Ministry of Labour and Social Policy
Today the first Day-care Center for Down Syndrome in the Republic of North Macedonia was opened. The new center is located behind the Church of Saint Clement of Ohrid in Skopje, on a total area of 381 m2. The total investment of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy for this center is around 6 million and 500 thousand denars. The entire adaptation and equipment of this Day-care center is in cooperation with parents’ associations of children with Down Syndrome and fully meets the needs of the children for supporting their psychological and physical development.
The center has equipment for improving the physical condition of the children, namely, treadmills, ping-pong tables, Pilates balls, equipment for development of fine motor skills and other didactic equipment, but also rooms for resting and hydro massage. Additionally, on the bottom floor there is a kitchen with all amenities, because there are plans for a social enterprise to be developed in the future, that is, a catering service. This way the children and young people from the Center will be able to be engaged in work with the support of professionals and parents.
Reforms
Today the process for self-nomination of presidents of SDSM municipal organizations begins, through an open announcement, after the President of the party, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, dismissed all 78 presidents.
“We invite all interested party members who fulfil the criteria to submit candidacies. We are open for all those who want to embed in internal changes. We invite those who enjoy authority, reputation and trust in their communities to apply for this public announcement. SDSM has enormous potential and together we can harness the entire capacity that we have, in the interest of the citizens and the future of the country and to serve even better”, stated Kostadin Kostadinov, spokesperson for the ruling party.
SPO
The trial for the unlawful financing of VMRO-DPMNE today again was postponed due to the absence of the accused Leko Ristoski, who underwent surgery. The hearing for the “Titanic” case was postponed yesterday for the same reason. The trial for the “Talir” case was supposed to start on February 18, but since then not a single hearing has been held because of different excuses.
The last hearing was postponed at the request of the defence, due to the request submitted for an authentic interpretation in Parliament of Article 22 of the Law on the SPO.
Parliamentary Speaker Talat Xhaferi has notified lawyer Donco Nakov in writing that the Parliament has still not performed an authentic interpretation of the Law on the SPO, because the Government needs to give the green light first. Nakov who is part of the defence of the accused in the “Talir” case, says that in regards to the unlawful financing of VMRO-DPMNE he will request from the Government to give a response more quickly.
Lawyer Aleksandar Tortevski today briefly commented on his Twitter profile the postponing of the case. “And now in the next 20 years we will be debating whether the SPO or PPO is competent for the case for the unlawful financing of VMRO. Until it is forgotten and becomes outdated”, wrote Tortevski.
Healthcare
The number of people with measles in Stip has drastically increased. The first cases appeared in a Stip clothing company, which was closed these days due to 15 infected workers.
Following this information, CIVIL Media has come across more information in regards to this specific case. It concerns the clothing company “Nirvana fashion”, which is in the same building with at least two other clothing companies. Moreover, part of the workers used the same yard during breaks. Workers from other clothing companies in Stip, on the other hand, use the same bus to get to work as those employed in “Nirvana fashion”.
According to initial information, disinfection and immunization of employees has been carried out only in “Nirvana fashion”. The company yesterday was already working full-time.
However, the question remains as to whether for the protection of the public health it is safe not to take any measures for the employees in the other textile companies that share the same building with the infected employees, and isn’t there a risk to their health? Another question that remains open is, according to the organized transportation of workers, from which other textile companies in Stip have workers travelling together with the infected workers, and have measures been taken for protection of their health, how and is there a need to carry out disinfection of the bus performing the transportation.
State Election Commission
With the Rulebook for determining the reimbursement of members of election bodies and election administration for carrying out the presidential elections 2019 and early local elections for mayors of the municipalities of Ohrid, Novo Selo and Debar, which was adopted at today’s session of the SEC, for the first time, gradation is performed of the reimbursement depending on several criteria. The President of the SEC, Oliver Derkovski, stated that with this Rulebook, in addition to the gradation of the Municipal Election Commissions according to the number of election boards, a gradation of the reimbursement of Election Boards has also been made for the first time, since not all of them are the same in their work.
The SEC proposes to have reimbursement determined for the election administration and persons engaged in the subsidiary bodies based om three criteria: time, work competencies and work performance.
Only SEC member Boris Kondarko didn’t vote for the Rulebook, because according to him, certain parts, that is, criteria are insufficiently and disproportionally regulated for specific categories of people, such as the professional service and the regional offices of the SEC.
The SEC until now was realizing the first tranche from the state budget in the amount of 100 million denars, and the processing and payment of the funds for the second part of the campaign is in progress.
Over 7.7 million euros have been received from the state budget for organizing and implementing the presidential and extraordinary local elections, of which 3.7 million for a media campaign.
The members of the State Election Commission have made a decision not to receive a reward, that is, compensation for the election engagement, except for their salary.
Ristov: Much more has to be done in order for us to become a welfare state
“In the time of the previous ruling structure, nationalism was at a higher level, both at the local and national level. There still is nationalism, but we are trying for it to be marginalized or at least ignored”, says activist Dejan Ristov from Veles.
D.T.
