A foreign citizen received a criminal complaint because he gave a guarantee from a bankrupt bank during public procurement for a project in Kichevo, with which the state suffered damage of over 9 million euros.
The Directorate for Financial Police has submitted a criminal complaint to the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office Skopje against S.G.O.B., in its capacity as the owner and manager of a legal entity, as well as against the legal entity itself, due to suspicion of having committed a criminal offense “Abuse of the procedure for public invitation, awarding of a contract for public procurement or public-private partnership”.
The financial police announced that S.G.O.B., as the owner of the legal entity, violated the regulations related to the public call for the project “Rehabilitation and expansion of the sewage network in the Municipality of Kichevo”.
For the project in 2023, an agreement was concluded with the Ministry of Finance of RSM – the Department for Central Financing and Contracting within the Sectoral Operational Program for Environment and Climate Actions for IPA II (2014-2020).
Partners in a company from Skopje hid 120,000 euros from the state, the Financial Police claims
During its implementation, the suspect was obliged to provide a valid bank guarantee and submit a request for the approval of subcontractors to the contracting authority, during the execution of the contract financed by the European Commission and the RSM Budget.
But, the statement added, the suspect covered up the bankruptcy of the Azerbaijani bank “Muganbank” – which was the issuer of the bank guarantee that was no longer valid.
He simultaneously hired subcontractors without first securing approval from the Ministry of Finance and the supervisory authority.
With that, the defendant acted contrary to the contractual obligations and conditions for the realization of the project, which is why the contract was terminated, according to the Financial Police Administration.
The aforementioned actions caused damage to the budget of the Republic of North Macedonia in the total amount of 127,425,036 denars, as well as damage based on lost IPA funds in the amount of 9,474,132 euros, which the state will have to provide from its own funds, according to the announcement.
