The US Embassy supports the anti-corruption commission, but does not comment on its claims that the special law on the construction of highways without tenders poses a serious risk factor for corruption. The anti-corruption alarm law quickly passed the parliamentary filter and received the green light from the president. This is as a result of the Memorandum signed in advance for cooperation of the Government with the American-Turkish consortium “Behtel and Enka”.
This is an internal matter for the Government of Northern Macedonia to consider. “We strongly support the work of the Anti-Corruption Commission and its important monitoring role,” said the US Embassy in Skopje.
The control of the law by the Anti-Corruption has shown that the special law has violated the constitutional principles for equality and freedom in the market. The members of Anticorruption emphasized that there is a legal precedent because for “Behtel-Enka” the local laws will not apply. They warned of possible political influence due to legal loopholes, but that even the short procedure itself poses a risk of corruption.
The Assembly, as a legislative body, had to protect the Constitution and join the principles of the rule of law. In this case, I think that the Assembly itself has violated this principle, given that it has to do with the adoption of the law for which the basic elements are not respected, and they are, to have precision, transparency of what it is about. All the arguments that were heard from the Anti-Corruption Commission, I personally think are in order, they are stable and that is how it should be done – said Trendafil Ivanovski, former constitutional judge.
Anticorruption warns that on Monday the law will be challenged before the Constitutional Court. The special law deals with the construction of road axes Tetovo-Gostivar-Bukojcan, Trebenishte-Struga-Qafëthanë and Prilep-Bitola. Gruevski’s government with the same law without a tender, the business for the construction of the highway Miladinovc-Stip and Kicevo-Ohrid was awarded to the Chinese company Sinohidro and for this now the court process in the case Trajectory is in procedure.
