Skopje, 25 March 2025 (MIA) - Criminal charges have been filed against five people and one legal entity over abuses in public procurement for the selection of a company providing physical security services at 14 toll stations of the Public Enterprise for State Roads. Former director of the Public Enterprise for State Roads, Ejup Rustemi, is among the people against whom criminal charges have been filed. 

"Criminal charges were filed against Dz.B. (54) from Kichevo, E.R. (56) from Tetovo, E.Lj. (61) from Tetovo, M.B. (48) from Skopje and D.Z. (39) from Tetovo and against a legal entity from Kichevo. An investigation has been launched against the then manager of the company from Kichevo and the legal entity for the criminal offence of "abuse of public call procedure, award of public procurement or public-private partnership contract" under Article 275-c of the Criminal Code, while for the remaining four individuals - the then director of the company, one of the signatories of the contract and two individuals responsible for control of the implementation, a procedure is being conducted for criminal offences that include abuse of authority and authorization and falsification of official documents," said the Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecutor's Office. 

This involves a public procurement contract concluded on 08.08.2022, by which the suspect, security agency manager, had undertaken to provide ongoing physical security services 24/7 at all 14 toll stations of the Public Enterprise for State Roads for two years. Although he was obliged to do so according to the signed contract, he did not comply with the obligation and for the entire period of the contract he only provided partial physical security services, while invoicing services as if 24/7 physical security had been provided for the entire period of the contract until its termination.

"The director of the public enterprise at the time had a duty to ensure legality and adherence to regulations, statutes and other acts, as well as to control whether the execution of the public procurement contract was in accordance with the terms, but he failed to perform such duty and failed to exercise due supervision over the public procurement holder even though he knew that physical security services were only partially provided. Two suspects, heads of the toll collection and control departments, also had a duty to monitor the contract and its fulfilment, to control its execution, approve work orders for the performance of the service, dispatches, monitor the quality of the services performed and check the due invoices, as well as to prepare reports on whether the contract was fully implemented. They failed to perform such controls fully and even though they knew that the security services were only partially provided, they signed the requests for payment approval. The second signatory to the contract was familiar with the required specification, but despite this, he approved the requests and payment authorizations, after which he also approved the due invoices which were then realized in favour of the security agency," the Prosecutor's Office notes. 

In this way, the suspected procurement holder has been enabled to acquire illegal gains in the amount of Mden 46,918,079, thus causing large-scale damage to the Public Enterprise for State Roads. 

A public prosecutor has submitted a proposal to the Skopje-based Criminal Court for ordering a detention measure for the first suspect, while precautionary measures have been proposed for the others.

Photo: MIA archive