Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski is leveraging his influence to benefit the solar panel company he set up and is increasing its business to over 26 million EUR, warned the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. Kovacevski, a former telecom executive who used his father’s connections in the SDSM party to build several businesses set up the Pikcell company with his close friend Goran Paunov.
Kovacevski left the company in 2020, when he was named Deputy Prime Minister by Zoran Zaev, but his influence over the Government is being felt in numerous contracts being directed toward the company.

Solar cartel is the name VMRO-DPMNE party gave to the scandal, as it revealed more details today. VMRO member of Parliament Mile Lefkov said that the influence peddling includes getting the partially state owned EVN Macedonia company to give contracts worth over two million EUR to Pikcell, and the large planned project to place solar panels over former coal mines, for which Pikcell is setting up a new producing plant near Tetovo. Both the contract to purchase large number of solar panels, and the subsidies for building the plant and purchasing the electricity its panels will produce are all linked with Government decision making, which Kovacevski is in a position to direct.

Only last year, in state contracts, the company received 1.8 million EUR, Lefkov said. “The contract with EVN Macedonia was for solar panels worth over two million EUR. The factory in the Tetovo industrial zone is estimated at 54 million EUR – this is a zone where investors receive tax and customs benefits and they also expect to receive direct state aid”.

Pikcell owns 40 percent of the company that is building the solar panels plant in Tetovo, while the remaining share is owned by a company from Bulgaria owned by a former Energy Minister from that country.

These attempts to monopolize and corner the solar panel market are happening at a time when citizens in Macedonia are facing constant increases in energy prices and the businesses are forced to pay double than what businesses in other countries are paying. We call on Kovacevski to come forward and inform the public how was a company he is linked to able to have a turnover of 26 million EUR, Lefkov said.