A total of 675,000 euros was spent by the City of Skopje and 20 municipalities to decorate the country for the celebration of the New 2020. The city alone spent about 285,000 euros, a share of 42 percent of the total money for this purpose. Compared to the previous year, the number of decorated municipalities decreased, but the value of tenders increased.
This shows the database of all local government tenders announced today by the Center for Civil Communications.
According to the data, as much as 91% of the money for decorating the streets and squares for the celebration ends with two Skopje companies, Link Media Plus and Metal-Vet-El.
About 490,000 euros, or 73 percent of New Year’s decoration money, was spent in Skopje by city authorities and the municipalities of Centar, Aerodrom, Karpos, Chair, Butel, Gazi Baba and Suto Orizari.
“After the City of Skopje, the largest decorative contracts were concluded with the municipalities of Skopje Centar and Aerodrom, surpassing the municipalities Karpos and Strumica that were in these positions last year. The change is due to the Centar Municipality bidding for a two-year contract worth 56.847 euros this year, and the Municipality of Aerodrom increased its contract value by 54 percent and spent 48.519 euros on decoration”, the Center for Civil Communications said.
Apart from the contracts the same companies receive, the data says that the old habit of releasing late ads for decoration for the New Year’s continues, which of course, according to the Center for Civil Communications, adversely affects competition and prevents potential bidders from preparing more thorough contracts.
This database is part of the envisaged ten public spending surveys and databases that are being implemented as part of the Public Spending for Public Benefit activity supported by the USAID Citizen Participation Project. The purpose of this activity is to increase the effectiveness of public spending by reducing corruption and increasing transparency.
