VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski warned that the contract the Government approved with the Spanish Eptisa company to review construction on the planned east-west highway link can lead to major criminal activities.

Eptisa and other companies in the oversight consortium will receive 22 million EUR, but will also be able to approve or reject progress reports from the Bechtel led consortium that will build the highway.

The Government wants to make sure it has a reliable company doing the oversight. They will be able to add materials into the build, and the initial price tag of 1.5 to 1.7 billion EUR can easily reach 2 or 2.5 billion EUR, money that will be paid by the citizens. The company will sign what the Government tells it to sign, Mickoski said.

The opposition party blamed First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi, who is leading the highway project, of corruption, especially after one of the companies that are part of the oversight consortium was accused of ties to Russia, and Eptisa itself was blamed of serious irregularities during previous oversight work it did.