Public prosecutors in Bitola are investigating the taking out of a new loan by the Bitola municipality from the World Bank. The municipality has taken 2.5 million euro which they plan to use for constructing business and residential buildings in the old barracks area.
Meta received this information from the prosecutorship in Bitola, from where they say that they are only expanding a previous investigation of a case against Mayor Vladimir Taleski. The prosecutors are also investigating activities in the municipality after SDSM’s leader Zoran Zaev began releasing the “bombs.”
It is alleged that the prosecutors are investigating why the municipality has taken out a loan and what happened to the money that was planned for building infrastructure in the old barracks area, considering the information that investors in the project had already paid their development fees to the municipality. The load received a green light from the municipality Council at the end of march this year.
“The process initiated by the Primary public prosecutorship of Bitola is taking into consideration the overall management of funds in the municipality. The leading public prosecutor of this case has given an order to the Bureau of legal investigations to analyze the material evidence that is available, while at the same time the prosecutor is investigating other leads which are included in the criminal charges. Following the completion of the material evidence, the Primary public prosecutorship of Bitola will launch the leading decision as to how the case will be regarded further on part of the prosecutors,” says in a written response from the press service of the prosecutorship in Bitola following a question by Meta.
Parliament Member Vasko Kovachevski of Bitola has filed a criminal charge against Taleski based on information in one of the leaked tapes by the opposition party SDSM in which Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski, in a conversation with former Minister of Interior Gordana Jankuloska, calls Bitola’s Mayor Taleski “a criminal” because he had signed a “thoroughly corruptive deal” for a student transit service.
Kovachevski then said that the part of the aforementioned conversation in the leaked tape is regarding a contract for transit of students, made in June 2010, in which the price that was agreed was ten times higher than the market price. Kovachevski demanded that the Prosecutorship acts according to the law.
The new loan taken from the World Bank by the Bitola municipality is facing severe criticism from the opposition in the city’s Council, precisely because Bitola has a yearly budget of 28 million euro.
The loan taken out by the municipality has to be paid off in 13 years and has a three-year grace period.
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