President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is distancing herself from the appointment of intelligence officer Kiro Todorovski as a representative of the Intelligence Agency in Vienna, even though there is current confirmation that he has been legally convicted of election irregularities in the "Titanic" case.
The President's Office explains that the Intelligence Agency is a separate body of the state administration, that the decision to select is signed by the Agency's director, Gabriela Jakovleva, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs issues a decision on referral.
"Namely, according to Article 1, paragraph (2) of the Law on the Intelligence Agency, "The Agency is a separate body of the state administration", and according to Article 5 of the same law, "the director independently carries out the work and exercises the competences of the Agency". Hence, personnel, organizational and operational decisions are made exclusively within the legally established powers of this independent body. After all, the director, and not the president of the state, signs the decision to select a representative of the AR in the DCM, on the basis of which the Minister of Foreign Affairs issues a decision on referral, after which he/she signs a letter of credence, which the representative submits to the competent service of the host country", says the response from the Office of the President.
The case of Todorovski's appointment was revealed by "Sloboden Pechat" after a "whistleblower" submitted reports to the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, disputing Todorovski's return to work at the Intelligence Agency, receiving a "state secret" certificate, and then his sending to Vienna, with a certificate from the Criminal Court stating that he was sentenced to probation in the "Titanic" case.
Siljanovska-Davkova's office says that the procedure for selecting an AR representative in the DCM is classified and reminds that the Assembly supervises the work of the Agency.
"The procedure for selecting AR representatives in the DKP is regulated by the Regulation on the referral and return of AR representatives to the DKP, and is carried out on the basis of an internal competition by the Selection Commission and all election activities, from the competition to the election, are classified. However, we remind you that the legislator has established a mechanism of democratic and institutional control over the work of the Intelligence Agency. Namely, in accordance with Article 21 of the Law, the Parliament supervises the work of the Agency through the competent parliamentary committee. Therefore, suspicions of illegal actions by the Agency can be checked by initiating a procedure of parliamentary oversight over the work of the Agency. Taking into account the above, we believe that, in this case, firstly, there is no legal basis for the President to encroach on the competence of the AR, as a separate body of the state administration, whose competence is independently exercised by the Director, nor for us to assess or comment on personnel procedures of a classified nature," the Cabinet says.
In fact, the political party Levica also publicly requested a position from the president, accusing him of sending Todorovski abroad under her political patronage.
Previously, "Sloboden Pechat" also raised the questions of how Todorovski passed the security check conducted by the National Security Agency and how the Directorate for Security of Classified Information issued him a security certificate, even though there is information that he has been convicted.
The Directorate for Security of Classified Information, similar to the NSA, responded that it was not classified information, but that the records kept by the DBKI for processed requests and issued security certificates were marked "for restricted use" and that free access was not allowed.
So far, there is no accountability, nor a logical explanation for how Todorovski, despite the final verdict in the "Titanic" case, passed security procedures, received a certificate for access to classified information, and was then sent as a representative of the Intelligence Agency in Vienna.
Source: Sloboden Pechat
