Wiretapping scandal set 34: Deal oriented
How Gruevski was pushing the deals even when the laws were obstructing him, how Janakieski is scolded as a little school boy, how the party donors are rescued, how Maja Ivanova, who acted as a director above the director, is rescued… We find out all that in this recordings set. We also hear an admission from Gruevski that not even one huge thing has “snowballed” for them…
This set of wiretapped conversations was presented in the Camp of Freedom in front of the government’s building, and contains conversations revealing that the main actors in the government don’t believe the stories they sell. What’s more, they clearly express complete dissatisfaction of themselves too. However, that is not a reason enough for an effort in the right direction, but, according to what we can hear, they continued with the misusing of the government, with violating the laws with the aim to present “results”.
The first two conversations are between Nikola Gruevski and Mile Janakieski. In the first one we can hear how Gruevski “is handling” Janakieski in order to “meet” one large company halfway, to be more elastic – and not to “give the same treatment to both large and small”. He also advises him to be more like Vladimir Peshevski, who is “deal oriented”, so he step by step finds ground for different options, and he also tries different things in order to meet the expectations of the investors, which are not always in compliance with the laws. Therefore, Gruevski says to Janakieski, who on the other hand is defending himself that they request legally impossible things, “you will circle, you will find a way to make a deal, you go left and right, left and right”.
The same “training” continues in the second conversation – Gruevski castigates Janakieski because he has a rigid attitude towards the possible investors and he is not “deal oriented” as Vlado Peshevski is. Gruevski tells him that he is a Minister who should make deals and not a legal advisor, and his attitude is worse than the attitude of Vlado Peshevski, which was also pointed out by the potential investors. Janakieski implicitly says that he cannot promise pie in the sky because he will have to sign some things afterwards, which brings great responsibility, and Peshevski doesn’t have to sign anything… “People who do not sign things act differently than people who do”, says Janakieski. Gruevski continues to “boil” him for illegal behavior, persuading him that there are other legal interpretations except his and the ones of his advisors. Even if something is illegal, Gruevski says, he doesn’t have to “get rid of them” immediately.
NO PROJECT HAS SNOWBALLED…
At the end of this conversation Gruevski admits that they, as a government, went downhill with the large firms. “We were f***ed with EVN, you know that, and the thing with the airport was a close call too…” Then he goes even further “Nothing hits off well, no large project has snowballed for us. No large energy project snowballs, none, none. We haven’t built one hydro power plant, we haven’t even started…”
Afterwards we hear a conversation between Vlatko Chingoski, general director of ELEM (the state electricity producer), and Gruevski. With the same tone, Gruevski scolds Chingoski because he was requesting more money from the potential investors. Nonetheless, as Zaev said in the press conference, in this instance he see a Czech-Bulgarian-Macedonian initiative and Gruevski obviously acted “deal oriented” i.e. decided to realize the deal besides all impediments. And the people who came are “Zharko who pulls out a gun, and if I heard well Gorde’s brother too”. Gruevski knew the “connection” and he admits that to Chingoski.
The other conversation from this set reveals Gruevski’s yearning to close a deal for the land that the Drama Theatre, where he was a stage extra in the 90s, is built on. Gruevski is annoyed because Janakieski suggested public-private partnership to the “investors”, and he should have offered the entire land, after previous demolition of the objects, whereupon the buyer in the “deal” will be obliged to provide all conditions for proper functioning of the Drama Theatre, and the rest of the object will be his. And the second conversation is between the same interlocutors, again on the same subject. Gruevski wants to demolish the the object of the Drama Theatre and to sell the land, and Janakieski gives his counter arguments, saying that Gruevski’s request is both politically and legally impossible. Then, the Prime Minister is annoyed because only the height is not satisfactory, because this way “nobody will come”. He is annoyed because only 35 meters in total are provided, of which 20 are for the Drama Theatre, and the rest is too little for a potential investor.
ABOUT THE PARTY DONORS AND THE “MISSING” 1600 EURO
The following conversations reveal one more “deal”. A firm owner from Negotino, that was caught with 5 and a half tons of illegal red oil in his tank trucks, is exempted from the fines of some institutions, upon the order of Gruevski, solely because he was a donor to VMRO-DPMNE. Among the involved in the scandal under Gruevski’s directive are Mitko Chavkov, the new Minister of Interior, Goranche Savovski, the director of the Bureau for Public Security, the then superintendent of MOI’s Central Police Services and Goran Trajkovski, the director of the Public Revenue Office. From these conversations we find out that the owner, after the “hounds” were retreated, called to say that he misses 1600 euro “that was keeping nearby the tank truck”…
MAJA IVANOVA – A DIRECTOR ABOVE THE DIRECTOR
From the next conversations we hear that Gruevski was managing to have an original document from the MOI’s archives disappear! It is a letter from the director of the Civil Aviation Directorate in which he complained about the attitude of Gjorge Ivanov’s wife. We also hear that he personally tried to deal with “Gjorgji and with Maja”, and with Dejan too, the director, who did not want to have a “female director” above himself, i.e. Maja Ivanova was acting as a “goddess”.
All of the “bombs” are here.
Press conference of Zoran Zaev, president of SDSM, in Skopje, 27th of May 2015
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