New Year decoration of streets, irrigation of planters, preparation of representative New Year’s material, production of control stamps – labels, procurement of sports equipment and sports shirts, horticultural organization, these are only part of the tenders which the company “Link media plus” received from Skopje municipalities, City of Skopje and ministries.
Against the owner of this company, Gjorgji Vukov, in 2008, Financial Police filed criminal charges of tax evasion, but, following a procedure, the indictment was dismissed. Vukov is known via the media for building the church “St. Lydia Macedonian” and for buying the golden shovel at the auction which took place after the consecration of the cornerstone of this church.
There was also a discussion in the Assembly in 2009 about the tenders which were awarded to this firm. SDSM MP Goran Minchev then said that “in about a year, the firm “Link media plus” carried out three other procurements for the Ministry of Interior, i.e. two for shirts and one for labels. These are deals with a value exceeding one million euros. The owner of “Link media plus”, Mr. Gjorgji Vukov, who, despite receiving criminal charges of tax evasion by the Financial Inspection, is suitable for you, Minister, to carry out at least a dozen procurements for state or municipal institutions”.
We tried to get a statement from the owner of the firm “Link media plus” to ask the reason for the success of the company, but representatives of the firm said that the director is very busy and was not interested in answering our questions.
Record holder for New Year’s decorations
This company is a record holder for New Year’s decorations. Over the past few years, it decorates almost all municipalities in Skopje, and it got tenders in Strumica, Gevgelija and other cities. According to the unofficial claim of municipalities, “Link media plus” is the only company applying to tenders for New Year’s decorations.
With the New Year decorations business, “Link media plus” earned nearly a million and five hundred thousand euros from 2009 to 2014. Tenders with which it earned this money were awarded to the company by the City of Skopje and the municipalities Karposh, Aerodrom, Gazi Baba and Kisela Voda. The amount doesn’t include the funds from Centar and Gjorche Petrov.
For this service, the City of Skopje paid 56,727,286 denars or 922,394 euros, but this year, the company “Lutariko” carried out the decorating along with “Link media plus”. Municipality of Karposh paid 21,550,000 denars or 350,406 euros from 2011 to 2014, and Gazi Baba paid more than 5.8 million or 95,528 euros for New Year’s decorating for the same period.
We asked municipalities about which firms carried out the decoration from 2009 to 2014 and how much money they received for it. We received incomplete answers from some municipalities.
– This year, the tender for New Year’s decorations was awarded to “Link media plus” and funds in the amount of two million denars were provided for that reason. For the past years, the information is available and published on Public Procurement Bureau – reads the correspondence of Kisela Voda.
Representatives of the Municipality of Gjorche Petrov told us that they paid more than six million denars from 2009 to 2014, but the tenders were awarded to the company “Dora-donka” until 2013, while the company “Link media plus” started decorating this year.
– From 2009 to 2014, including this year’s decorating, 6,222,452 denars are spent. From 2009 to 2013, the decoration was carried out by the firm “Dora-donka”, while this year the decoration will be carried out by “Link media plus” – responded representatives of Gjorche Petrov.
The Municipality of Aerodorom made an agreement with “Link media plus” only in 2010, for which it paid three million denars.
– As for this year’s decorating, we symbolically decorated central planters on the three main boulevards in the municipality with the same Christmas lights purchased in 2010, which are still usable. We didn’t give a penny for the New Year’s decoration from 2010 onwards – responded representatives of the Municipality of Aerodrom.
We didn’t receive an answer to our questions from the Municipal of Centar, although we waited two weeks for them. Neither for this, nor the past years, when Vladimir Todorovik was Mayor of the municipality. But, according to reports of an agreement for public procurement which we found at the Public Procurement Bureau, this year, Municipality of Centar signed a contract for New Year’s decorations with “Link media plus” for 48,734 euros. There is a report on a contract with “Link media plus” for 2012, when the municipality was obliged to pay 68,292 euros for preparation and implementation of the project for lighting and decorations on the occasion of welcoming the new 2013.
Golden shovel for the founder
It seems that the New Year’s decorations business pays, because Gjorgji Vukov, owner of the company “Link media plus” can even afford to build a church. Just over a month ago, in Skopje settlement Chento, Vukov attended the placing of the cornerstone of the church “St. Lydia Macedonian”, of which he was the founder. After the ceremony of consecration of the cornerstone, which was led by the head of the MOC, g.g. Stefan, an auction for shovels were held. The golden shovel was bought by the founder of the church, Gjorgji Vukov, for an amount of five thousand euros.
Charges against Vukov dropped
In 2008, Financial Police filed criminal charges against the owner of “Link media plus” for tax evasion, but, after the procedure, within which more expertise was required, the public prosecutor dropped the charges.
– After the charges filed against the person for the crime tax evasion, actions are taken in order to establish the facts and evidence in the case. Competent prosecution had filed charges, after which a procedure is conducted, in the framework of which more expertise was required. During the trial, there were new circumstances and evidence which showed that the actions of the accused have no elements of criminal acts prosecuted ex officio, therefor the prosecutor dropped the charges – replied representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the criminal charges from 2008, Vukov and his firm “Link media plus” evaded tax through firm “Kotin”, where he was posing as a manager. All that had to pay for the services of “Link” were forwarded to pay at the account of “Kotin”. The investigation of the Financial Police found that, after the transactions, the owner of “Kotin”, Z.M., as the sole authorized person, raised the money from the account and kept 4-5 percent of the amount for his services, while he returned the rest to Vukov. Thus, he was able to avoid paying income tax. According to police information, the amount of which the budget was damaged, i.e. the amount that illegally ended in Vukov’s pocket, is estimated at around one million denars.
But, despite the fact that there were criminal charges against Vukov in that period, the Ministry of Interior has chosen his firm “Link media plus” as the best bidder for the procurement of Kevlar, T-shirts and uniform tags. Representatives of MOI said that they chose “Link media plus” for the tenders because they provided the cheapest offers and because there was still no final legal verdict against the owner of the company.
Tenders, shirts and planters
Irrigation of planters, production of representative New Year’s material and many other tenders were awarded to this company in the past few years. According to the data of the Electronic Public Procurement System, the firm “Link media plus” in 2013 was awarded a tender by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management for production of control stamps – labels. The same year, it was awarded three tenders by the Municipality of Karposh, two of which for procurement of sports equipment and sports shirts, caps and sports shorts and one for replacement of the flower seedling and horticultural arrangement of the planters on both sides of the boulevard Partizanski Odredi (spring and autumn planting 2013). That same year, it signed a contract with the Ministry of Interior for the procurement of T-shirts. This year, the Municipality of Karposh made another agreement with “Link media plus” for horticultural arrangement on both sides of the boulevard Partizanski Odredi, the section from the bridge United Nations to the street Franklin Roosevelt and the roundabout near the high school “Georgi Dimitrov” (spring and autumn planting 2014). In 2013, the City of Skopje awarded a tender to “Link media plus” for the procurement of representative New Year’s representative. Last year, the company made an agreement with the Municipality of Karposh for maintenance of the irrigation system for the planters on both sides of the boulevard Partizanski Odredi (2013 – 2014 year).
A.D.G.
