The State Commission for Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) has responded to the demand for access to public information that CIVIL submitted in mid-December last year.

CIVIL’s demand coincided with the reaction of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption to the column “Hang the SCPC” by Saso Ordanoski, published on December 12, 2016 on CIVIL Media.

The SCPC a while ago reacted by condemning the allegations contained in the text that are directed at spreading untruths, discrediting and a public call for a lynch of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption and of its members.

In their statement they accused of unprofessionalism and unethical behavior and demanded for the text to be withdrawn. CIVIL responded that it has no intention of ever withdrawing and called for responsibility and transparency.

CIVIL sent a request according to the Law on access to public information, in which it demanded information, among which also for the number of cases formed due to suspicion of corruption, and the cases in concern. CIVIL also demanded from the SCPC to disclose data regarding the travel costs in the country and abroad, as well as the reasons for and the results of those trips, representation costs, all public procurements and communication costs in the period April 14 to December 12, 2017.

The SCPC transferred part of the responsibility for the delay in the response to these questions to the Service for General and Common Affairs of the Government: “The holder of the information needs more time than the deadline determined in Article 21 of the Law on Free Access to Public Information, because of which the same is extended, in accordance to Article 22, item 1 of the same law. The reason for the extension of the given deadline is the size of the requested information – data, the need for obtaining a greater part of them from the Service for General and Common Affairs of the Government (SGCA), which based on performing general and common affairs and services, executes the accounting work of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, and also because of the failure of the SGCA to submit the data to the State Commission, requested with a written request by the State Commission” – is said in the response to CIVIL.

“The Macedonian public has a legal right to expect answers to these questions. We have more questions for the SCPC, but also for several other institutions in the country as well” – states briefly Xhabir Deralla, President of CIVIL.

Biljana Jordanovska