I call on both the governments of the United States of America and Turkey to say whether any of them or their companies involved in the construction of the highways have made any demands from our country during the past two years as we have been preparing for this largest infrastructure project ever, worth 1,3 XNUMX billion euros.

This call by Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski is actually an answer to a journalist's question, related to the supervision of the construction of highways from corridors 8 and 10D. Doubts about whether everything is legal arose after yesterday the Public Prosecutor's Office for the Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption (JOGOKK) opened a case on this case based on a taped voice.

Prime Minister Kovacevski once again called on the competent institutions "to check this entire project".

- I answered three times, yesterday also to a parliamentary question, and now I will answer for the fourth time. The contractor "Bechtel and Enka" was chosen by a special law in the Parliament that was supported by all deputies and confirmed by the Constitutional Court. Second, the supervisory authority was selected in a procedure in which all legal procedures were respected by the responsible institutions, led by the Public Enterprise for State Roads. Three companies participated in that procedure, and one was selected based on the provisions of the tender. An administrative procedure has also been implemented and all data is publicly available through the Public Procurement Bureau. Given that information appeared, predominantly from the opposition, but also from the media, I said then and now that all the institutions that have jurisdiction should check this entire project, which means that I said that the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Anti-Corruption Commission should also act in order to all allegations are being investigated - Kovacevski said.

He reiterated that the Government will submit all the documents for the previous proceedings of the past two years to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

- A MP of VMRO-DPMNE said that funds were requested from everywhere, probably in a rhetorical frenzy, so apart from the institutions, I also called on the governments of the USA and Turkey to say if any of them or the companies have requested anything in the past two years . We are talking about a project that for the first time will finally enable the infrastructural connection of Corridor 8 and with it we provide an exit to the ports of Durres and Burgas, and now we only have an exit to the port of Thessaloniki - Kovacevski said.

Lefkov: The terms of the tender were changed in the middle of the procedure

MP Mile Lefkov addressed Prime Minister Kovacevski with a parliamentary question yesterday - does he think that an investigation should be opened immediately into the surveillance worth 22 million euros.

– The terms of the tender were changed in the middle of the procedure so that a losing company could win the tender. Suspicions of tender rigging have been raised through a variety of media, and we see that the state and those who are supposed to fight corruption, mostly the Public Prosecutor's Office, remain silent. And that is precisely why we have low confidence in the Prosecutor's Office - said MP Lefkov from VMRO-DPMNE.

The Public Prosecutor's Office for the Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption reported yesterday that they have opened a case for the supervision of the highways after a tip-off, in order to check the allegations that are being made public. The case has been assigned to a competent prosecutor.

The Prosecutor's Office told "Sloboden Pechat" that it is too early for any conclusions and to share information with the public at this initial stage, in which the public prosecutor's decision is expected whether there will be an investigation or not.

The Anti-Corruption Commission says that they have opened a case after receiving a report about the way the company was chosen to oversee the construction. The case has been allocated and the procedure is ongoing, they say from there.

What the media wrote about the companies selected for construction supervision

The consortium that won the tender for supervising the construction of the highways and signed an agreement with the Government on February 2, is led by the Italian "IRD Engineering", and there are three other companies in it - the Spanish "Eptisa" and two Macedonian companies, "Electra Solutions". and Euro Consulting. Analyzing the available documentation, the media reported that the monthly and one-time fees for the supervision are huge, that is, the four main supervising engineers will receive 20 thousand euros per month, that there is no evidence of the expertise of 23 experts out of a total of 81 as much as the companies that won the tender and the subcontractors that were additionally hired. The media also wrote that "Electra Solutions" claims in the offer and in the contract that it has 32 employees, of which 27 are engineers, and in the annual account for last year it states that there are only two employees on average.

Also, for one of the four companies in the supervision, "Eptisa", in 2020 the Government made a decision by which the state and local institutions were forbidden to engage it in tenders with a value of over one million euros due to "illegal, unethical and irresponsible action in the supervision of the works on the Kumanovo - Belakovce railway", and after a few months the Government canceled the decision. It was also announced that one of the owners of "Euro consulting", Branislav Dimitrijevic, was hired in Armenia as a team leader in the French-Spanish consortium "Savezh-Eptisa" for a large infrastructure project, for which the Armenian prosecutor's office has filed an indictment, and Dimitrijevic is prosecutes for the crime of "committed fraud on a large scale".

All these writings in the past months were not enough for JOGOKK, which has been headed by Islam Abazi since three months ago, to start an investigation after a voice was touched, but they waited for someone to file a criminal complaint, and they declared to the media that they are following all the information and statements and if they are determined elements of a criminal act, an appropriate procedure will be initiated.

The contractor "Bechtel and Enka", in accordance with the special law, will design and construct the highways Tetovo - Gostivar, Struga - Qafasan, as well as Prilep - Bitola, and the Government expects that they will be completed in five years.