Skopje, 10 March 2023 (MIA) — The anticorruption commission should of course investigate anything suspicious but this does not mean that Bechtel and Enka will postpone construction work on Corridors 8 and 10, according to Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski commenting Friday the announcement by the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption it was launching a probe into the highway construction oversight.

Asked about the company chosen to oversee the works, Prime Minister Kovachevski said the contractor had its own subcontractors and many of them hired local experts.

“Some of the subcontractors also have foreign owners, but they predominantly employ people from the country so as not to have to bring all oversight experts from abroad,” PM Kovachevski said.

Regarding the ownership of the Spanish company Eptisa, he pointed reporters to the Central Registry, urging the public to report anything suspicious to the institutions.

Kovachevski said Bechtel and Enka would be designing and building the highway sections in parallel.

“Bechtel and Enka already signed an contract of over 400 pages with the government,” he said. “It is in force and they will start designing and building the highway. Until now, we have had infrastructure projects carried out according to the old principle of working on the design [before any construction started] so the designing took years and then construction began and the projects never ended. This time we are talking about design and construction. What the company designs, it will build, which will speed up the work.”

He said the project was the country’s largest infrastructure project yet and would provide jobs to a large number of Macedonian companies and workers.

On Thursday, the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption announced it was launching a corruption probe into the Corridor 8 and 10 highway construction oversight, done by IRD Engineering through three subcontractors. 

The anticorruption team said they were looking into allegations that one of the subcontractors, Eptisa, had been banned from participating in public procurements due to misconduct but was picked nonetheless after the government lifted the ban ahead of the tender deadline.

On Wednesday, the Bechtel and Enka consortium signed an EUR 1.3 billion contract with the State Roads Public Enterprise for the construction of four highway sections of Corridors 8 and 10.

The construction on the Tetovo – Gostivar; Gostivar – Bukojchani; and Prilep – Bitola highway sections should begin on April 22, and on the Trebenishta – Struga – Kjafasan section on Dec. 12. mr/