After 14 months of investigation, prosecutor Katerina Kolarević has closed the case on heating oil procurement for TEC „Negotino" during the 2021-2023 energy crisis. The case was worth 167 million euros and involved 13 suspects. The ending: no indictment. No damage. Just „benefit" for the state.

Among the suspects were the owners of RKM - Ratko Kapuševski and Erdžan Sulkoski - and the owner of „Pucko Petrol", Asmir Jahoski, son of MP Ismail Jahoski. Also in the investigation was former ESM director Vasko Kovačevski, who is on the run and being sought by an international warrant in the „Aditiv" case.

How did 200 pieces of collected evidence individually fail to support an indictment? According to the prosecutor, none of the evidence led to proof of criminal conduct beyond reasonable doubt. With the procedure „transparent", the fuel delivered on time and ESM and the budget allegedly „suffering no damage", the investigation ends without the power to prove anything the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption had claimed was there.

For the reader wondering how 167 million euros can pass through the system without a single irregularity - the answer lies in one number. According to the prosecutor, TEC Negotino produced electricity for 180-200 euros per kilowatt-hour, while the market price during the same period was 250-600 euros per kilowatt-hour. In other words - the state „saved" more than it „spent", in the strict accounting.

But the question isn't whether the state saved money. The question is whether the tender was run cleanly, whether the firms that got the work had the capacity, and whether alternatives were ignored. Those questions still have no answer. Only now they no longer will - because the case is closed.

The state spent 50,000 euros on this investigation - on a case built on the suspicions of the anti-corruption commission. The ending: zero indictments, thirteen people cleared, and a prosecutor announcing „benefit to the state" instead of damage. It's a story that, in an era of shaky trust in institutions, looks exactly the way it looks: a closed case that many have already forgotten.