SPO opens six new investigations against Stavreski, Janusev and Osmani

The Special Public Prosecution (SPO), tasked with investigating high-level crimes, said Wednesday that it has opened six new investigations.

They probe allegations involving financial damage to the national budget estimated at nearly €80 million.

Each investigation has its codename, namely Gift, Propaganda, Design, Harmony, Base Stations and Patient.

Former finance minister Zoran Stavreski and former transport minister Mile Janakieski and the director of the company Macedonian Energy Resources are suspects in the ‘Gift’ case. They are suspected of abusing their office in the period between January 2012 and July 2014 by securing an unlawful gain for the Russian company Stroytransgaz, estimated at approximately €33 million, thus damaging the national budget.

Stavreski and Janakieski were authorized to implement an intergovernmental agreement, signed by the governments of Macedonia and Russia on 19 June 2010, to regulate the obligations of the former USSR towards SFRY, especially those referring to Macedonia.

As regards the ‘Propaganda’ case, the order for opening of investigation covers nine people, including ex-prime minister Nikola Gruevski and Kiril Bozinovski, former secretary general of the Nikola Gruevski-led government. They are suspected of criminal association and abuse of office.

“The subject matter of this investigation is how public opinion has been influenced and how a controlled dissemination of information has been provided in media outlets by misappropriating funds from the state budget in order to promote support to the actions of the political party VMRO-DPMNE,” the SPO said in a statement.

The ‘Design’ case involves an investigation into four people for abuse of office in 2009 and 2010.

The suspects, including former transport minister Mile Janakieski, are believed to have favored a foreign company in the procedure for concluding a deal to procure 202 double-decker buses in Skopje.

Namely, the Chinese company Yutong was picked as having the most favorable bid at an issued tender, even though it was concluded that the company does not meet the required tender conditions.

The procurement procedure had cost the budget €5.000.000.

Three men are the focus of the investigation dubbed ‘Harmony’ for a suspected abuse of office.

Namely, the suspects Nikola Gruevski, Mile Janakieski and Stevco Jakimovski, ex-municipal mayor in Skopje, in 2012 misappropriated funds in amount of €385,868 to allow the Private International Balkan University Skopje to buy two construction lands in Skopje with unrealistically low prices.

Furthermore, the ‘Base Station’ case revolves around one suspect for abuse of office. The suspect, Zarko Lukovski, ex-CEO of T-Mobile Macedonia, abused his office by securing €3,522,400 in unlawful gain for another company.

For the purpose of legalizing illegal base stations, the suspect in 2011 asked the company Beton to file a financial offer to T-Mobile Macedonia in order to complete a procedure to establish the legal status of its base stations, even though T-Mobile Macedonia had a team of experts and licenced people. The Beton company offered a service that was three times more expensive than the one that could have been realized by the experts in T-Mobile Macedonia.

The investigation codenamed ‘Patient’ consists of allegations for abuse of office by 15 people, including a former health minister, in public procurement procedures involving reconstruction of several public health institutions in Macedonia.

In 2010, four of the suspects as members of the public procurement commission at the Ministry of Health submitted an illegitimate offer to pick the most favorable bidder. The then-minister of health, Bujar Osmani, instead of rejecting the commission’s offer, he decided to pick a Bulgarian company as the most favorable bidder, even though it was obvious that the company didn’t meet tender conditions. Similar procedures are believed to have taken place again in 2010, 2012 and 2013.