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Standards that are used to assess transparency and accountability demonstrated by state-owned enterprises were selected on the basis of analysis of relevant legislation and international standards. Hence, dominant share of selected standards are legally binding for all state-owned enterprises, while small share of them are standards that are considered good practices.

Although procurements implemented under negotiation procedure without previous announcement of call for bids are subject to obtaining previous opinion from the Bureau of Public Procurements, they can also be implemented directly, i.e. without obtained opinion, in compliance with Article 55, paragraph (6), which stipulates that: “As an exemption from paragraph (5) of this article, the contacting authority shall not be obliged to obtain a previous opinion before implementation of negotiation procedure without previous announcement of call for bids, pursuant to paragraph (1), item d) of this article when the safety, life and health of people are directly threatened”.

For 15 years already, the Center for Civil Communications struggles daily to secure information in order to enable citizens, companies, interested individuals and groups to have fast, easy and free access to information and documents they need and are disposed by state institutions.

6,7 million euros contracted under urgent public procurements for coronavirus protection, only in the first six months of the crisis.

Transparency is a broadly accepted underlying principle in public procurements. It promotes competition, increases efficiency of public spending and reduces risks of corruption in public procurements.

This is the second media monitoring report, the first being published in 2016. The monitoring covers the investigative and analytical articles and stories published by the media and aims to provide sufficient quality and relevant information to enable the assessment of incidence and quality of investigative and analytical journalistic articles, subject matters and fields covered by those articles. At the same time, the findings should provide the basis for design and planning of series of actions aimed at improved media reporting in general. The report may help journalists and media outlets to identify and locate the weaknesses in their reporting and as a roadmap to improved reporting. NGOs, on the other hand, may use the analysis as indicator for the areas in which enhanced engagement may be needed to ensure more regular, professional and objective information to the public. he monitoring of media reporting that aims to assess the quantity and quality of investigative and analytical reporting is implemented under the auspices of the “Investigative Reporting for Promotion of Reforms” Project, financed by the European Union. The aim of the Project, which is implemented from 2016 to 2019, is to promote and stimulate the growth of accurate and investigative reporting with the purpose to contribute to better informed public and protection of public interest. In other words, the goal is to stimulate the editorial offices and newsrooms and their journalists to dedicate greater attention to in-depth, more substantial analysis of problems and issues, thus separating themselves, quality wise, from the influx of short, fast, superficial...

The NGO Info-centre, in partnership with the Centre for Civil Communications from Skopje and the Educational and Humanitarian Organisation EHO from Štip, started the implementation of USAID’s Transparent Governance Project in 2009, led by the idea that there can be no democracy without good governance and that there can be no good governance without transparency and accountability.

Handbook for journalists for free access to public information - Legal Leaks Toolkit (in Macedonian)

Manual оn Reporting about Local Issues and Investigative Reporting

Monitoring of the media reporting on corruption in Macedonia 2009 The articles on corruption published from January 1 to December 31, 2008 in five daily newspapers (“Dnevnik”, “Vecer”, “Vreme”, “Utrinski Vesnik”, and “Fakti” 1) were subject to direct monitoring.

One of the main goals of decentralisation is to make the local authorities more responsive to the needs of the local communities. Still, six years after the start of the process, surveys show that citizens remain unsatisfied with the manner in which the local self-government deals with their problems and how it organizes the life and work of local communities.

Results of the survey of existing practices in municipalities in Eastern Macedonia: Štip, Strumica, Sveti Nikole and Vinica The NGO Infocentre, Centre for Civil Communications and EHO implement the „USAID Project for Transparent Governance“, in the period September 2009-August 2012.