Skopje, 18 September 2024 (MIA) — The Constitutional Court is considering Wednesday the motion filed by the former members of the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption claiming abuse of the 'Balancer' ethnic diversity program. Constitutional Court president Darko Kostadinovski recently told MIA that he expected to hear a case based on legal arguments only and a court decision that was constitutionally sound.

The program was designed to promote ethnic diversity through affirmative action in hiring governmental workers but which gave rise to "fraud, influence peddling, corruption and clientelism," according to the petitioners.

According to the Constitutional Court, disputed are parts of Article 19 on "belonging to a community" of the Law on Public Sector Employees; parts of Article 36 on "belonging to a community" of the Law on Civil Servants and parts of Article 2 and Article 3 on "belonging to a community" of the official rulebook on public job announcements.

There are also objections to the registry of persons who provided false information in their public sector job applications regarding their ethnicity.

The former anticorruption commission members said the disputed legal provisions threaten the basic human freedoms and rights, the free expression of ethnic background, the appropriate and fair representation of citizens belonging to all communities in the administration and other public institutions and the rule of law guaranteed by the provisions in Articles 9, 32, and 54 of the Constitution.

The motion says that the phrasing "belonging to a community" puts pressure on job applicants to disclose their ethnicity, violating the constitutionally guaranteed right to free expression of ethnic affiliation.

"Belonging is a personal feeling of a citizen and as such, it can change," the anticorruption watchdog noted.

"Belonging to a community is neither a general nor a special condition for employing administrative servants under the Law on Public Sector Employees or the Law on Civil Servants," the petitioners said, adding that it merely eliminated candidates on an ethnic basis and undermined the principles of expertise and competence laid out in the Law on Public Sector Employees.

The motion brought before the Constitutional Court also challenges the official rulebook on public job announcements, claiming that its provisions, by specifying the ethnic affiliation required to fill each position, discriminate against candidates.

The anticorruption commission decided to file the motion at its session on Jan. 11, when the members concluded that the 'Balancer' was being abused.

The commission members said that the diversity program, although it helped promote ethnic diversity, resulted in administrative bloat by creating unnecessary state jobs and employment based on ethnicity and not on merit. Also, they said, it resulted in fraud, influence peddling, corruption and clientelism.

For those reasons, the state should consider either scrapping the 'Balancer' or finding ways to prevent its abuse, the watchdog said. mr/