Database Reveals North Macedonia Ex-Prosecutor’s Big Bonuses

Katica Janeva, currently under house arrest awaiting trial on charges of receiving bribes, received more than 150,000 euros in bonuses and expenses on top of her still-secret official salary, according to data dug up by BIRN from a database of budget expenditures between 2010 and 2017.

Janeva received most of the money in the form of bonuses for confidentiality, obliging her to keep secret the mountains of classified information she was privy to in the course of sifting through thousands of wiretaps received by the ruling Social Democrats when they were in opposition in 2015.

Her first confidentiality bonus was paid out in November 2015, with payments varying between 1,600 euros and 4,000 euros. The sums were paid out roughly, but not always, monthly - 46 payments in the 46 months she spent in office.

She also received 400 euros per month to cover the rent for her accommodation in the capital, Skopje, and 42 euros per month for working outside her hometown of Gevgelija, near the border with Greece.

Janeva was the first head of North Macedonia's Special Prosecution, formed in 2015 to investigate high-level crime. Her salary was kept confidential, and, like the earnings of other public sector employees, is not included in the Finance Ministry database published on Wednesday.

Confidentiality bonuses are envisaged in the law that established the Special Prosecution. Sources who spoke to BIRN under condition of anonymity said Janeva herself determined the size of the individual payments.

The database reveals that other Special Prosecution employees also received confidentiality bonuses, though they were all smaller than those paid to Janeva.

Janeva is accused of taking tens of thousands of euros in bribes as part of a high...

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