The head of the State Anti-Corruption Commission (DKSK) Biljana Ivanovska accused the Government of showing only nominal support for the work of the independent corruption watchdog. Ivanovska is angry after a building, built as part of the Skopje 2014 project, that was meant for DSKS was in the end given to First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi and his rapidly growing department for Albanian affairs.

We are developing a sense that the support from the Government is only nominal. The Government adopted a law for our work, came out with strong expressions of political will, but we need other resources to do our work, and we are not there just for the photo-ops. I believed the story that money have run out due to the Covid crisis and that I shouldn’t push too hard for new office space, but I don’t believe that story any more, Ivanovska said.

The elaborate, neo-classical building in downtown Skopje was meant to house DKSK and the financial police. But as Grubi and the DUI party are carving out a greater share of the Government prerogatives for themselves, they requested an office space to match their ambitions. First order of business for Grubi, who now virtually holds veto power over all major decisions by Prime Minister Zaev, was to use his new office to hold a mask-less birthday party for DUI leader Ali Ahmeti.

Zaev inaugurates one of the “baroque” buildings he used to throw paintballs at