Macedonia Puts Pricey Projects Under Revision

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  • Tomche Makedonche
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2011
    • 1123

    Macedonia Puts Pricey Projects Under Revision

    New government plans to scrap or revise several key projects launched by its predecessors that are seen as financial black holes.


    Macedonia Puts Pricey Projects Under Revision

    New government plans to scrap or revise several key projects launched by its predecessors that are seen as financial black holes

    Just one month since its election, the new government led by the Social Democrats, SDSM, has announced the revision of several expensive, controversial projects.

    They include a new medical centre in Skopje, two stretches of highway funded by a Chinese loan and the grand revamp of the capital commonly called “Skopje 2014”.

    The new Health Minister, Arben Taravari, on Monday said he had ordered a revision of the 72-million-euro tender procedure for the new Skopje medical centre, hoping either to scrap or renegotiate the recently signed construction deal and relocate the facility somewhere where it might be more practical.

    “There are shortcomings. We are now talking with the financier, the World Bank, to relocate the clinical centre somewhere on the periphery [of Skopje],” Taravari told Faktor weekly.

    The new government intends to build the new centre where it would be most easily accessible both to Skopje residents and to people from other towns.

    They claim that, as it is, the construction of a modern building in the old location, near the overcrowded centre of the capital, will not truly solve the decades-long problem with the traffic and accessibility, and may make it worse.

    In an unprecedented manner, Taravari's predecessor in the provisional government, led by the VMRO DPMNE party, signed the construction deal for the medical centre on May 19, less than two weeks before the expected election of a new government.

    Another project that the new government said was poorly planned and needed revision was the construction of two key stretches of motorway funded by a Chinese loan of 574 million euros.

    Launched in 2014, the construction of the 50-kilometre stretch of motorway linking Skopje to the town of Stip, and the 57-kilometre stretch from the lakeside town of Ohrid to the town of Kicevo, en route to Skopje, is now practically at halt.

    The new Transport Minister, Goran Sugareski, on Friday inspected the latter stretch of motorway and said his preliminary check showed that for this stretch alone, the country might need to pay an additional 120 million euros to fix safety issues with the tunnels and relocate part of the road that has already been build alongside a hilly terrain prone to landslides.

    “This is a typical example that showcases the functioning of the previous government, through projects that start with one projected price tag and end up with annexes [to the contract] that considerably raise the price,” Sugareski said.

    The former ruling VMRO DPMNE party has reacted with counter-accusations, insisting that the new government’s true aim was to stop all the capital projects it had instigated, by inventing false pretexts for doing so.

    Speaking about the highway issues, VMRO DPMNE said that certain unforeseen corrections are “normal” when it comes to major highway projects over difficult terrain.

    Another project seen as synonymous with the past government’s loose spending habits is the grand quasi-baroque revamp of the capital, Skopje 2014.

    According to a BIRN database, since its launch in 2010, the price tag for the revamp has risen to over 670 million euros.

    The new government ordered an immediate stop to and revision of the project in order to save money and determine its true cost.

    However, it seems the new government will not be able to respond to calls to restore some of Skopje’s lost landmarks and original looks because this would cost even more to do so.

    The latest edition of Skopsko Eho, a weekly newspaper dedicated to Skopje’s urban life, published an opinion poll that asked residents which part of the revamp they liked least.

    People opted for the several old-style sailing ships built to serve as restaurants and hotels in the Vardar River, adding that the large triumphal arch in the city centre also does not seem to belong there. Respondents to the survey also said many of the new monuments clog up space in prominent pedestrian areas
    “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all” - Mario Savio
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