Someone Slashed the Tyres on Tetovo Social Services' Vehicles Right Before the Checks - and the Cameras Had No Power

On Tuesday morning, staff from the Tetovo Centre for Social Work were supposed to go from address to address checking who receives social pensions and how. The order was issued by director Magdalena Veselinoska, in line with recommendations from the social policy minister. The vehicles went nowhere - an unknown perpetrator had slashed their tyres.

The incident was reported to the Tetovo police at 8:15 am. When police checked the camera footage, it turned out that during exactly that period the building had no power, so it's impossible to see who damaged the vehicles.

4,500 fake recipients - and one order for field checks

The timing alone raises questions. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced in recent days that more than 4,500 recipients of guaranteed minimum assistance and social security had been uncovered taking money without meeting the conditions - among them dead people, emigrants and fictitious recipients. "So not 45, not 450, but 4,500," he said. Minister Gjoko Velkovski, for his part, said payments had been stopped for more than three thousand recipients over established abuses and that the operation is entering its final phase.

A slashed tyre isn't major material damage. But the message is clear to every official who has to knock on a door and check whether the recipient even exists. If someone is willing to slash tyres in the car park, what comes next when the checks reach specific names and specific money?

And one question that needs no investigation: how does an institution that hands out state money end up with no power for its cameras on precisely the morning they most needed to be recording?