Construction workers of “Actor”, the company that builds the highway Demir Kapija – Smokvica, never heard of the corruption scandal that shook the company, and construction activities are carried out in full swing. Front entrance has a large board that reads “Actor” and information about project financing, and in the yard – a few dozen vehicles with Greek and Macedonian license plates.
In front of the seat, we were intercepted by the doorman and a member of the security of the company “SGS”. Although the member of the security told us to go inside, after a while he changed his mind and left us to wait while he checked if there was anyone that we could talk to. After a few minutes, he told us that “all managers are on the field, go to the site, you may find someone with whom you could talk there.”
On the site, there were several dozen workers, who told us that construction activities are carried out with full swing.
– We work with full throttle. We had a slight delay only during the floods – said workers for META.
To the site we got on a narrow dirt road, on which, at intervals of few minutes, huge truckloads of construction material went by. On the site, we were greeted by the head Vasili, who although didn’t understand Macedonian, kindly walked us and showed us the ground.
– We work all the time. The only problem for us is the weather – said Vasili to us.
Even on this location, nothing knew anything about the scandal of corruption in obtaining the tender.
Television “Telma”, citing a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said Greece had launched an investigation against “Actor” for allegedly bribing officials in Macedonia to get a contract for construction of the highway Demir Kapija – Smokvica.
“Actor” scandal was revealed to the public in March last year by the opposition SDSM, whose representatives at a press conference presented documents and claimed that Greek citizens, through the branch of the Greek company “Actor” in the country, withdrew millions of euros in cash from a branch of Stopanska bank in Negotino.
Greek company “Actor” won the tender worth 270 million euros for the construction of the section Demir Kapija – Smokvica, which is part of the international Corridor 10, although the offer of the Greek company was about 40 million euros higher than those of competitors.
According to the information of the SDSM, the money has been withdrawn in several cases, and, according to the findings presented then, the first cases were recorded in mid-2013.
“On 10th of April 2013, 10 Greek citizens of this bank raised amount totaling 12.5 million denars! Each raised cash sum of 1,250,000 denars. In one day. Only 10 people. From the same bank,” said SDSM at the time.
The total amount of money raised, according to the largest opposition party, is 3.5 million euros.
SDSM claimed that the money was not taken out of the country.
Following the publication of this information, in March last year, Financial Intelligence Office responded, which released a statement informing that in November 2013, it opened an item for this case and responded to the SDSM that it harms the ongoing investigation by publishing information.
The Financial Intelligence Office submitted to the Public Prosecution a report on the suspicious transactions.
Public Prosecutor Marko Zvrlevski, who days after the publication of the scandal claimed the prosecution had not received any report on the case, after some time reported that prosecution opened a pre-trial procedure on the case “Actor”, after which, the accounts of two companies were blocked.
There is no information on the investigation for the case to this day.
