Skopje, 10 November 2025 (MIA) — The total debt of Skopje's public enterprises is over EUR 300 million and not EUR 200 million as Skopje Mayor Orce Gjorgievski expected, he said in a Sitel TV interview Monday evening. 

He said paying off the debt would require "a more serious commitment," but he said he saw this as an even bigger challenge serving as motivation in turning Skopje into "a metropolis we will all be proud of in a little while."

The new mayor said he was not afraid of dealing with the situation. "It will be difficult as heck, but I have an excellent team and I expect strong support from the government," he said. 

He said all of the city's public enterprises, as well as cultural institutions and high schools, would get new management teams.

"It is natural and reasonable for anyone to bring with them the people they want to work with," he said, adding that the new managers would be announced soon.

He also said close to 500 people had been fired because of absenteeism.

"That is five million euro per year," he said. "With money that serious, we would have built the Luna amusement park by now."

He said absenteeism was a widely known problem but no one had had the "courage to take the steps." 

"I will not tolerate this from anyone," he said.

There was chronic absenteeism in the Parks and Greenery public enterprise as well as the city's public sanitation company Communal Hygiene, he said.

But absenteeism was rampant in the Drisla Landfill and the city's Water Supply and Sewage utility company, too.

He said it was not just a matter of missing three days of work, but of several months or even years of people being on the company payroll without showing up to work. mr/