Skopje Mayor Petre Silegov and Dusko Veskovski, his director of the water utility company Vodovod, approved backdated contracts for a major public procurement project, the VMRO-DPMNE party revealed today.

Party spokesman Dimitar Arsovski released contracts that Vodovod signed with the KBK construction company for reconstruction of water lines in the Karpos district of Skopje. The contract was signed in October 2020, but the company was already working on the reconstruction in April the same year and collected 300,000 EUR for its services.

The Vodovod director Veskovski and Mayor Silegov clearly had a prior arrangement with the company and knew it will win the contract. This is a clear indication of collusion in the city to rig procurement contracts, Arsovski said.

Five companies have won a framework contract for the reconstruction of water lines in Skopje. When the city decides to work on a section of the network, these five companies compete between themselves and offer bids, with the city accepting the one that is most favorable. In this case, Arsovski said, the bidding procedure was obviously ignored.

There is no clearer example of how public contracts are rigged in favor of companies close to the SDSM party. The city of Skopje and the directors of the public companies are drenched in corurption, Arsovski added, announcing additional revelations in this case in the coming days.