Skopje is getting 3,300 new waste containers. On its own that figure does not say much - until you put it next to the second one. Over the past twelve years, across the entire capital, around 1,300 containers were purchased.

So one contract is buying two and a half times more than the whole previous decade. The contract has been signed, and mayor Orce Đorđievski announced it as one of the largest procurements of its kind in recent years.

The second figure is more interesting than the first

The new containers are being bought at 9,600 denars each. The ones purchased before, according to Đorđievski, cost over 18,000 denars each.

"This is proof that when the work is done honestly, prudently and responsibly, much more can be done with citizens' money," the mayor said, stressing that the new price is almost twice as low, and that this comes amid globally higher prices for materials and equipment.

A difference of over 8,000 denars per container, multiplied by 3,300 units, is a sum worth saying out loud. But the same comparison raises a question the mayor did not ask: if the same goods can be bought for half the price, what exactly was happening in the earlier procurements? A doubled price is not a trifle to be written off to the market - it is either bad procurement, or something more than bad procurement. In both cases, somebody signed it.

What actually changes on the ground

Đorđievski pointed out that the equipment shortfall resulted in overflowing and damaged containers, waste piling up around them and a degraded municipal picture in several neighbourhoods. "We are changing that reality," he said.

The purchase should mean cleaner neighbourhoods, less waste on the streets, more efficient and timely emptying and better working conditions for the crews of the municipal hygiene company. It follows an earlier purchase of new vehicles for the same company.

The people of Skopje have heard this story before, and they are right to wait until they see it in front of their own building before applauding. But 3,300 containers at 9,600 denars against 1,300 at 18,000 is a concrete comparison with concrete numbers - the kind that rarely makes it into press releases, because it reveals something both about whoever publishes it and about whoever came before.