We too are raped by enforcement agents

Erol Rizaov

I think that a good editorial move would be if one of the newspapers create a section: “We too are raped by enforcement agents and all kinds of other ticks,” who suck the citizens’ blood under the protection of the state, by legalizing robbery. The reason for such a column is not the world trend of “MeToo” about the harassment of Hollywood stars and their suffering on the road to success, but the public address of our fellow citizen, Guksen Mamut, in whose experience of preventing attempted theft, thousands of citizens recognized themselves as victims of brutal reaching for their pockets.

Mrs. Guksen caught the robbers alive. Here’s how. The enforcement agents handed her an order to urgently pay a delayed heating bill from 2013, which demanded collection of 12,900 denars. So, according to the law on execution, the costs of 3,900 denars increased. She describes her odyssey, recorded on her mobile phone during a meeting with the enforcement agents. First nicely, then harshly, up to threatening forcible collection of the “unpaid” bill of five years. There are a dozen different rates here, this much for this, this much for that, this much for the budget, for the enforcement agents, court expenditures, and it all adds up to 12.900. That’s what the Law says. And here’s the turning point. Our fellow citizen goes home and finds the receipt that she has paid the bill. How lucky. And now there is new drama with the enforcement agents. In the end, she still has to pay a certain amount of legal expenses. And now the question is – what about the citizens who fail to keep their bills for three, five, ten, and even more years in their domestic archives.
Is there a law that allows companies to send you enforcement agents with this robbers’ method because you did not pay a bill in June 2008, or maybe you paid and you do not have the receipt for the heating bill, even though you have paid regularly in the past 20 years and never missed a month to pay for your heating. That’s what happened to me. I received an order in which Comrade Stalin asked me where I was on June 23, 2008 at 10 am. I went to him and said “I cannot remember where I was on that date, at that hour, so many years ago”. “Well, if you can’t remember,” he said, “instead of 2.000, you need to pay a little over 10.000 denars”. “All right”, I said satisfied with myself, “just don’t take my furniture and don’t shoot me.”
I did a little research and here is what I found out. Citizens are not obliged to keep paid bills. If companies cannot charge, either by means of a court procedure within a certain period, then there is no place for collection through enforcement agents.

But, this is what is happening: the courts have given thousands of cases to enforcement agents along with court stamps, and these enforcement agents are printing alleged lawsuits in foreseeable deadline, that the company sued you timely, and how you were reprimanded by the court and the company, and you finally get the verdict for something that’s expired, which the enforcement agents should implement according to the law. I do not know if companies and enforcement agents still have these court seals of arbitrariness and robbery, but this collecting of illegal tax seems like it.

When I went to the District Heating System of the City of Skopje to pay for my penalty, because I did not know where I was on June 23, 2008, I came out shook from what I saw inside. There were people waiting, as if they were waiting for bread after the Skopje earthquake. All of them with orders in their hands to pay tens of thousands denars for central cooling to the point of freezing. Since the implementation of Macedonian enforcement system, they charged over billion euros from enforcement procedures. Each year, from 2006 up to now, hundreds of millions of euros of unpaid bills have been charged from companies and citizens.

But, there is already a brighter side to this medal. Many people and companies sigh thanks to the enforcement agents, that is, the enforcement proceedings. Other con-men, who avoid paying their debts, have been hit by the law and enforcement agents that, in a way, affects the improvement of the financial discipline and prevents the avoidance of paying debts, a kind of crime that has gained proportions of an epidemic. At one time the situation with the companies came to the point that the dues were paid only by those who must pay.
But what is the case of protecting the rights of citizens is the necessity of utmost care in the proceedings, when citizens are led to an absurd situation to prove after many years whether they paid or not some account due to someone’s inability. And the worst part is the need to reduce the amount of costs that resemble draconian fines for one’s greed and laziness, rather than a normal procedure for collecting the claims of communal and service companies.

The story with the banks and loans is completely different. There, before you sign read the articles of the Borrowing Agreement with the smallest letters, because the devil hides in the details. Once you have read it and made the calculations, then decide whether you will sign the loan. Because nothing will save you later. Bankers charge debts from countries that do not exist, let alone from you. The heirs of the former Yugoslavia, although they have not yet shared their inheritance, are paying their debts properly, because the bankers were the first to recognize the states after the breakup of Yugoslavia.

There are also people that can outsmart bankers. These people are smooth criminals with beautiful suits, white shirts and ties. They take out loans of millions of euros, on behalf of a property that is not worth that much. They don’t pay back those loans, nor do they have the intention to do that. When they go bankrupt and declare bankruptcy, they buy drinks for everyone, or enjoy themselves on some tropic paradise on the other side of the globe. They con everyone that worked for them, and the banks and creditors cannot collect a one tenth off of their overvalued property. Neither enforcement agents can help in situations like these. These people have multiplied in Macedonia over the years. They are bankrupt, and still wealthy on someone else’s cost, they are in debt, and still are shameless, they are arrogant with your money. For how will these people walk freely in Macedonia as peacocks before their imprisoned victims.