The state-owned ESM, i.e. the production subsidiary TPP Bitola, has issued the largest tender for the excavation of tailings of almost 25 million euros in the last ten years, and a construction company Markovski Kompani based in Bitola will have to remove the layer of soil with which it is coal is covered which is then used as fuel to obtain electricity.
According to the tender document published by the Public Procurement Bureau, TPP Bitola is asking Markovski Kompani to dig up to four million cubic meters of tailings from the coal deposits in Bitola. The tailings must be mined, transported and disposed of so that the coal can be released.
Two entities applied for the tender, and the work was won by Markovski Kompani, which specializes in coal and tailings mining and has been working on contracts with TPP Bitola for several years. The total unit price for one cubic meter of tailings amounts to MKD 2,871. The contract states that ESM has the right not to have to implement the contract in its entirety, that is, up to its maximum value of 24.94 million euros, reports A1on.mk and adds:
According to the contract, Markovski Kompani has three subcontractor companies. Two of them are the Strumica companies Sim Engineering and Javor Trans. The first company is owned by Simeon Krstev, and the second by his son Goran Krstev. The latter is a business partner and close friend of former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.
