The State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (DKSK) released the Gift Catalogue for 2025. The numbers in the document: 55 reported entries of gifts that were given or received by elected and appointed officials. Most of them - souvenirs and ornaments. The head of the State Audit Office and the speaker of parliament lead the list.

The catalogue is a legal obligation. Every official has to report any gift above a certain value. The result: 55 entries for the entire year. That's a number that sounds small. But when set against how many real diplomatic and protocol meetings these officials hold through the year - an awkward question opens up. Is every gift reported? Or only the "safe" ones?

Souvenirs and ornaments. That's the most frequent entry. Decorations, statuettes, plaques, ornaments. No one is reporting gold wristwatches or expensive luxury gifts. That means one of two things: either the officials really do receive only souvenirs, or the heavier gifts move through alternative channels.

Maksim Aćevski, head of the audit office, and the speaker of parliament are at the top of the reporting. That's a paradox. The two people who are supposed to keep watch over the state apparatus and the fair workings of parliament are precisely the ones who most often turn up at ceremonial meetings where gifts are exchanged. Logical - they're worth more to a giver than anyone else.

For the Balkans, this is a standard topic with a skeptical aftertaste. The document is an obligation, not an investigation. It shows what officials admit to, not what they actually receive. When the DKSK doesn't have the resources to verify every case, the catalogue is symbolic - not an operational instrument.

The question no one asks out loud: how many gifts never make it into the catalogue? And if we ask "who receives the most", isn't the honest answer - the ones who report the most?