Center for Civil Communications, together with BIRN Macedonia and the Centre for Investigative journalism, SCOOP Macedonia launched a call for investigative stories on May 17.

The call is part of the ‘Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation Between Media and Civil Society’, part of a USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia.

In the first call that closes on June 7, at least five journalists will be awarded a grant to cover their expenses while doing the investigation and writing the story. More calls for investigative grants will follow, for a total of 40 stories until June 2015.

Journalists will have about three months to dig deeper and research their ideas, but also will have the opportunity to work with experienced editors as their mentors to guide them through the process of writing to BIRN standards.

Topics for investigations include: health; cultural policy; education and youth; human rights; EU integration; good governance; inter-ethnic relations; environment issues; marginalised groups; quality of life. The call only applies to journalists from Macedonia. Click here for more detailed information.

SKOPJE, 14 May 2013 – Today the Center for Civil Communications published findings from their monitoring of public procurement procedures in Macedonia for the period from October to December 2012.  Some of the key findings are:

• Legally prescribed e-auctions were not conducted in 40% of the monitored sample. In addition, in one out of every four e-auctions that were conducted, the opening bid was not reduced from the starting price. Thus, the effect of budget savings was not realized in most of the procurements. This is a direct consequence of limiting tender competition by setting unreasonably burdensome bidding criteria for companies.
• The share of annulled tenders in the last three months of 2012 was very high: 23.4% at the national level. Over the past four years, the percentage of annulments was highest in 2012 at 24.2%, mainly due to the low number of bids received on tenders.
• In the fourth quarter of 2012, a total of 408 contracts were made in negotiated procedures without prior publication of a contract notice, with an approximate value of 22 million Euros. Annually, around 65 million Euros have been spent through this procedure. The main reason for the increasing number of such contracts, which has reached the highest level of the last four years, is the inability to schedule an e-auction due to insufficient competition.
• At the top of the ten largest public procurement contracts in 2012 is that of “ELEM,” the State company for production of electricity, in the amount of 53.3 million Euros for excavating coal and inter-layer spoil.

The monitoring report is available here. For further information please contact the Centre 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 .

NOTE TO EDITORS:

The USAID Civil Society Project is a two and a half-year project financed by USAID and implemented by the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia in partnership with: the Center for Civil Communications; Youth Educational Forum; Reactor - Research in Action; and Forum - Center for Strategic Research and Documentation.

The American people, through USAID, have invested over $500 million in Macedonia since 1993. USAID is working with the people of Macedonia to create jobs, strengthen democratic institutions and practices, enhance integrated education, and prepare students for the workforce. These initiatives improve the quality of life and support Macedonia’s transition to a stable and prosperous democracy. USAID provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries. For more information please visit http://macedonia.usaid.gov and USAID FB page http://www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia.

SKOPJE, March 14, 2013 - A group of Macedonian journalists were acquainted with the practices and experiences of their Bulgarian colleagues and experts on how to inform better the public through the application of the Law on Free Access to Public Information, during a three-day study visit to Bulgaria.

Attorney-at-law in the Access to Information Program in Sofia, Alexander Kashumov, who helps journalists in the exercise of this right, encouraged Macedonian journalists to use more all the opportunities that are available through the Law to gain information from state institutions.

Kashumov stressed that Bulgarian institutions nowadays publish lot of information that earlier journalists have been obtaining by submitting requests for access to public information.

Aleksenija Dimitrova, editor in one of the biggest newspapers "24 Hours", who released exclusive and confidential information on domestic and foreign policy of Bulgaria in the last 15 years through the mechanisms for access to public information, encouraged Macedonian journalists to use this right not only for everyday reporting, but also for in-depth research and reporting.

СКОПЈЕ, 28 февруари 2013 година - Центарот за граѓански комуникации, во партнерство со невладините организации НВО Инфоцентар и ЕХО ги издаде насоките за јавни политики за унапредување на транспарентното и отчетното локално владеење, како завршен документ од тригодишниот Проект на УСАИД за транспарентно владеење што овие три организации го спроведуваа од 2009 до 2013 година.

Документот е плод на повеќе од тригодишното работење со 13 општини од цела Македонија и секојдневното согледување на состојбите, промените, проблемите и потребите на локалните заедници, а во насока на натамошното унапредување на еден од најзначаните процеси во земјава - децентралнизацијата.

SKOPJE, 14 February 2013 – Today the Center for Civil Communications published findings from their monitoring of public procurement procedures that were implemented by local government institutions between April and September 2012.

A problem present in almost one third of the monitored local tenders is the use of eligibility criteria that were inappropriate to the subject of the procurement, the estimated value of the tender, or the market conditions.

The legal obligation to organize an e-auction for all public procurements, regardless of their value, has become more difficult to adhere to in local tenders. Hence, e-auctions took place in only 46% of the monitored procedures.

Local institutions frequently do not exhibit transparency and accountability in public procurements, not only when these principles should be a reflection of good governance, but also when such conduct is stipulated by law.

Tender annulment is also an issue for local level public procurements, with 15% annulled during the monitored period.  However, this is considerably lower than the percentage of central level tenders that were annulled (25%) during that period.

Companies that participate in tenders organized by local government institutions point to the following problems as the most frequent: the large amount of required documentation for bids, technical specifications, eligibility criteria and the evaluation process, short deadlines, and the obligatory e-auction.

The report is available on-line at www.ccc.org.mk.  For further information please contact the Centre 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 .

You can find the report here