State prosecutors revealed additional information about the arrest of two top Public Administration Ministry (MIOA) this morning.

The arrests were conducted in coordination with Eurojust, after European Union institutions received information about corruption related to the distribution of EU funds earmarked for Macedonia.
One of those arrested was named as Jahi Jahija, the MIOA State Secretary which makes him the third man in the Ministry, who is also a high level DUI party official from Kumanovo. The other MIOA official who is arrested is a former department manager in the Ministry.

Several countries, such as Italy, the Netherlands and Romania, are said to have collaborated in the investigation through the EU OLFA service. The EU funds in question amounted to 1.2 million EUR and were distributed between 2014 and 2016.

Jahija and the other MIOA officials who is charged, accepted trips abroad as presents from an Italian and a British citizen who worked for a British owned company registered in Macedonia. In exchange, they provided the company with sensitive bidding data which favored it over other competitors. The company won the contract worth 1.096 million EUR.

In 2016, as the spending of the EU funds was already on-going, the Italian citizen paid 37.930 EUR to Jahija, and 2.500 to the other defendant, state prosecutors informed today.