Macedonia Ex-Procurement Chief Faces Corruption Charge

Macedonia's financial police on Friday said that they had filed charges for misuse of office against the former head of the government's procurement service, Vase Donevski.

His alleged accomplice in crime is Austrian businessman Wolfgang Gamper who owns the company Securicom, which was tasked with cleaning and securing the government building and the other ministries.

The head of the financial police, Arafat Ademi, said Donevski and Gamper in 2015 rigged a government tender worth some 10.7 million euros to make sure Gamper's company won it.

The investigation thus far found that to circumvent the electronic tendering procedure and eliminate real competition, Donevski in 2015 invited eight different companies that were either previously owned by Gamper or had other business or private ties with him to bid.

In the end, only one company, Securicom, applied for the tender - and got the job, Ademi said.

Ademi said that, during Donevski's arrest on Thursday evening, the financial police seized electronic equipment and a vehicle that may serve as further evidence.

He said there were signs that the vehicle seized in Donevski's possession was initially bought by Securicom.

"The case was handed yesterday to the organized Crime Prosecution" Ademi said, adding that "this is just the first phase of the investigation".

A BIRN Macedonia investigation, "Stains on the Government Cleaning Tender", published in August 2016, broke this affair in public.

BIRN then wrote, and the financial police now confirmed, that Donevski allowed Securicom to create a fake competition through its affiliated companies in order to create a false perception several companies sought the required task.

As a result, there was no real competition...

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