The mayor of Štip, Ivan Jordanov, has shuffled the directors of two kindergartens in the city. The director of „Vera Ciriviri Trena", Ivana Angeličkova, takes over the „Astibo" kindergarten. Ana Jakimova steps in as her temporary replacement. The change didn't come alone - it arrived together with suspicion of financial irregularities.

Jordanov explained it himself: „The reason for this change is my personal dissatisfaction with the previous director's work and suspicion about his financial conduct." A direct, not particularly common sentence from a mayor. The former director of „Astibo", Ilija Mitrov, is now officially no longer the director - and his financial decisions are heading to the State Audit Office.

Opposition councillor from SDSM in Štip, Galaba Veresa Dimova, took it further at a press conference. „The criminal tentacles of VMRO-DPMNE haven't spared even the kindergartens of Štip," she said. That kind of rhetoric is heavy, and the proof obliges the parties who use it. The SDSM in Štip points to an old case of 18 million denars in stolen fuel, and to suspicious equipment procurement at the kindergartens - those are specific allegations, not just a partisan paragraph.

The question Štip citizens want answered - where did the money go. The municipality has approved around 10 million denars in aid to the kindergartens in the latest period. Despite that, service fees for parents have gone up, and the financial state of the institutions remains unclear. A paradox - more state aid, less transparency, higher fees for parents.

The new director Angeličkova will run a thorough audit and forward the findings to the institutions. Standard procedure - but the real question is whether concrete sanctions will follow, or whether this becomes yet another administrative process without consequences. In Macedonia, most such „checks" end without the main players ever reaching court. Whether this time is different - we'll see in a few months. For now, the parents of Štip's small children have the right to expect a better service for the money they pay.