Former Macedonian PM Denies Telecoms Scam Claims

His comments came a day after German media reported that eight executives from the German telecommunications company were being investigated on suspicion of bribing influential politicians from Macedonia and Montenegro.

Buckovski told local A1 TV: “I am not corrupted by money from Telecom nor were there any such attempts while I was minister.

"[However] we are interested in finding out which politicians were involved,” he added.

He said that memories of which legal experts were involved in writing Macedonia's Law on Electronic Communications "are still fresh".

He said it was possible that, if a company wanted to make extra profits, it could have bribed them to tailor the law to their advantage.
 
Macedonia’s Transport and Communications Minister Mile Jankieski declined to comment directly on the reports, saying his country was only peripherally involved.

“Having this affair is bad, but this is a global issue involving the whole Deutsche Telecom group. Macedonia is just one part of it,” Jankieski said on Wednesday.

Officials from local MakTel - majority owned by Magyar Telekom, the Hungarian unit of Deutsche Telekom - were also muted in their response.

MakTel spokesperson Verce Georgievska told Balkan Insight: “We as a company cannot comment on an ongoing investigation that is being conducted by Deutsche Telecom.”

According to Wednesday's Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Deutsche Telecom CEO Rene Obermann is among those being investigated.

The newspaper reported that Obermann was being probed by the German public prosecutor's office in Bonn for allegedly bribing Macedonian politicians in 2005 to slow down the entry of competitors in the fixed telephony market.

At the time Macedonia was considering its Law on Electronic Communications, seen as one of the key preconditions for the liberalisation of the market that was up to then, held by one company.

Deutsche Telecom did not comment to Balkan Insight on the reports.

Macedonia sold 51 per cent of the former state-owned telecom Matav, to Deutsche Telekom in 2000.  The business is now operated as a division of Magyar Telecom.

The state kept a minority share to ensure continued representation on the company’s board of directors.

In December 2008, Macedonian police charged the former chief of MakTel, Atila Sendrei, and three of his associates with abuse of power and embezzlement allegedly carried out during 2005.

According to police, Sendrei was suspected of embezzling up to €4 million through fabricating consulting deals with companies based in Cyprus.

However, Macedonian authorities have been unable to reach Sendrei since he left the country.