VMRO-DPMNE Secretary General Igor Janusev accused the Zaev Government’s Secretary General and right hand man Dragi Raskovski of being involved in the helicopter scandal. VMRO blames the Government of signing a medevac contract with a deliberately created company owned by Sasa Dzakovic, a Bosnian man in Sweden, which will end up costing Macedonia upwards of 70 million EUR.

Businessman behind the suspicious medevac contract asks the journalists not to make too much of a fuss

Janusev said that the whistle on the likely corrupt contract was blown by two members from the Committee set up to implement the “public bidding”, which had only one participant – Dzakovic’s company that was set up merely days before the contract was announced, and was named SARHEMS – the same name used for the Government’s medevac proposal – which indicates that Dzakovic had clearly received prior information from the Government.

This entire project reeks of crime. We have been informed that two members of the Committee wrote dissenting opinions, pointing out that the applicant has not provided all necessary documents, and that some of it was submitted late. This company is clearly favored by Zaev and Raskovski, Janusev said during a press conference today.

The company is supposed to provide two helicopters for emergency medical evacuation, and will be able to collect an estimated 72 million EUR from the public healthcare budget for its services over eight years, while paying a minimal fee of 10.000 EUR per month to win the monopoly contract.

The company was bidding all by itself, and naturally the price couldn’t go above 10.000 EUR a month. The state pays them 72 million EUR, makes all its infrastructure available to SARHEMS, and in return, at the end of the contract, the company will pay back less than a million EUR. With this money we could purchase 15 modern medevac helicopters or 1.500 ambulances, Janusev said.

Raskovski, who was recently accused of rigging a contract to purchase flight control equipment, held a press briefing today during which he labeled the SARHEMS contract – a work of art. Raskovski said that there is nothing improper in the fact that Dzakovic formed his company just days before the contract was offered publicly. He described the services that will be provided as free of charge – to the end user, but would not explain how the company will earn its profits.