North Macedonia political briefing: Parliament passes a disputed law enabling the construction of highway sections by US company Bechtel, July 2021

On the 15th of July, in a fast-tracked procedure Parliament passed the contentious Law on Determining the Public Interest Law and Nominating a Strategic Partner for the Implementation of the Project for the Construction of Infrastructure Corridor 8. The law will enable the implementation of the Memorandum signed by the Government with the US company "Bechtel and Enka" as the strategic investor for the construction of the highways Tetovo - Gostivar, Struga - Kafasan, as well as Prilep - Bitola. According to the new Law, the construction will proceed without the announcement of a tender, which is without precedent in the Macedonian legal system. Due to suspicions of corruption, the Law has been criticized by the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, several political parties and nongovernmental organisations. They have argued that the Law will be detrimental to the public interest and will come at a high cost to the national budget...

The Platform of Civic Organization for the Fight against Corruption also expressed concerns over the low levels of transparency in the process by which the Government negotiates the construction of the highway sections...

In spite of wide-ranging concerns, several months later on the 15th of July a new Law was passed enabling the implementation of the Memorandum. Its official title is Law on Determining the Public Interest Law and Nominating a Strategic Partner for the Implementation of the Project for the Construction of Infrastructure Corridor 8. The legal solution bypasses the public procurement mechanism, and practically awards the contract for the construction of several highway sections (Tetovo - Gostivar, Struga - Kafasan, as well as Prilep - Bitola) to the US Company Bechtel and their Turkish partner Enka. Bechtel Enka is known in the region as the company responsible for building the Albania-Kosovo Highway (also known as the ‘Patriotic Highway’), the costs of which soared to over 2 billion euros, which is several times beyond the initial agreed upon cost of the contract...

Instead of backing down in the face of mounting concerns with the disputed law, the authorities have shown no sign of backing down. They have attempted to divert the attention away from the contentions process and refocusing it onto the much-needed progress on infrastructural development in the country. The string of events which preceded the signing of the law on July 15th suggests that it will pave the way for yet another one in the series of publicly damaging projects, which are pushed through by the corrupt elites at the expense of the public interests and at the cost of the national budget...