Glasses and a Watch for a Heads-Up on Tax Inspections: Nine Charged With Bribery and Forgery Around Puls

A pair of glasses and a wristwatch. That, according to the indictment, is what it cost to know when the tax inspectors would come knocking. The Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Kočani has filed an indictment against three people and a charging motion against six more, for bribery, abuse of office, disclosure of official secrets and forgery. All of it is connected to inspections by the Public Revenue Office at the Puls nightclub in Kočani and at other related companies.

The scheme, as prosecutors describe it, is painfully simple. Two tax inspectors asked for and accepted gifts from the person in charge of the companies, and in return warned him about unannounced inspections. One of them did it over Viber messages, telling him what both the Revenue Office and the police were preparing. The inspection is unannounced for everyone - except the one being inspected.

On 6 March 2024, during an inspection at one of the companies, the two found tax irregularities and unregistered turnover. None of it made it into the report. The state budget missed out on a 98,400 denar fine that was never collected, and the second inspector, according to the indictment, also forged the official report to cover it up.

The charging motion goes further. Four more tax inspectors and controllers are accused of failing to record irregularities they had found during inspections at companies whose real owner is the father of the person charged with giving the bribe, and of forging reports, so the companies were never fined as the law required. The father, the sixth accused in the motion, helped them, according to prosecutors. Also on the list is an employee of the State Market Inspectorate, accused of revealing in advance when targeted inspections would take place.

The criminal complaint originally covered four more people. For two of them the proceedings were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired, and for the other two prosecutors found no offence that is prosecuted ex officio.

Tax inspections are not fire inspections, and the indictment does not link them to the fire at Puls. But what it describes is exactly what the Kočani tragedy laid bare in front of the whole country: the system exists on paper, the inspectors show up, the reports get written - and when someone needs it to, the report says something other than what the inspector saw.

What did an honest inspection cost? According to the indictment - a pair of glasses and a wristwatch. The next question is how many other reports at other companies were written at that rate, and whether anyone is even counting.