VMRO-DPMNE accused Lidija Dimova, the SDSM party appointed head of the Agency for European educational programs (NA), which manages the Erasmus student programs, of abusing millions of euros. Stefan Andonovski from VMRO-DPMNE pointed to a number of contract Dimova signed with non-governmental groups and commercial contractors.

The same group of NGO organizations were receiving a major share of the procurement contracts. There are reports that some of them were so emboldened by these practices that they were demanding a cut of the deals over electronic messages. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of euros spent on dubious contracts which need to be investigated, Andonovski said.

Dimova was a left wing NGO activist supporting the SDSM led Colored revolution before being appointed to her position. Andonovski pointed to how she slow-rolled the publication of essential materials tied to procurement contracts, compared to equivalent organizations in other countries, preventing organizations from competing fairly.

Lidija Dimova and her agency would publish scant information about the contracts, in clear contrast with the principles of transparency and accountability she would promote while she was in the opposition. Organizations who received funding from NA, such as the European Cultural Epicenter from Bitola, the Krusevo Youth Alliance, Sumnal from Skopje and the Life-Long Learning Network from Tetovo, who collected a total of 170.000 EUR, have not provided their annual financial reports and their ownership structures are hidden from the public at all costs. Their prominent activsts, on the other hand, have all been part of the protests which propelled SDSM to power, said Andonovski.

The opposition party said that it will inform the relevant EU organizations about this abuse of public and European funds.