VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski criticized the Government’s announcement that it will purchase Italian made transport helicopters for 250 million EUR, noting that the manufacturer Leonardo was already linked with a major corruption scandal. Macedonia gave its fleet of Russian made transport and attack choppers to Ukraine, and now the plan is to purchase eight Leonardo made AW149 and AW169M transport helicopters for 250 million EUR in four installments.

I would like to point out several aspects on the issue of the helicopters. First, is whether Macedonia even needs transport helicopters at the moment. These would be crafts for transport of personnel, and not attack helicopters. This does not improve the battle readiness of Macedonia and our army. At the same time, we intent to have these 250 million EUR distributed in all the municipalities in Macedonia, they would be enough for complete renewal and the resolving of decades old problems our citizens face. It’s wasteful to use them on helicopters, Nikoloskii said.

He urged the Defense Minister Slavjanka Petrovska to explain how was the procurement process conducted, especially given that Macedonia is in an election year, and it will be up to the next Government to pay the price.

Also, why was Leonardo chosen? The company was involved in a major corruption scandal, the first such scandal for the Zoran Zaev Government, when his Secretary General Dragi Raskovski was revealed to have influenced the purchase of an air traffic control radar from Leonardo. There were wiretaps revealing that the system was priced at a million EUR over the actual price. Raskovski ended up in prison. We give a major contract to a company already involved in a huge corruption scandal. This is profilgate spending, is in violation of the law and there will be accountability, Nikoloski said, during a press statement in Prilep.