Over the years, citizens have constantly reported illegal bars in Skopje, which operated without a license and without standards, but they were very perfidiously protected as "polar bears", primarily by the legal provisions in The Law on Catering Activities. 

In this Law, in Article 60, a market inspector is authorized to close a night bar, cabaret and disco without a license only temporarily, for a period of 30 days. If such facilities do not obtain a license within 30 days, then the inspector can close them again for another 30 days. However, the law does not refer to permanent closure for lack of a license.

This leads to the classic picture in Macedonian society today – the owners of some of these facilities pay fines and continue to operate, again illegally. As shows According to the archives of the Anti-Corruption Commission, in February 2023, two reports were received at the address of the Anti-Corruption Commission with allegations that the inspectors from the market inspection in Skopje were operating illegally and turning a blind eye to those bars and discos that did not have licenses, that is, they did not close those facilities that were operating after midnight in the capital, and did not have a permit for such activity.

The Anti-Corruption Commission ordered the Inspection Council, under whose jurisdiction all inspectorates in the country fall, to take action against inspectors who were working illegally. The Anti-Corruption Commission also ordered the director of the State Market Inspectorate at the time to do the same.

"During 2022, although controls were continuously carried out and fines and sanctions were imposed, they were paid by the owners, but the premises were not closed even though they did not possess appropriate licenses, i.e. work permits. The fact that some of them received their licenses in 2023 (one year later, according to the law), and two premises have not yet requested a work permit, speaks of the concentration of great power and influence by the owners of these premises over various state bodies and authorities, which in turn contributes to illegal actions by inspectors from the State Market Inspectorate, but also from the Ministry of Interior," the decision of the Anti-Corruption Commission states.

What was the report?

Inspectors from the State Market Inspectorate were reported in February 2023 for abusing their official position and authority and for not acting legally. The allegations in the report point to the inspectors' failure to act during inspections in a large number of catering establishments, discos and nightclubs in Skopje, in the period from mid-December 2022 during the weekends when they conducted inspections. The report submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission states that during the inspections, despite the fact that most of the venues were operating after the permitted working hours and did not have nightclub licenses, they were not closed and continued to operate.

The Ministry of Interior provided information for only one month, even though the Anti-Corruption Commission requested information for the entire year.

When they read the report, the anti-corruption officers got to work. They requested information from the Ministry of Interior about all the controls that the police conducted in the listed facilities in 2022. However, the Ministry of Interior only provided them with information for December 2022 – that they did not go out into the field in cooperation with the Market Inspection in any of the premises that were the subject of the report. For the other 11 months of 2022, the Ministry of Interior hid the data from the anti-corruption officers, even though they had been requested.

According to the responses from the police - the facilities in which police officers did not enter in December 2022 in cooperation with the Market Inspection were: "Central Park", "Musandra", "Metso", "Mosh", "Epicenter", "Terminal" and others, according to their response to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The State Market Inspectorate, on the other hand, responded that it continuously carried out inspections in all the listed facilities, on several occasions in the period from January 2022 to June 2023, during which they issued a decision for a temporary ban on carrying out activities for some of the catering facilities, and in others they issued orders for the owners to pay a fine. In some cases, they also filed a request to initiate a misdemeanor procedure. When entering the discos, in some of them the license for operating was also presented. catering business.

The Ministry of Economy, however, responded to the Anti-Corruption Commission that they had issued a cabaret license for four of the listed facilities. However, no one had requested a license for some of the facilities, which means that some of the facilities were operating illegally. Legally, the market inspectorate can close them for a period of 30 days. If they do not obtain a license within that time period, the market inspectors can close them again, but again for a period of 30 days.

There is no legal basis for permanent closure, claims Stojko Paunovski, former director of the State Market Inspectorate, for "Sloboden Pechat".

Additionally, some owners are taking advantage of loopholes in the law by re-registering their companies under a different name in the Central Registry.