RGZ Director's Removal Follows Zlatibor Land Dispute
The government dismissed Borko Draskovic, RGZ director for 11 years, before his term ended, after the authority feuded publicly with Cajetina mayor Milan Stamatovic over Zlatibor land.
The removal of the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ) director took place on August 6, before his term was up and without any public explanation. Serbia’s government dismissed Borko Draskovic, who had held the post for 11 years, and named Dalibor Babic, a geodetic inspector in the authority’s oversight and control department, as acting director.
We reported on the personnel decision itself the same day it was made. What has since come to light is the backstory: for months, RGZ had been locked in an open dispute with Cajetina mayor and Zdrava Srbija leader Milan Stamatovic over land ownership on Zlatibor, a dispute the authority carried out partly from its own official account on X.
A Land Registry Fight Playing Out on Social Media
The institution that keeps Serbia’s single register of real estate found itself in a public argument with a local government, and not only through letters and statements but through posts on its own social media account. At stake was land on Zlatibor, the most expensive tourist property in that part of Serbia.
This was not Draskovic’s first clash with a senior government official. Former Construction Minister Goran Vesic had publicly criticized the cadastral authority’s work, the authority’s union fired back on Draskovic’s behalf, and Draskovic kept his job afterward. The post changed hands only after a dispute with a municipal mayor.
Draskovic himself rejected that reading of events. Asked why he was removed after 11 years, he said the day comes “when, after 11 years, you should be replaced.” Asked whether the dismissal had anything to do with Stamatovic, he said he did his job and had done it. He announced a return to the private sector, where he had worked before joining RGZ.
Why Does Stamatovic Matter to the Government’s Math?
Because his party’s council seats hold together local ruling majorities across the Zlatibor district. After the 2024 local elections, Zdrava Srbija’s support allowed a governing coalition to form in Uzice, and in Sevojno a single seat held by the party was decisive for a majority. In an arithmetic where majorities are built on one vote, a municipal mayor carries a weight his formal title does not show.
That is also why a personnel change in a technical agency is being read as political. The RGZ director does not decide elections, but does decide on registrations, ownership transfers and the status of land, matters that in a municipality like Cajetina are measured in millions of euros.
Lawmakers Want an Explanation
Independent lawmaker and former Zdrava Srbija member Miloljub Albijanic called the decision political. “One formal detail raises suspicion. Who replaces a director? The government replaces directors,” Albijanic told the Nova.rs news portal, adding that the term was cut short and that the new acting director came from the inspection service rather than from among the deputy directors.
Democratic Party leader Srdjan Milivojevic linked the decision to construction dealings in Belgrade rather than to Zlatibor. “Every trace in this country, of every misdeed and every abuse, leads to Aleksandar Vucic,” Milivojevic told the same portal.
Serbia’s government has not published any explanation for the dismissal.
The Cable Car Was Already the Same Story Once
A similar pattern played out several years ago. Former Construction Minister Zorana Mihajlovic spent years in a dispute with Stamatovic over an illegally built cable car on Zlatibor: work was halted, inspectors issued bans, and criminal complaints were filed.
The dispute ended ahead of the 2021 elections. President Aleksandar Vucic traveled to Zlatibor, opened the cable car together with Stamatovic, and the state approved extra funding for the municipality. The institutional conflict then disappeared from public view.
Because of that precedent, the RGZ removal comes with a test that can be measured rather than merely interpreted. If the dispute over Zlatibor land quiets down under acting director Babic, and if that coincides with the next election cycle in which Zdrava Srbija’s seats are needed again, the 2021 pattern gets a second confirmation. If the dispute continues at the same pace, the theory of a political order behind the move has nothing to back it.
The first concrete deadline is the acting status itself. Babic was appointed as a temporary solution, and the government’s next move, naming a director with a full mandate, will show how planned this change at the top of the cadastral authority really was.
