“Toplik” – Investigation on the sale of the building plots for the “Sun City” elite settlement

By Тео Блажевски On Jul 1, 2017 0

“Sun City”

The suspicions of abuses and damages to the budget of the RM done with the sale of the plots for the residential settlement “Sun City”, located on the southern slopes of Mount Vodno, perpetrated from 2007 to 2013, prompted the SPO to open an investigation

The suspicions of abuses and damages to the budget of the RM done with the sale of the plots for the residential settlement “Sun City”, located on the southern slopes of Mount Vodno, perpetrated from 2007 to 2013, prompted the SPO to open an investigation

20 October 2016 – This is a case in which the prime suspect is the head of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC), and the criminal acts which he perpetrated with the assistance of five other people were committed between 2007 and 2013.

An Expert Committee has notified the head that the conditions for publishing the land sale tender are not met. Then the Minister dismissed this committee and formed a new one that published the tender, which was followed by signing the land sale contract.

However, because the state couldn’t meet the conditions laid down in the contract, the company terminated it in 2011, and the state returned all 223 million denar that have previously been paid in, plus 64 million denar, or a bit more than a million euro for the default interest. Here’s what the prosecutor Fatime Fetai said in her explanation:

The evidence provides space for justified suspicion that owing to the termination of the agreement by MTC’s fault, the Ministry was obligated to pay default interest as addition to the completely returned general debt, which amounts to 223.954.780 denar.

By virtue of those circumstances, on 18 February 2013, the MTC transferred the default interest in the amount of 64.206.839 denar, i.e. 1.044.000,00 euro to “Sun City” DOO Skopje, and this harmed the budget of the Republic of Macedonia to the same amount.

These acts provide space for justified suspicion that the suspects have abused their offices and authorizations pursuant to Article 353 Paragraph 5 relating to Paragraph 1 relating to Article 22 of the Criminal Code.

More details are available on this link (in Macedonian).

Media reports on this case are available here (in Macedonian).

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This article was created within the framework of the Project to increase the accountability of the politicians and political parties Truthmeter implemented by Metamorphosis. The article is made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for Democracy(NED) and The Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD), a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, an initiative that supports democracy, good governance, and Euroatlantic integration in Southeastern Europe. The content is the responsibility of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, National Endowment for Democracy, the Balkan Trust for Democracy, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, or its partners.