100% TRANSPARENCY - BUT WHERE ARE THE CONTRACTS? THE ENERGY SECTOR UNDER A QUESTION MARK

In her latest interview, Energy Minister Sanja Bozhinovska boasted that the Ministry had achieved 100% on the Active Transparency Index. But one simple question arises: What kind of 100% transparency is it if citizens can't freely read the most important contracts in the energy sector? Where are the publicly released contracts for the big energy investments? Where are the financial terms under which private companies get to use state resources? Where are the calculations of how much the state earns, and how much the private investors earn? Or, specifically -The contract for the sale of ESM Distribution to Austria's EVN -Small hydropower plants were additionally handed to EVN to cover losses in the electricity distribution network, but there's no public contract -The Macedonian state kept a 10% stake in EVN, but there has been no audit for 20 years -Why aren't the amounts EVN has charged for connecting all the solar plants, wind farms and industrial facilities made public? -In its calculations, the Regulatory Commission already recognises a separate category of assets received free of charge and assets financed through connection fees. Is there a case where an investor pays for a substation, hands it over to EVN, and that same substation then generates additional regulated revenue for the operator? -The audit findings on MEPSO raise serious questions about how electricity infrastructure in Macedonia is recorded and registered, but there are no answers. -How, and on what legal basis, is EVN entering into investments related to 110 kV electricity infrastructure? -The government approved a long-term lease of 1,344,965 square metres of state land, or almost 135 hectares, for the construction of a wind farm. This is the project of Alcazar Energy Partners, an investment group headquartered in Luxembourg, through the project company ShTP VIND DOOEL Skopje, but the contract is nowhere to be found publicly -When private partners were selected in 2021 for the solar plants at Oslomej, bids were published under which ESM was to receive compensation equivalent to 18.51% and 18.01% of the electricity produced, valued under the agreed terms, but there is no publicly available data anywhere except on ESM's website, which says 10%. -ESM signed a three-year contract with KEK for around 3 million tonnes of coal from Obilić, at a fixed price of 24.4 euros per tonne - but were other coal procurement options examined, were the final costs calculated, where are the analyses? -The Republic of Macedonia has long had huge losses in its electricity distribution network - 16.2% by plain arithmetic. Where do these losses arise, and who pays for them? -The Energy Regulatory Commission also approves the allowed return that goes into Electricity Distribution's regulated revenue - but then who controls the Commission?

When you publish the contracts, the financial calculations, the audits and the documents showing how the state's energy resources are managed, then we can talk about real transparency.

Transparency isn't proven with 100% on some index, but with answers backed by documents, facts and figures. When every citizen can check who signed what, how much money was charged, who profited and what the state got, then feel free to stand before the public and say: "Yes, I am transparent!" Until then, we're not asking for percentages and praise. We're asking for answers!