How do you cover a four-year term as a municipal councillor with leave-of-absence certificates? The question was raised by the case of Borče Korlevski, a councillor in Bitola, who according to the reports obtained certificates of absence from work for around 700 working days over the course of his term - nearly three full working years. In 2023 alone, out of 244 working days, he was granted leave for 169.

The detail that makes the case suspicious: the certificates, signed by the then chair of the Council, Gabriela Ilievska, carried no official numbers in the municipal records. Documents with no archive number - formally almost invisible, yet enough to cover hundreds of days of absence. When a single numberless piece of paper can substitute for three years of showing up to work, the question is not about one councillor, it's about the entire system of oversight.

Korlevski countered that he had been „in regular employment for only one year” at REK Bitola, working the rest of the time as a subcontractor elsewhere. He also claims he donated all his councillor allowances to civic organisations and charity - renovating schools, equipping hospitals. Maybe so. But the question of attendance at work and the question of where the allowance ended up are two different things.

Chair Ilievska admitted she issued certificates to councillors, but said she had „neither a legal obligation nor the means to check whether the councillors abused them,” shifting responsibility onto the employers. The classic Balkan scheme - everyone signs, no one checks, and when the thing blows up, everyone points at someone else. Who ends up answering when the system is designed so that responsibility lives nowhere?