500.000 Euros for the preparation of the project documentation, 600.000
Euros for transportation and other expenditures, four million Euros for
installation and labour. These are just part of the items in the
initial financial assessment, proposed by PE Macedonian Broadcasting
for the realization of the “Computer for every child” project.
According to the documents available to Nova Makedonija, the plan for
the realization of the project prepared by Macedonian Broadcasting
should have cost approximately 13 million Euros. Although this amount
has undergone certain changes, we did not manage to get an official
document from the Ministry of Information Society or Macedonian Broadcasting consisting of the final estimates for the whole project.
The Minister of Information Society Ivo Ivanovski, as well as the
director of Macedonian Broadcasting, Sasho Stanchevski acknowledged the
high amount of 500 thousand Euros for the project documentation.
However, they are both justifying this amount, having in mind the
complexity and magnitude of the whole project.
The amount is high, but the preparation of such a large project is not
at all simple. The project documentation consists of several thousand
pages. Separate designer’s drawings have been prepared for every
classroom, and there are more than 15.000 classrooms. Initially, we
suggested that 500.000 Euros should be allocated for the project
documentation, but we only spent 400.000 – says the director
Stanchevski.
Stanchevski says that they had not engaged firms selected in a tender
procedure, but experts, architects and employees of Macedonian
Broadcasting. This is not illegal, because when a state institution is
responsible for implementing projects, it engages its employees and
experts, say officials from the Ministry of Finance.
We discovered that after MB suggested the total amount of 12.7 million
Euros for the realization of the whole project, the Government required
that the amount should be reviewed since it was too high. Unofficially,
in March this year, it was decided that approximately nine million
Euros should be spent for the whole project.
According to Minister Ivanovski, the amount for this project is this
high since it was one of the biggest projects ever implemented.
In March this year, the Ministry of Information Society informed the
Government that the installation of the computers has been performed by
“Accent computers”, a partner firm of the Hyer company from which they
were purchased.
The names of the designers working on the project not revealed
Who were the architects responsible for preparing the project
documentation, how much were they paid for their engagement, how much
money has been spent for the whole project?
We did not get an answer to these questions from the Ministry of
Information Society, the Government or the PE Macedonian Broadcasting.
“Makedonski Telekom” provided all the high schools with
computer equipment, and Macedonian Broadcasting supplied computer
equipment to the elementary schools. Therefore, regarding all the
financial estimations, for the money that was paid to all the persons
engaged, you should ask them – we were told by the officials from the
Ministry.
Author: Antonija Popovska
