As of right now, neither the City of Skopje’s budget nor the rebalancing money are allocated for the purchase of buses. According to Council President Trajko Slaveski, such a plan would make sense if funding were allocated in the 2025 budget and then the decision was put to a vote.

The state of Skopje’s public transport system won’t get any better starting on September 1st or in the following year. The shortage of buses, lengthy lineups at the terminals, and tardiness for work and school will all continue to plague the public, and things will get worse starting next week when the winter schedule is implemented.
Again, the VMRO-DPMNE council members abstained from voting on the resolution to buy new buses or the motion to authorise the conclusion of an agreement for the project’s implementation of rapid bus service. The first proposal’s justification was that the BRT project was not their idea to present during the elections, and the people did not support it because they thought it was bad, destroyed the environment, and went through the main pipeline that supplies water to Skopje.Nor did the justifications offered by SDSM’s advisors that it is a brand-new, cutting-edge initiative for which funding has already been granted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development—including the acquisition of sixty eco-buses—help. When Councillor Ljubica Jancheva paid a visit to her VMRO-DPMNE colleagues, she learnt that although their idea was to buy 250 ecological buses, they hadn’t cast a vote on it in the previous two years.The independent councilor Aleksandar Trajanovski, on the other hand, reminded them that the same party that does not vote for BRT voted for a project for the construction of the Nikola Karev boulevard in which a BRT route is foreseen, and the councilors from VMRO-DPMNE in the Gjorce Petrov Municipality Council voted for a DUP in which the last stop for the high-speed bus service is drawn.
The proposal-decision for the purchase of new buses, which was brought to the councillors for a second time in an updated form, states that money from the City of Skopje budget will be used to pay for the buses rather than borrowing from a domestic bank. However, the judgement simply specifies that the City of Skopje will use it to assess if ecobus purchases are necessary, and that the Mayor of the City of Skopje would carry out the purchase in compliance with the Public Procurement Law. The number of buses that are expected to be acquired, the amount of money from the annual budget that will be set aside for that reason, and the number of years the city would be in debt. This is exactly what the coordinator of the SDSM advisory group, Gordan Shutarov, referred to.
For the President of the Council, Trajko Slaveski, it is problematic that the purchase of buses is requested with funds from the budget, although neither in the budget nor in the rebalance for this year are funds provided for this purpose.

At this moment, neither in the budget of the City of Skopje nor with the rebalancing funds are provided for the purchase of buses. Such a proposal would make sense if funds were determined in the 2025 budget and then the decision was voted on. There is no justification now, this is not a divisible procurement, we will procure now one bus, then another. If there is a specific item in the budget for 2025, I see no reason not to vote for this. And now, this is a frivolous proposal – said Slaveski.

Mayor Danela Arsovska repeated his views, pointing out that after 20 months of trying to authorise a loan for the purchase of buses, a request to buy buses with budgetary funds is made for the second time, and this time it does not sit well with the councillors from VMRO-DPMNE.

You asked for it to be self-funded and now you say you want to know the exact amount of funding. Today, I will not leave the podium until you say exactly what you want the decision to contain, and I am ready to change it immediately, to accept amendments. You want from borrowing, you want them to be provided in the budget, tell us what amount and we will immediately transfer funds from another item. We will work 24 hours a day with services and do everything as you want. In front of you today are programs that have not been voted on for eight months without any comment. Tell us what it costs to make changes – Arsovska asked.

Slaveski emphasised that the Council does not operate in this manner, that Arsovska is free to make or revoke a decision, and that the councillors have the autonomy to decide whether and how to cast their votes.