The hearing for closing arguments for "Tenders", where Elizabeta Kancheska-Milevska is accused, was not held because one of the lawyers did not come to the hearing. Before the start, the court was informed by the lawyer Sashko Dukovski that a member of his family had an emergency medical intervention, so he will be absent from the hearing. The term for the next hearing, after which the verdict will be handed down, will be determined additionally.
For five years there has been a trial and there is no court decision for the former Minister of Culture, Elizabeta Kancheska-Milevska, who is being prosecuted for rigging tenders for the construction of the VMRO Museum. A series of postponed hearings and the return of the case to trial due to a change in the trial council are just two of the reasons why the process has lasted half a decade. Judge Osman Shabani has now also allowed a super-expert, the preparation of which may take months. The super expert, unofficially, goes in favor of the accused.
According to the indictment, before the public procurement contract award announcement was published and before the procedure was carried out, contrary to the Law on Public Procurement before the decision on the need for public procurement was made, Kancheska-Milevska through conversations with the general director of the construction company " Beton" from Shtip ordered to continue work on the Museum, where construction works were carried out according to a previously concluded contract for public procurement.
It is claimed that the ex-minister ordered to carry out all the additional work that was not included in the public procurement contract and in the annexes, so that there would not be twenty days of waiting for the implementation of the new public procurement. Kanceska previously agreed through the second defendant in the Commission for Public Procurement, when the announcement is published, that "Beton" from Shtip will receive the contract.
SJO initiated the case, and now the Prosecutor's Office for prosecution of organized crime claims that the three defendants (the ex-minister and two members of the public procurement commission) abused their official position and authority.
