Peer Reviewer 1:
The report is good and accurate. The author uses examples from regular peoples experiences with the corruption in the institutions. In the first example the report points out that some of that giving is a tradition, an accepted way of life. This type of corruption described in the report is ingrained in Macedonian life since the previous system, and the present government is not very successful in changing the opinion that even the small corruption is corruption after all.
The case of Stojan is not clearly an indication o corruption -- as it is described it seems more like a case of slow bureaucracy. I wonder if he was asked to give some money in order to have his request processed quicker.
Gerovski is a fierce critic of the government but I would not qualify him as a government controller just because he is a member of a non-governmental organization. Similarly, when the author talks about Platforma, who is close in political views to the opposition Social-Democratic Party (SDSM), one gets a feeling that his organization is supported by the SDSM directly.
The report does not mention the corruption among in the media, which is a very sensitive issue. The local NGO Transparency Nulta Corruption in cooperation with the independent news agency Makfaks point out in Septembers Bistro-Matno report that the media are the biggest donors to political parties during election campaigns (http://www.transparency.org.mk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=20&Itemid=78). National Kanal 5 TV gave an incredible 97 percent discount to the VMRO-DPMNE, and the other national and local TV stations are likely in the same situation. In the story published in Utrinski Vesnik on September 16 the authors claim that the media do that in order to get a piece of the big government advertising campaigns, which are worth much more then the election campaigns. See (http://www.utrinski.com.mk/?ItemID=AFBF7D84C1DDE647B75EC61A8D062FAF)
Peer Reviewer 2:
The Reporters Notebook generally covers the forms or potential forms of corruptions in Macedonia. Nevertheless, I have the impression that in a way the writer equalizes something we can define as traditional corruption (which we inherited from the tradition of the socialist system in former Yugoslavia, and which is present in the health care and education sectors) and the higher and more serious forms of corruption created in the new, perpetual transition in modern Macedonia. Because of this dilemma, if the Macedonian state and government have a system to really fight corruption, and if they are really willing to do so, I would like to point out a few issues that are not really addressed in the Reporters Notebook.
Macedonia has the State Commission for the Fight against Corruption. This is its second four-year mandate, and in the last two years it has been obvious that the government has almost a complete influence on its work. The president of the commission has held this position for three years in a row, unlike the past practice, when a new leader was elected each year. In the past few years, the Commission as a rule has refused to tackle small cases, such as the public call for procurement of T-shirts for the Ministry of Internal Affairs that was granted to a marketing agency. Not to speak about serious obligations according to the law to investigate political parties spending during elections. In all elections Macedonia had, it was obvious that the parties spent more than they officially stated. The Commission didnt even try to make an attempt to answer to its legal obligation to analyze and see if the parties financial reports about their electoral spending were correct. Instead, they accept the explanations that TV stations granted free air time for party propaganda during election campaigns.
The Commission also refused to react on the basis of news stories of possible corruption of ministers (such as Manevski, the minister of Justice, but also against any other high public administrator).
The Commission is another example of the attitude of all past Macedonian governments to create so called catch 22 institutions -- institutions which are formed as a result of political pressure from international organizations (EU, OSCE, NATO, Council of Europe). They should be independent from the government and the administration, but in practice they do not fulfill their function and are influenced/controlled by the political parties in power.
The State Audit Office for years, with one or two years delay, publishes the financial reports of state institutions, in which it points clear misuse of funds, especially by the government and certain ministries, in amounts reaching millions of dollars/euros. The Audit Office only two months ago came out with a report, according to which the government only, without the ministries, spent 10 million euros in 2008 on advertising their program, by press releases and other forms of media messages. According to the same report, The Ministry for Transport and Communication misused 21 million euros in 2008 on nonessential procurements, outside the legal procedure. For this reason, the Macedonian NGOs named this ministry the centrifuge of the three biggest laundry rooms. The other three ministries known for misusing budget money were the Ministry of Justice, Ministry for Internal Affairs, and Ministry for Labor and Social Politics. Unfortunately, as investigations last a long time, we are yet to see some of these cases be prosecuted.
Contrary to these, the Macedonian public witnessed spectacular arrests and group prosecutions of customs workers and policemen for taking bribes in amount of 5-10 Euros. Clearly this is an indication of the level of reforms in the judiciary, whose primary purpose was to stop the influence of daily politics on the work of the judiciary.
Between the petty (traditional) corruption and the big one connected to politics and the state it is easy to neglect the biggest source of corruption -- public procurement. Even though there are many legal and procedural acts that should prevent corruption in these procurements, there are many examples when the procedure was bypassed - such are procurement of medication for the public health care system or extra-ordinary emergency import of electricity, costing millions of Euros. There is a trend of suspicious repetition of the public call for offers even though there were enough quality offers. Or according to the experts and scientific community, there is no reason to repeat the public call for offers to build the hydro-electric plants Golem Cebren and Galishte, which represents one of the biggest public investments in Macedonia in the years to come.
Peer Reviewer 3:
The facts presented in the Reporter's Notebook are correct and names are also spelled correctly. The issues mentioned in the Notebook give a clear picture of the corruption situation in Macedonia and the way the government is trying to fight it.
The only thing that is not correct is that the Public Prosecutor never pressed charges against Justice Minister Mihajlo Manevski. He was accused by the opposition that he received both salary and pension at the same time, but the prosecutor did not take this into consideration because there was no damage done to the budget. [This has been corrected.]
Overall, The Reporter's Notebook examines important aspects of the corruption debate in this country and gives detailed information about this problem in Macedonia.
Peer Reviewer 4:
The Reporters Notebook eloquently discusses how corruption is embedded in certain practices, such as giving money to medical professionals in hospitals where babies are born, that are conventionally viewed as part of tradition. In this regard, this reviewer suggests that it would be useful to explore further whether people who engage in such practices describe them as corruption. Additionally, the Notebook underlines the disjuncture between the passing of anti-corruption laws and the practice of corruption, which often goes unpunished, in the public sphere. The Notebook also states that the overall lack of transparency in the area of public spending compromises governmental efforts to combat corruption, despite a few high-profile arrests for corruption.
With reference to the case involving Minister of Justice Mihajlo Manevski, one piece of factual information that could be added to the Reporters Notebook is that the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Macedonia asked for Manevskis resignation, but to no avail. [This has been corrected.]
The reporter writes that Greece objects to the undisambiguated use of the term Macedonian by Greeces main ethnic group and language, but the meaning of this sentence is rather unclear. [This has been corrected.]
Global Integrity uses a