Macedonia Pension Fund Probed Over Spiralling Debts

After Labour Ministry started to investigate the increasing debts run up by the State Pension Fund, PIOM, it rushed to repay its multi-million euro owings, private pension funds confirmed.

PIOM's debt burden had raised questions about its liquidity and the government's policy of annual pensions increases.

KB - First Pension Fund confirmed on Wednesday that the PIOM has paid its six million euro debt.

"We can confirm that the money has been transferred to our account," representatives from the fund told BIRN.

NLB  - New Pension Fund also told Telma TV on Wednesday that PIOM's five million euro debt has been settled.

The affair, which concerns thousands of Macedonian employees and future pensioners, escalated last week when recently-appointed interim Labour Minister Frosina Remenski, who comes from the ranks of the opposition Social Democrats, formed an inquiry commission to investigate the PIOM's finances.

The state fund is run by director Shaip Zeneli, who was appointed by the junior ruling DUI party.

Remenski said that she launched the inquiry after PIOM failed to submit requested documents for its financial operations over the past four years.

The private pension funds later confirmed that they had not been getting payments from the state fund for months.

Zeneli initially refused to comment, and PIOM insisted it had no significant debts.

However, it later confirmed that it owed some 11 million euro to the private pension funds, but did not disclose the reason for the large debts.

The Macedonian pension system rests on three 'pillars' - the first is the obligatory state pension fund, the second is comprised of private obligatory funds that receive money from the state fund, and the third is private...