At the beginning of 2024, Transparency International-Macedonia published the report: “National Integrity System of North Macedonia”, which contains an analysis of the situation with the pillars of the state’s integrity in relation to corruption and the effectiveness of national efforts to deal with corruption.
The report was prepared during 2022 and 2023 within the project “EU4 Rule of Law: Citizen Engagement for Public Integrity (CEPI) in the Western Balkans and Turkey”, which is funded by the European Union and the Government of Switzerland.
Within this report, an analysis was conducted and an assessment for 15 pillars which are part of the country’s state system was prepared. The assessment is conducted according to a methodology prepared by Transparency International.
- The Law for the Financing of Political Parties should establish a more balanced model of public financing of parties between the larger and smaller ones by sharing the percentages of funding more equally among participants in parliamentary elections.
- The Ministry of Finance needs to establish an online platform for political parties to submit their financial reports. This platform should provide a public database with all the financial reports available in a searchable format, this would reduce the burden of reporting and make the data useful for other institutions and transparent for the media and citizens.
- The Ministry of Finance needs to improve the financial reporting template by adding a separate item on political advertisement on social media and to enable online reporting with the possibility of a comparison of the data.
- The Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the SCPC, the SAO and the SEC, as well as other bodies related to the oversight of political financing, need to establish a mechanism for the proper application of legal obligations and apply misdemeanour provisions for violations by political parties in their political finance obligations, in particular for not submitting their financial reports.
- The government and the Assembly need to work together with media associations to find a solution to include regulation of campaigns on social media within the electoral code.
National Integrity System Assessment 2023
