The story started with 50 thousand euros. It has now reached 1.5 million. And between those two figures stands the same small group of people.

Jon Frčkoski, a member of SDSM's executive board, told a press conference that the Ministry of Digital Transformation is awarding tenders worth 1.5 million euros to firms close to the government, and called for the resignation of minister Stefan Andonovski.

Who is connected to whom

According to the allegations, three new million-euro contracts were signed with the firm Noma System Solutions, a subsidiary in Skopje - tenders for maintaining the document management system, software for the property register and software for examinations.

The key question, as Frčkoski framed it, is who stands behind that firm. The listed manager is Vladimir Simovski. That, he claims, is the same Vladimir Simovski who was a direct former business partner and co-owner with Martin Klinčarov - the husband of state secretary Klinčarova - in the firm SVAG FUD DOO Skopje. On top of that, an ownership stake in that company is held by the firm Mateo Dizajn, owned by that same husband.

Mateo Dizajn is not a new name in this story. Its tenders, worth 50 thousand euros, were the first instalment of the scandal. The State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption opened a case on it. After that, according to Frčkoski, it stopped.

The problem with a case that just sits open

"The commission stopped but the awarding does not. Because the tenders at the Ministry of Digital Transformation do not stop either," Frčkoski said.

That sentence is worth repeating, because it describes the entire mechanism. An open case at the anti-corruption commission stops nothing. It does not stop a tender, it does not stop a contract, it does not stop a payment. It is a formal record that somebody noticed. While the case sits open, the contracts keep being signed - and a sum of 50 thousand grows into 1.5 million.

SDSM has called on the commission to act and is demanding an urgent widening of the investigation. The Ministry of Digital Transformation has so far not answered the specific questions about the ownership links between Noma System Solutions and Mateo Dizajn.

What needs answering, and what is not an answer

The accusation comes from the opposition in a pre-election period, and that should be factored in while reading it. But the accusation is built out of checkable things: company names, managers' names, ownership stakes, contract numbers. Not one of them requires trusting SDSM to verify - it requires access to the central business register and the public procurement archive.

The reply "this is a political campaign" resolves none of those items. The only thing that resolves them is the commission closing the case with a finding - in either direction. Until then the question stands: why does a firm whose manager was a business partner of the state secretary's husband win three contracts at the ministry where she works?