Goran Trpenoski from the DKSK Anti-Corruption Commission said that the watchdog organization is not satisfied with the information it received from the Healthcare Ministry about the scandalous contract it tried to conclude with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine producer. The scandal is in the fact that Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce tried to use a shell company set up in American Samoa to conclude the deal, and this prompted the Chinese to back off, which left Macedonia without sufficient vaccines during a critical period in the epidemic.

We asked the Government to supply us with the minutes from their closed session when the decision to use this company was made, and also to tell us who supplied them with the contacts to this Stabri company. They submitted documents but it’s not what we asked for. We hope that by next week they will respond to our requests, Trpenoski said.

The company was set up only months into the first Zaev term and it is believed to be linked to a local figure from the political and business world. The way the offer was structured and the insistence from Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce that a shell company is used raised allegations that this was an attempt to divert a cut of the vaccine price into private pockets.