When the state evacuates its citizens from a war zone, no one expects haggling. But the way the evacuation flights from the Middle East were paid for raises questions that have nothing to do with humanity and everything to do with public money. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid a full million euros upfront - a 100 percent advance, instead of the 20 percent the law allows.

According to the findings of the Center for Civil Communications, the advance wasn't even secured by a bank guarantee. That means, as they note, the contracting authority "is practically left without any protection if the contractor is late, delivers partially, or doesn't deliver at all." In plain terms: had something gone wrong, there was simply no one to claw that million back from.

The procedure is even more curious. The tender opened on March 4, the only bid came from the Skopje firm "Avialog" on March 6 - and that same day the negotiations were wrapped up, the contract signed and the payment made. The bid of 975,610 euros matched the estimated value almost perfectly, with a deviation of just 0.33 percent. Economic operators had less than 24 hours to prepare a bid for a job worth a million euros.

And one detail for the end: the four flights carried 42 foreign nationals, even though the contract envisaged Macedonian citizens. No one disputes that people had to be pulled out of danger - that's the state's duty. But urgency isn't a license to throw every rule out the window. Because the next time someone says "we have no time for procedures," it's worth asking - no time for procedures, or no time to check where the money goes?