Probe into Macedonia Telecom Bribe Claims Urged

Photo by: Tim Parkinson

Macedonian NGOs say they seek a probe into bribery claims after the US courts on December 29 fined Germany’s telecom giant Deutsche Telekom and its Hungarian subsidiary Magyar Telecom $95 million.

Magyar Telecom owns Macedonia’s biggest telecom provider, Macedonian Telecom. Macedonia sold off a 51 per cent stake of the former state-owned telecom in 2000.

The fines are to settle charges that the companies paid off Macedonian politicians and officials in 2005-2006 to delay the country from opening its wireless market to new competition.

At that time Macedonia was mulling passage of a Law on Electronic Communications, seen as a key precondition for the liberalization of the market that was till then held by one company. The law entered into force in March 2005.

The US Justice Department took action under the terms of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when it fined the telecoms giant. At the time Magyar Telekom's shares were trading on the New York Stock Exchange as American Depositary Receipts.

“We are keeping our eyes shut to the obvious fact that criminal activities allegedly happened in our own country,” Vanja Mihajlovska, a Skopje-based anti-corruption activist and former member of the state Anti-Corruption Commission, told Balkan Insight.

She called on Macedonian prosecutors to investigate which politicians might be involved in the alleged scam.

The corruption claims first emerged in September 2010 when the Germany newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung wrote that executives from the German company were being investigated on suspicion of bribing politicians from Macedonia and Montenegro.

After initially saying they would investigate the German media reports, Macedonian prosecutors failed to press charges.

Since Monday Balkan Insight has sought clarification from the chief prosecutor of the city of Skopje, Marko Zvrlevski, as to whether he will take into consideration the various documents and communications used by the US courts to pin charges on the companies.

So far he has not replied to any requests for information. The Skopje prosecution office is in charge of the investigation.

A former member of Macedonia's Anti–Corruption Commission, Dragan Malinovski, said he doubted the political will existed to take action.

Malinovski said it was shameful that the country had to hear from US courts about crimes that allegedly took place on its own soil.

Politicians from both the ruling VMRO DPMNE and the opposition Social Democrats have remained silent about the US court ruling.

At the time when the alleged bribe took place, Macedonia's Prime Minister was the Social Democrat Vlado Buckovski. Back in 2010, when the scandal broke, he denied being involved.

Macedonian Telecom is no longer the sole operator in Macedonia. However, it remains the biggest in the field, with Telecom Slovenia and Telecom Austria being its main competitors.