Agreement with Avalon routed through the State Lottery, documents show

Publicly available documents show that the Government decided on April 28 to assign the organisation of the 35th‑anniversary celebrations to a state joint‑stock company, and two days later the State Lottery issued an open call linked to that task.

The State Lottery published, on April 30, a notice titled "Public call for collecting offers for the realization of sponsored events on the occasion of the celebration of the 35 years of statehood and independence of the Republic of North Macedonia." The call appeared on the Lottery's website and in a daily newspaper, and bidders had only five working days to submit offers; it included detailed descriptions of the events that later took place.

Why the call was not on the public procurement system

Aleksandar Klimovski, director of the State Lottery, says the announcement was issued under the Law on Sponsorships and Donations and therefore was not published through the public procurement system. He also directed questions about the financial side of the celebrations away from the Lottery: "Direct all questions about the sum for the celebrations for the 35 years of independence to the Government."

The Government spokesperson, Marija Miteva, asked that questions be sent to her office; according to the available information, no formal reply on the amounts has been received so far.

The documents indicate that the route chosen to assign the events involved the State Lottery rather than an open tender procedure on the public procurement platform. The records further show that an entity named Avalon was connected to the contract chain through the Lottery's process.

Officials and bidders involved in the April call have five‑day deadlines and precise event descriptions recorded in the announcement, details that point to a tightly defined procurement route carried out via sponsorship rules rather than standard public procurement channels.

Photo: press material from the event