The Vice President of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) Katica Nikolovska today at the public debate dedicated to the upcoming local elections said that some mayors spend funds from the municipal budget for the purchase of fuel, which is poured into private vehicles. who are they in function of the election activities.

- Knowing that the SCPC has established a mechanism to monitor whether official vehicles are used for election purposes, some of the mayors spend municipal money to purchase fuel, which is poured into other private vehicles, who are they used in party activities, which started prematurely, emphasizes Nikolovska.

She said that the SCPC monitors all reports of refueling municipal money for election purposes, records them, notes them, and in accordance with the competencies of the Commission, will assess whether there is a need to open a case, act and appropriate sanctions.

- All reports that will reach us during this election process, will further be an initiative to create new mechanisms for monitoring all funds, not only available to municipalities, but also other institutions, to make them transparent in terms of spending budget money in the pre-election and election process, pointed out Nikolovska.

The SCPC believes that to some extent they have managed to solve the problem of using official vehicles for party activities, it remains to find a way to prevent the use of fuel paid with municipal money and used for private vehicles.

Nikolovska, among other things, at the public debate "Local Elections 2021 - Integrity of the election process and integrity of the participants" organized by the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, said that we are witnesses that we hold elections every year, so that, parties, as that said, they become dominant in the daily lives of citizens and influence the creation of their opinion or behavior.

- If political parties are creators of the way of life and behavior in a country through the laws that create and pass them, and as and everyone else should respect and apply them, because before every election ways are found, and everything that is not prohibited by law, becomes a regular practice to promote some projects, party activities and before the official start of the election campaign. In order to get as many votes as possible, parties often make promises that are unrealistic or difficult to deliver. Even more so that they remain in the programs as living proof of their poor planning, ie of activities that have not been realized, says Nikolovska.

She also referred to the candidacy of people who are famous in the middle as people with questionable business relationships, then someone who is not valued enough in their environment, then instead of talking about what they plan to do in the future, the campaign focuses on creating a black image of the person, and thus the party.

Nikolovska noted that today new technologies are used for campaigns, as what are social networks, portals. But as that said, they are most often used to create a black image of a person, ie members of rival parties.

Source: MIA