The head of North Macedonia’s Anti-Corruption Commission, Tatjana Dimitrovska. Photo: DKSK
North Macedonia’s State Prosecution has said it suspects the head of the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission, Tatjana Dimitrovska, of sharing “official secrets” with a defendant in an ongoing corruption case.
The case, codenamed “Additive”, concerns some 30 people accused of abusing procurement procedures for additives needed by state-owned power plants.
The Skopje Criminal Court on Thursday seized Dimitrovska’s passport. As part of the precautionary measures taken against her, she has also been banned from working in the anti-corruption body, which she had headed since February last year.
She is suspected of sharing the official secrets from May to December 2024, while she was in office.
“Through her official phone and Viber and WhatsApp applications, she provided the defendant with data on initiated procedures, on opening cases against currently accused legal entities and individuals in the Additive case and decisions thereon, as well as data on checking property and [checks] on his family,” North Macedonia’s Organised Crime Prosecution wrote in a press release.
The prosecution did not say to whom the anti-corruption head had disclosed the official secrets.
The prosecution filed charges against 31 individuals and five legal entities in the “Additive” case at the end of February.
They are accused of rigging procedures for the procurement of coal additives for state-owned power plants from April 2023 to August 2024, and so defrauding the state budget of over 6 million euros.
Among the suspects are the former head of the state-owned electricity enterprise, ESM, Vasko Kovacevski, who is on the run, his successor, Vasko Stefanov, and the former directors of the state-owned REK Bitola and TEC Negotino power plants, Pece Matevski and Nebojsa Stojanovic. Two former commercial directors of ESM are also among the defendants.
The Anti-Corruption Commission acts as an independent body tasked with investigating corruption allegations but cannot file charges, which is a task for the prosecution. However, its head and members are elected by parliament.
Dimitrovska was elected with the approval of MPs from the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party and the main opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM.