Recent training on investigative journalism in the new media, held in late January, 2018 rounded the cycle of ten advanced trainings in which a total of 96 journalists from 55 media from all over the country gained new knowledge and improved their skills for research and reporting on the most important topics in the society.

The topics of the trainings were selected depending on the recommendations of the journalists according to their needs or as a reaction to the current issues in the society starting from searching "Panama Papers", to research and reporting on the election process, on financial and economic issues, on topics of local importance, to specialized trainings for television journalists and journalists from the new media, as well as trainings for use in the research of digital and forensic tools and trainings for providing quality investigative journalism for junior journalists, as well as for those most advanced ones.

Lecturers were investigative journalists, trainers and experts from Europe, the region, but also from Macedonia. Among them, Christiaan Triebert, award-winning researcher from the Netherlands, Keith Stafford, the leading global journalism trainer of Reuters, Rachel Wright, a former BBC producer, investigative journalists and editors from the leading investigative journalism TV program Insider and one of the best regional corruption research networks, Krik, both from Serbia.

As a result, the regular annual monitoring of media reporting showed an increased presence of investigative stories and analytical articles in 2017 compared to 2016, from 5% to 8.8%, along with improved quality of these stories.

All of these activities are carried out within the framework of the EU-funded project “Investigative reporting to boost reforms”, implemented by the Center for Civil Communications in partnership with the NGO Infocenter and BIRN Macedonia.

The project encompasses a series of workshops for improving the cooperation between journalists and the civil sector in achieving common societal goals, support of journalists from Macedonia for research on the ways in which certain problems that are facing in Macedonia are solved in other European countries, support to local NGOs for the preparation of research and databases on important phenomena of the country, which will further serve journalists and the civil sector to improve and support their activities, etc.

Tender with absurd prices of 0,01 MKD
SKOPJE, December 04, 2017 - The Center for Civil Communications today published a report on the monitoring of public procurement conducted by the central level institutions for the period from January to June 2017.
Key findings from the monitoring of public procurement are:

• As many as 35% of monitored tender procedures have rejected a
  number of bids as unacceptable. This additionally hinders competition
  in tender procedures.
• In some tender procedures, e-auctions have resulted in attainment
  of such low prices that bring under question reality of tender
  procedures’ estimated value and quality of procurements.
• ‘Lowest price’ defined as the single criterion on contract awarding
  leads to tender procedures which have attained absurd prices of 0.01
  MKD and 0.01 percent. Such market inconsequence increases the risk
  of possible manipulations in the course of tender implementation.
• In the first half of 2017, the council of public procurements was
  addressed with 7,583 applications from contracting authorities, i.e.
  by 9% less applications compared to the same period last year. In that,
  the council invoiced contracting authorities for issuance of opinions/
  approvals in total amount of 806,172 EUR.
• In the first half of 2017, the non-transparent negotiation procedure
  without prior announcement of call for bids was used to sign
  contracts in accumulative value of 7.4 Million EUR, which is by 12%
  higher compared to the same period last year.
• Number and share of annulled tender procedures is increasing. In the
  first half of 2017, a total of 2,033 tender procedures were annulled
  (fully or in part), representing A share of 23.7% from the total number
  of procurement notices announced in the same period.
• Total of 19 negative references for 17 companies were issued in the first half of 2017.

For more information, please contact the Center for Civil Communications at (02) 3213-513 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Ова е втор ваков мониторинг на медиумите, по оној во 2016 година. Мониторингот ги опфаќа истражувачките и аналитичките написи објавени во медиумите и има за цел да обезбеди доволно, квалитетни и релевантни информации кои ќе дадат оцена на застапеноста и квалитетот на истражувачките и аналитичките новинарски текстови, како и на темите и областите на кои се однесуваат тие текстови.

Воедно, резултатите од мониторингот на медиумите треба понатаму да послужат и како основа за преземање низа други акции насочени кон подобрување на медиумското известување, воопшто. На новинарите и на медиумите може да им помогне да ги лоцираат слабите страни во сегашното информирање и да им биде патоказ за унапредување на нивното известување. На невладините организации, пак, анализата може да им укаже на областите во кои е потребен поголем ангажман во насока на поредовно, попрофесионално и пообјективно информирање на јавноста.

Мониторингот на медиумите за процена на квантитетот и квалитетот на истражувачкото и аналитичкото новинарско известување се спроведува во рамките на проектот „Истражувачко новинарство за поттикнување реформи“, финансиран од Европската Унија. Целта на проектот што се реализира во периодот 2016- 2019 година е да се поттикне растот на прецизното и истражувачкото новинарство во насока на подобро информирање на јавноста и заштита на јавниот интерес. Со други зборови, целта е да се поттикнат редакциите и новинарите да се посветат на подлабока и посуштинска анализа на проблемите со што ќе се издвојат квалитативно од напливот на кратки, брзи, површни и сензационалистички информации, овозможувајќи им на граѓаните контекст и подобар увид во состојбите.

SKOPJE, 20 June 2017 – Today, the Center for Civil Communications published its monitoring report on public procurements organized by institutions at local level.

Key findings include:

- The already low competition in tender procedures organized on local level continues to decline. Monitored tender procedures were marked by an average participation of 2.4 bidding companies, while 35% of tender procedures were presented with only one bid or no bids. For comparison purposes, in the previous reporting period the average number of bidding companies per tender procedures accounted for 2.8, while 29% of tender procedures were presented with only one bid or no bids.

- Although duration of tender procedures is extended, companies have shorter deadlines for development and submission of their bids. In most cases, contracting authorities set the minimum law-stipulated deadline for bid submission. However, unlike these calendar-based deadlines, the actual deadlines for companies to develop and submit their bids are much shorter. There are cases in which companies have only had one day to develop and submit their bids.

- The share of tender annulments in the monitoring sample remains at the same high level of 18%. Dominant reasons indicated for annulment of public procurements include high prices and absence of bidding companies in tender procedures.

- Although they are mandatory for all procurements, e-auctions were organized in only 55% of monitored tender procedures. On the contrary, the share of so-called e-procurements or tender procedures fully organized in electronic manner accounted for 58%. The average price reduction at e-actions accounted for decrease by only 10%.

- There are numerous examples in which contracting authorities have taken different actions in same situations,  i.e. when bidding companies have not submitted complete bids. Some contracting authorities requested them to provide the necessary additional documents, while others immediately excluded said companies from the procurement procedure.

The report is available here. For more information, please contact the Center for Civil Communications by tel.: (02) 3213-513 or by e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .