The Finance Police has filed criminal charges against the former and current Minister of Local Self-Government, Lirim Shabani and Suhejl Fazliu respectively, and another two persons. According to the announcement of the Finance Police, Shabani and Fazliu are suspected for illegal payment of honorariums in amount of 37,000 euros as part of the IPA Operative Programme for cooperation between Macedonia and Bulgaria in the period between 2015 and 2017. The announcement was followed by a reaction from Shabani, who stated for Plusinfo web portal that the two persons which were paid the honorariums, one of them being state advisor for European integrations and the other one being responsible for conducting of the IPA project, have returned the money after the evaluation of the EU concluded that the payments realised were ungrounded.