By Dragana Pećo and Dino Jahić (CINS, OCCRP)

A CINS/OCCRP investigation reveals how taxpayer money from the Balkans is spent so that public institutions can “win” meaningless international awards.

The Belgrade Pharmacy representatives beam with pride as they pose for photographers holding a statuette, golden badge and plaque. They have just received a quality award for their company at a fancy ceremony in Madrid.

The event is frozen in time, the photos emblazoned in a special section on the pharmacy website, as an important symbol of international success.

But is it?

Many institutions and individuals in the Balkans like to show off international awards as proof of a great achievement or business accomplishment. In many cases, however, those awards are bogus, sold by unscrupulous organizations that prey on human vanity.

Center for Investigative Reporting of Serbia (CINS) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that awards mania has swept the region since 2000, with hundreds of “honors” doled out during that period. Yet CINS/OCCRP could find no evidence of competitions, judging, or even set criteria used to determine winners.

The pattern appears to be that anyone who pays enough money can win an award. Many winners come from the public sector, which means that money paid for awards came from budgets or ultimately from the pockets of taxpayers.

These awards do not come cheap.

In Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, around 50 public institutions received these awards. Some paid for multiple awards at prices that ranged from € 2,000 to more than € 7,000 (US$ 2,500-9,300) per prize.

“Quality” and “prestige” prizes have gone to Balkan companies which later went into bankruptcy or faced investigation.

For example, the Serbian state-owned pharmaceutical company Galenika was honored in 2009, but later became the subject of an investigation and prosecution. Ten people including two company directors of Galenika were indicted in January 2014 on charges of fraud and embezzlement of more than € 75 million (around US$ 95 million).

In 2005, former Sarajevo Airport director Bakir Karahasanović and assistant director Elvedin Begić (who is also president of the BiH Football Association), received an award for the airport. In July 2014, the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation against them for several charges related to their work at the airport, including abuse of office and making harmful contract for the company.

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