Too many advisers in administration: real necessity or accommodating party soldiers?

Authors: Angela Rajchevska, Bjanka Stankovikj, Kristina Atovska   The country allocates 266 thousand Euros a year for hiring special external advisers who are to advise ministers and other holders of state functions in order to perform their tasks more efficiently.   SCOOP came to this amount spent on 34 “special advisers” engaged in only 13 ministries.   Article 27 of the Law on Administrative Officers, the levels within the...

Ministers or kings: Education without limit, Interior has no rulebook for representation expenses

Angela Rajcevska, Bjanka Stankovik, Angela Petrovska   The Rulebook that SCOOP received under the Law on Free Access to Information was signed on 17.8.2016. According to the Rulebook, the Minister has an unlimited monthly amount, the Deputy Minister 100,000 MKD and the State Secretary 15,000 MKD per month. In the previous story on the costs of the state officials’ cards in Macedonia SCOOP found that Pishtar Lutfiu, during his...

SCOOP investigation: Macedonian MEP’s regional leaders in travel costs

author: Goran Lefkov   From 2010 to 2016, only one MP was paid an average of around 40,000 Euros for travel expenses. In the same period in Slovenia, for travel and other expenses, 36,000 Euros were paid to one Member of Parliament, 19,000 Euros in Bulgaria, 14,000 Euros in Kosovo, and only 6,000 Euros in Kosovo. These figures show that Macedonian MPs are among the highest paid in the...

Officials squandered on expensive food, drinks and hotels – paid by the citizens

authors: Bjanka Stankovich, Angela Petrovska and Angela Rajchevska   DOCUMENTACION   Apart from the regular local elections and the early parliamentary elections, nothing significant happened in the Republic of Macedonia in 2013 and 2014. Due to the global financial crisis in this period, neither foreign direct investments had grown significantly, nor had any significant financial or diplomatic success been noticed in these two years. However, in these two years...