Prosecutor's office says it is reviewing legality of €5.5m independence spending

State Public Prosecutor Nenad Saveski said after a meeting of the Council of Public Prosecutors that the prosecutor’s office is reviewing the matter from a criminal-law perspective and will open an investigation if it finds grounds. The probe concerns some €5.5 million spent on the independence celebration, of which he said about 90 percent came from the State Lottery — funds he described as citizens' money.

“I heard that the Anticorruption Commission has an open case, but their procedure is not tied to ours. Of course, every situation, including this one, the Prosecutor's Office analyses and if it finds grounds, it will act,” Saveski said.

What prosecutors are checking

Officials at the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Skopje say they have not yet launched a formal investigation. The office has received repeated questions since 10 September, when it emerged that of the reported 340 million denars connected to the event, only 40 million denars had come from private companies and the remainder from the state-owned State Lottery.

The Skopje prosecutors said they are examining the legal framework to determine whether the Lottery's management had the authority to allocate those funds for the celebration. That review focuses on the applicable rules and any possible criminal elements in the transfer or use of public company money.

Saveski underlined that the Anticorruption Commission’s procedure is separate from any criminal work the prosecutor’s office might carry out. If prosecutors identify criminal indications during their analysis, they said, they will proceed in line with criminal procedure.

For now, the case remains in an evidentiary and regulatory review phase at the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Skopje while the Anticorruption Commission continues its own administrative inquiry.

Photo: SDK.MK)