Zaječar's 18-Year Bus PPP Stalled by 12th Legal Challenge in Year-Long Tender

A Year of Delays: Zaječar's Bus PPP Tender and Its 12th Complaint

On 7 August, the City of Zaječar received another request for protection of rights in the year-old procedure to select a private partner for public bus transport. The city launched the public call on 8 July 2025, seeking a company to carry out municipal and suburban passenger transport under an 18-year public-private partnership contract. That latest complaint is the 12th submitted since the tender opened.

Requests for protection of rights allow interested companies to challenge tender documents, public calls or contract awards that they believe break procurement rules. In normal practice, the procedure is suspended while the Republican Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement decides. The repeated filings explain why the Zaječar process has now lasted more than a year.

Some interruptions have been handled differently. After a complaint was filed on 12 July, the City was allowed to continue the procedure based on an opinion from the Office for Public Procurement. The same had occurred after a filing on 11 June, when the city asked the Republican Commission for permission to continue before the complaint was resolved. Zaječar argued that previous challenges had not upheld objections to the technical specification and qualification criteria, and said the requests were aimed at obstructing the process.

The complaints have come from several operators: three from Limeta Travel, two from Mihajlović Profi 2017, and one each from Lepenica-Trans, FlixBus, King Line, DOO AS-Turs and Lastar prevoz. Five were rejected, two were withdrawn, and two were accepted. Most objections concerned tender documentation and the deadlines set for preparing bids. The underlying unsolicited proposal for the PPP was commissioned by Nikolić prevoz and prepared by PPP Investment Beograd.

Why Zaječar's Tender Keeps Stalling — and What the Complaints Target

Why the 18-year contract makes every delay worth fighting

The city plans to sign an 18-year contract with a single private partner for city and suburban bus transport. In a local market of Zaječar's size, that is effectively a long-term exclusive franchise, so procedural defeats matter even when the immediate contract value is modest. This helps explain the volume of challenges from regional operators such as Limeta Travel, Lepenica-Trans and Lastar prevoz, and from FlixBus, which operates intercity routes.

The city's legal counter: obstruction, not merit

Zaječar's administration has used a mechanism allowing a contracting authority to continue despite pending complaints, supported by the Office for Public Procurement. Its argument is that none of the earlier challenges succeeded on the merits, and that the requests were aimed at obstruction. That view is not neutral, however: two requests were accepted, meaning the Republican Commission found at least some complaints grounded, even if the city stresses that the technical specification and qualification criteria were not overturned.

The unsolicited-proposal wrinkle

The procedure rests on an unsolicited proposal commissioned by Nikolić prevoz and drafted by PPP Investment Beograd. Under Serbian public-private partnership law, the proposer may participate if its role in preparing the proposal does not distort competition. That creates both an informational advantage and a potential flashpoint: rivals may see the process as shaped around the original proposal, even though the city has not been found to have excluded them.

Who gains if the delays continue

No single bidder wins from a stalled tender: the process raises bidding costs and leaves the city without the private partner it has sought since July 2025. But the continuation decisions reduce the leverage that complaints usually carry, and the city, by pressing on, may benefit from procedural fatigue among challengers. For citizens, the practical effect is prolonged uncertainty over who will run the local bus network under the next long-term contract.

What Bidders, the City and Citizens Should Expect Next

• Municipal lawyers and contracting authorities facing similar disputes should obtain written opinions from the Office for Public Procurement and document prior Republican Commission decisions before continuing a suspended tender — the route Zaječar used after the 11 June and 12 July filings.
• Private operators preparing bids for Zaječar's bus PPP should review the two accepted complaints on documentation and deadlines, because those show where the tender terms have already been successfully challenged.
• Investors evaluating an 18-year bus PPP in Serbia should treat the legal timeline as a core deal risk: even after five rejections and two withdrawals, new complaints are still stopping the award.
• Citizens of Zaječar should expect further postponements of the decision on the next bus operator unless the Republican Commission dismisses the remaining claims quickly or again permits the procedure to continue.