Cveta Ristovska: SCPC still undecided on two cases

The State Commission for Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) has not yet issued a decision in the two cases opened against its former chair, Cveta Ristovska, even though more than half a year has passed since her resignation over allegations related to undeclared property and campaign payments tied to her sons.

Commission officials say procedures are still underway: investigators continue to examine a potential conflict of interest and whether Ristovska failed to declare assets.

Questions over how Ristovska's files were reassigned

An internal memorandum has raised concerns that the case files Ristovska handled after her resignation were not distributed through the commission's electronic random-assignment system but were instead manually reassigned to newly appointed member Katerina Zajkovska. If confirmed, that practice would contravene the commission's rules of procedure.

The same document states that members voted at a collegium on whether to allow manual reassignment, with Zajkovska voting "against" and the other members voting "for". The commission has not provided a definitive answer on whether all of Ristovska's files were in fact transferred to Zajkovska.

The SCPC's internal rules prescribe that newly registered cases are allocated electronically at random and that decisions are taken collectively by majority vote at a public session. The commission has said that two ongoing misdemeanor proceedings related to the former member remain in progress.

Ristovska resigned after reports that the company Bust received €35,000 each for the 2024 presidential campaigns of Stevo Pendarovski and Gordana Siljanovska‑Davkova. It was also reported that she did not list her sons as company owners on her asset declaration form. During her tenure she closed an inquiry into alleged falsification of the diploma of ANB director Bojan Hristovski; she had lectured at the faculty where Hristovski graduated and proposed that the diploma case be closed.

After Ristovska left the commission, misdemeanor proceedings were opened and her seat remained vacant. The first attempt to appoint her successor failed amid concerns about possible irregularities; on the second attempt Zajkovska was elected. Zajkovska previously worked in the commission's unit for financing of political parties and was employed there at the time of the campaign financing transactions involving Ristovska's sons' companies.

Photo: press material from the event