An inspector from the Food and Veterinary Agency (AHV) has been detained in a police operation in Skopje. The information is unofficial for now, but the suspicion is specific: abuse of official position for personal gain.

The scheme, according to unofficial reports, is as familiar as inspections themselves. During a check, the inspector demanded documents that weren't required for the procedure. She then made issuing a clean inspection report conditional on a cash payment. In other words - the inspection creates the problem, and the same inspection sells the way out of it.

How much money was involved and exactly which offence she will face has not yet been announced. Official information from the relevant institutions is still awaited, and until a court rules, the inspector is a suspect, not a convicted criminal.

The AHV is the agency that's supposed to guarantee that the food on our tables is safe. If a certificate of compliance can be bought, what are we actually buying at the shop? And more importantly - is this one case that happened to surface, or one of the rare ones someone finally decided to report?