Skopje, 17 January 2022 (MIA) – Handing over his duties as deputy prime minister in charge of the fight against corruption and crime, sustainable development and human resources, Ljupcho Nikolovski congratulated the new Deputy Prime Minister, Slavica Grkova on being elected. Nikolovski in the new government, approved late Sunday by Parliament, will serve as agriculture minister. Before taking office, Grkova was chief system analyst at the IT Sector of the Interior Ministry, where she was in charge of the digitization process of the ministry. Systemic foundations in the fight against corruption were laid recently, Nikolovski said at the ceremony. “A plan to fight corruption was passed, containing 18 measures, and new and improved code of ethics was adopted covering all appointed officials. Also, GRECO recommendations were met in the past 1,5 year, the anti-corruption commission got new offices and 49 million denars were provided all the while transparency was increased,” the government said in a press release. He also recalled that a national registry of beneficial owners providing updated and accurate data on the real owners of companies has been put into use. A new plan to combat corruption for 2022 has been prepared, he said, that is founded on four pillars – digitization, independent and efficient judiciary, professional institutions and preventative measures to fight corruption.