North Macedonia to Probe Corruption Concerns in Vaccine Procurement Affair

The head of the Anti-Corruption Commission in North Macedonia, Biljana Ivanovska, on Friday said that before launching an official inquiry into the country's COVID vaccine troubles, they had "started collecting information on the affair" in which Health Minister Venko Filipce is accused of trying to procure Chinese vaccines through a questionable intermediary firm.

Ivanovska insisted that all allegations of wrongdoing must be checked, as involving intermediary firms in deals usually done between governments opened up the possibility for wrongdoing and corruption.

The Italian newspaper La Verita in two consecutive editions on Wednesday and Thursday launched the row by accusing Filipce of hiring "phantom" firm, Strabi International Services Co., to serve as an intermediary for the planned procurement of 200,000 jabs of China's SinoPharm.

According to La Verita, the decision to include this shell company sank the deal and prompted SinoPharm to withdraw, leaving North Macedonia again without much-needed vaccines.

Leaked data contained in the Panama Papers name Strabi International Services Co. as a firm registered in the island state of Samoa and with links to Hong Kong. La Verita said that available data suggested this firm had no prior experience in medical procurement.

The newspaper also published two official documents signed by Filipce, which it said shed more light on the context. In the first, dated December 25, 2020, Filipce expressed interest in procuring the vaccine, adding: "We hereby authorize Strabi International Services Co. to coordinate the potential procedures".

In the second, dated January 25, 2021, the same minister writes to SinoPharm to say that North Macedonia is ready to exempt...