawman argument.

Quite contrary to the practice alleged by Kamaras, the Ministry of Economy, as it has been stated, honors the obligation defined by the law to protect the integrity and economic interests of the Republic of Serbia and its citizens.

- This is why we won't argue further, but turn to the future and our new business prospects instead.