VMRO-DPMNE blasted Zoran Zaev’s latest plan for the construction of a new clinic west of Skopje, which would cost half a billion EUR and will be funded commercially, instead of using money from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as initially planned. According to Igor Nikolov from VMRO-DPMNE, this is being done to avoid the added scrutiny that would be in place if EBRD was involved, allowing Zaev’s Government to spend the money with much more leeway.

Zoran Zaev doesn’t want an institution such as the EBRD to control the process and how the money are spent. He would much rather spend unchecked, even if that means paying a higher interest rate, Nikolov said.

He reminded the Zaev Government that his SDSM party announced that it will build a new clinic within two years from assuming power, a date that has already passed. Under the new, much inflated project, the clinic won’t open in ten years.

VMRO had a much smaller project and were prepared to begin construction at the site of the current Mother Teresa campus by 2017, when Zaev grabbed power and decided to relocate the clinic west of the capital.