After an investigation, a public prosecutor from the Skopje Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) filed an indictment against the former director of the Government’s Service for General and Common Affairs (SOZR) for a continuing criminal offense – Abuse of official position and authority under Article 353 paragraph 4 in connection with paragraph 1, as well as Falsification of an official document under Article 361 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code.
“The defendant, in the period between 03.07.2021 and March 2024, abused his official capacity as director, exceeded his official authority and, without any basis for sending him on an official trip outside the country, signed travel decisions and travel orders for himself and several employees of SOZR. For private needs and without any basis, he used the government aircraft Learjet 60, and during the trips, payments were made from the SOZR account on various grounds. In addition, for hotel and catering services, the defendant unreasonably used funds from the official card issued in his name. In this way, he damaged the SOZR Budget for a significant total amount of 2,562,139 denars.
In the period between 27.10.2023 and 14.06.2024, he did not perform his official duty with the intention of obtaining material benefit for another, i.e. for the pilot employed in SOZR. Although he personally attended the Flight Safety Atlanta meeting and was informed that the pilot, even with additional training, would not meet the acceptable standards required to fly a Learjet 60, he did not oblige the pilot to reimburse the costs of the training in accordance with the Employment Agreement and did not notify the competent sector to terminate his employment. The pilot continued to receive a salary for the position of captain-commander of an aircraft, and with this abuse of his official position, the defendant caused damage to the Budget worth MKD 5,431,624,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release Wednesday.
