At a press-conference on Saturday, SDSM Spokesperson Bogdanka Kuzeska stated that the government was hypocritical, stressing, in that regard, that the Railways Infrastructure PE had signed, on 19 September, a 55,000-euro deal with IRD Engineering.
“When they were in opposition [current PM Hristijan] Mickoski, [current Transport Minister and Deputy PM Aleksandar] Nikoloski, and [current MP Bojan] Stojanoski, the entire VMRO-DPMNE would hold press-conferences every day levelling accusations at IRD Engineering, the company in charge of supervision of the motorways by Bechtel-ENKA. This was considered by VMRO-DPMNE to be ‘epic crime’, ‘poor supervision’, ‘a dubious company’.
Publicly, at press-conferences, the party’s entire leadership would demand reactions from prosecutors, alleging this company, IRD Engineering, was a ‘symbol of misuse and partisan deals’. Mickoski personally would talk about a ‘new big epic crime’ and demanding criminal accountability. They would announce that the deal would be terminated, renegotiated, and what not. Today, we’re seeing all of this was one lie after another”, she stated.
However, the current ruling party stated that each company being able to win a tender process showed institutions were free and procedures transparent, not rigged, as had been the case during SDSM’s rule.