Coordinators of the party groups in the Parliament will meet tomorrow to determine ways in which the controversial highway contract with the US giant Bechtel will be handled. The contract, which the Kovacevski – Grubi Government wants to keep under wraps, should be given to members of Parliament who have security clearance, but this is still not certain. Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi briefed the press that he is close to agreement on this issue, but it’s not clear whether the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party will accept it.
VMRO has been highly critical of some important elements of the contract, such as the obligation that Macedonia must amend a number of laws, including gutting worker protections and reimbursing politically connected owners of land that will be expropriated for the highways Bechtel should build.
The Government wants to have the contract “presented” to the members of Parliament and not given to them. VMRO official Antonio Milososki responded that all members of Parliament with security clearances have the right to access classified documents.
– Access means to have the document, to hold it in your hand, and analyze the good and the bad clauses in it, Milososki said.
The contract will cost Macedonia at least 1.3 billion EUR and was negotiated in a no-bid scheme by notoriously corrupt officials of the ruling DUI party.