Alfa TV reports that SDSM party officials in the Skopje area Kisela Voda municipality prepared lists of party members and pro-SDSM protesters who to be employed in public institutions.

This plan code-named “Network” was announced as a move to improve cooperation with the civil society sector. But it quickly turned into a way to distribute public sector jobs among SDSM supporters, Alfa reports, providing records of minutes kept during the meetings of the “Network” party group and conversation with one of those employed.

– You can imagine what kind of people made up 90 percent of the lists, Alfa quotes a person with knowledge of the process, who said many of those hired didn’t even have college education. They landed jobs in school and kindergarten boards. Other public institutions where SDSM supporters from Kisela Voda were hired included the Skopje municipal utility companies and the Macedonian Forests company.

Meetings took place over spring and summer in the SDSM municipal party branch, and “qualifications” which were taken into account included how often they attended SDSM and civil sector protests against the previous, VMRO-DPMNE led Government. At one meeting alone, SDSM officials decided on his public sector jobs.

Kisela Voda municipal authorities and Skopje utilities refused to comment on the revelations. Alfa TV said that it has evidence of similar practices elsewhere. The TV station related a comment Zoran Zaev made in the run up to the 2011 elections, when he told party supporters that once they form the Government, public sector jobs will be staffed exclusively by party members – “from the cleaning lady up to the general manager”.