On Thursday, an investigation was opened against Borce Markovski, owner of Markovski Company, who is also the Honorary Consul of Belarus in North Macedonia, and another seven people. Markovski was among those arrested.
Authorities stated that there was grounded suspicion that, in the capacity of group, they’d committed crimes related to public procurement for relocation of plant stations from the Oslomej plant to the Bitola one. Among the other suspects is an employee of Markovski Company, which itself is covered by the investigation in the capacity of legal entity.
The others are former heads in the frames of the Bitola plant. According to the charge, equipment Markovski Company was required to relocate, based on the mine project for exploitation of ore for which it was intended, wasn’t at all foreseen, but regardless of that, the process for the tender was carried out and was won by Markovski Company, at a price of around 1.7 million euros.
The whole procedure, authorities explained, was taking place towards the end of 2023 and start of 2024.
For that amount, Markovski Company was required to disassemble the equipment and transport it to the new location near the Bitola plant and then assemble it for it to be used to transport the ore that would be excavated at the location, according to the press-release. Markovski Company completed just the first two steps (the disassembly and transport), but there was no assembly and use of the equipment, that is, it was just left in the Bitola plant’s ground area, authorities explained.
Later on Thursday, the Bitola Basic Court didn’t accept the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office’s proposal for detention, that is, it instead issued a house arrest measure against Markovski and a head from the Bitola plant’s Rudnici (Mines) Production Unit.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office said it would appeal it. Commenting on the arrest of Markovski, VMRO-DPMNE stated that what it had said for years, that is, that SDSM had been rigging tenders with its “favourite company” had finally surfaced.