Alsovska agrees with advisory panel

Prime Minister Hestjan Mikoski said in a statement to the media yesterday that he will ask the councillors of the VMRO-DPMNE Advisory Group and the Alliance to vote at the next session of the Skopje City Council on the proposal put forward by Mayor Alsovska, who claims they are blocking it, but he believes that nothing will change.

“As the chairman of VMRO-DPMNE, I will ask the councillors from the VMRO-DPMNE advisory group to vote on the plan immediately at the next meeting, but this has nothing to do with the plan, as you will see immediately,” Mikowski said in response to a reporter’s question.

Alsovska previously said that during discussions with Mikoski about the situation in the capital, she was told that the government’s debt of 8 million euros for free student transport provided by JSP Skopje would be repaid by withdrawing funds intended for the construction of a new school on Wizbegowo Boulevard, but the prime minister said “this is not exactly what the mayor announced”.

The request to settle the debt was made by the Minister of Education and Science Vesna Janevska, who informed that the Ministry of Education received invoices for huge sums of money, and the City of Skopje claimed that the Ministry was obliged to pay for free transport but, as Janevska said, there was neither agreement nor basis.

“It is not known whether the mayor intends to use other means to pay the debt.” Indeed, MES received huge invoices from the City of Skopje claiming that we are obliged to pay for free transport for students. We have no agreement with either the JSP or the City of Skopje and as minister I have no basis to pay these funds. If no other solution is found for these funds, we will have to go to court. “Neither I nor this government promised free transport,” Janevska said.

At a coordination meeting held yesterday in the City of Skopje with the participation of the Coordinators of the Advisory Group, Council Chairman Trajko Slaveski noted that the heads of the Public Health and Parks and Greenery departments could not give specific answers to the questions, given their new positions and still needed to inform the consultants about the issues they raised.

“At the meeting, listed companies stressed that they need to obtain permits to purchase new machinery, equipment, etc. I noticed that, like in previous years, their investment plans were approved by the Skopje City Council at the beginning of this year, when they told us that on average their vehicles and equipment are over 20 years old, and some groups are even 30 years old,” Slaveski said.

Regarding public transport in the City of Skopje, he said that it was determined at Monday’s meeting that it is not possible to purchase new buses to increase the fleet in the short term and that a large part of the fleet is non-functional. He reiterated that the government expressed its readiness to transfer part of the funds not used in infrastructure projects in the City of Skopje to the City of Skopje account for the rehabilitation of a certain number of buses that are not in operation at the beginning of the new academic year.

“We have two key dates here. One is September 1 or 3, when primary and secondary schools start school, with a short break before students return to school. According to the director’s assessment, up to 30 buses could be repaired and put into operation if the government reaches an agreement on the transfer of funds and starts repaying the 8 million euro debt owed by the previous government to the JSP, he said. Slavic.

He said the city’s public transport was expected to be able to operate normally from September 1, but it was not as good as he would have liked.

“There are no stalled processes in the Skopje City Council, and if we talk about stalled processes, it is the plan I mentioned to allow 120 new employees in the public health sector. Of course, we will also review other plans that have not yet been adopted,” Slavsky said when asked by reporters whether things in the city council would be in chaos from August 29.

Asked about Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski’s statement today calling on MPs to support the Skopje City Plan, Slavski reiterated that the only plan for additional public health activities for 120 seasonal workers has not been approved so far. He is confident that even with the current numbers, the PE will work well.

Slavsky said that there were no funds in the budget for 8 million euros to repay the debt incurred in previous years for free student transport, adding that there was a will to continue doing so. Regarding the BRT system, he recalled that the prime minister on Monday expressed doubts whether lawmakers would approve the continuation of the project in a short time.

Gordan Shutarov, coordinator of the SDSM Advisory Group, said that at the meeting the directors called for a vote on the seasonal employment plan for the JP Public Health Department and the start of the procedure for the purchase of new buses and the start of the implementation of the BRT system (Bath Rapid Transit System). He expressed regret that in the past the plans of some public enterprises for 2022-2023 did not receive the necessary majority vote of the Council of 23 deputies, noting that these plans are attractive to everyone, especially the VMRO-DPMNE Advisory Group, which has the support of the majority of deputies, and welcomed the call of the President of the Government to approve the plans of the City of Skopje.

“I am glad that the prime minister called for the approval of these plans because this is a matter for the Skopje City Council, which makes decisions in the interest of citizens to make their lives better,” Shutarov said.

Regarding the Bas Rapid Transit System, for which the Parliament passed a law and received 70 million euros in funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Shutarov called on VMRO-DPMNE consultants and the government to take a stand on the project, because in his opinion, it is a solution for public transport in Skopje that would allow for the modernization and optimization of public transport in the city.

Minister of Local Self-Government Zlatko Perinski confirmed that, as he said, there has been a certain shift in the direction of the Mayor of Skopje’s constructive behavior towards the Parliament and its deputies.

Perinsky said the ruling party has 14 MPs in Skopje, while there are 45 MPs in the parliament in total, noting that utility companies do not need votes in parliament to perform their statutory duties.

“The fact is that no one can stop the directors or management of a utility company from exercising their statutory powers. JSP does not need a vote in the Skopje City Council to provide services to buses, JP Community Health Company does not need a vote in Parliament to provide services to trucks, tankers, etc. They need money and the will,” Perinsky said.

Perinski said that the work of utilities requires continuity because they are complex systems with more than 1,000 employees, and as he said, with a new management every three months, there is “no time to fully penetrate” the items that must be handled.