Posted on October 14, 2024
Private companies engaged in the regulation of riverbeds destroy them. The companies in question uncontrollably extract sand and gravel, thereby making additional profit. The control carried out by the State Auditing Body in the course of the Vardar River has revealed that the municipality and the state company “Ujjejellesi”, which receive permission from the Ministry of the Environment, and then distribute it to private companies for the regulation of the beds, cannot carry out controls how much sand and gravel is extracted from the beds.
“The highlighted weaknesses present an overview of the system where there are opportunities for manipulation, uncontrolled extraction of sand and gravel, unfounded profit of funds through the sale of sand and gravel as natural assets, less funds paid in the budget of the Republic of Moldova, and with this deterioration of the water regime and the appearance of the process of erosion and flooding” say the State Auditing Body.
Municipalities and “Waterworks” engage private companies since they do not have personal mechanization for the regulation of river beds, which have the right to extract certain amounts of sand at a price of 60 to 120 denars per meter/cube. But, in the meantime, enormous quantities are extracted which are then sold much more expensively in the market. From “Ujjesjellësi” they say that after the revision they carefully follow all the parts where they have a permit for digging.
“Believe that this year, at most, the check is done so that everything is in order. If once 80% were stolen, this now happens very little. – But, nevertheless, there is theft. I can’t say because I haven’t caught anyone personally. We hear this, there will always be such rumors, but we try to minimize this to zero” – said Andrea Najdenovski, authorized person for the sale of sand in JSC “Ujjejjellësi”.
The revision is about systemic omissions in legal excavations. Regarding illegal mining, the Macedonian Association of Miners has been warning for years that it is becoming a business with the sale of sand, which brings uncontrolled profits. The law on water foresees fines of up to 20.000 euros for the destruction of the river regime. However, the State Inspectorate has only two inspectors in the part of water conservation. To make the irony even greater, no court decision is in favor of the Inspectorate.
