Skopje, 15 November 2023 (MIA) — The State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption at its session Wednesday decided to file a motion to the Government asking responsibility and criminal prosecution of North Macedonia's Film Agency director over the negligent spending of budget funds.

In presenting the case, the anticorruption commission's chairwoman Biljana Ivanovska pointed to the Film Agency's financial audit reports, including on employments, work contracts, and payments to outside experts.

She urged the government to carefully read the audit reports and said political favoritism heavily influenced the selection of contractors and the dispensing of state jobs.

"We see party cronyism in hiring at every turn," Ivanovska said.

The anticorruption team also decided to file a motion for criminal charges to be pressed against the current and former Radovish mayors because they had hired a person to be acting director of the local water and sanitation utility 12 times without posting any job announcements.

Commission member Nuri Bajrami elaborated on the case. He said no job announcement had ever been posted and only one person had been hired for the well-paid state job.

According to Bajrami, there were no words to describe this situation other than "corruption and violation of the legal system."

The anticorruption team also pointed out that they had received materials related to the Oncology Clinic scandal but they would be forwarding them to the prosecution, given the official investigation already under way.

Members also revewed the remarks in the European Commission's Report regarding their work.

Ivanovska said that the anticorruption commission's progress had been hindered over the past five years due to state institutions not implementing their recommendations.

"I don't know," she said, "how to motivate the institutions to implement the anticorruption commission's initiatives."

She also expressed hopes that the next members of the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption would do more in this regard.

"I hope everyone in the institutions, the management, the leadership becomes more aware that everything depends on us and that we seriously have to tackle this problem," Ivanovska said.

Commission member Vladimir Georgiev noted that the EC's report had said the state was backsliding.

"There is no progress that takes us two steps back," Georgiev said, pointing out various allegations of corruption, favoritism, nepotism and cronyism as reasons for the assessment. mr/