The Ministry of energy, mining and mineral resources has established a systemic approach to protecting the state in all court proceedings and, for the first time, is actively initiating lawsuits to collect debts from debtors.
The Ministry of energy, mining and mineral resources found the sector burdened with numerous court cases in which the state was sued, without proper care being taken for defense and protection of public interest. For the first time, a systemic approach is being established whereby the state actively defends itself in all proceedings while simultaneously initiating new lawsuits to collect debts from debtors.
“In previous years, the state was left without active legal protection – key evidence was not contested, measures for statute of limitations were not undertaken, and state positions were not defended. The Ministry is changing that approach: it actively engages in every court proceeding, requests expert evaluations, coordinates defense with the Government, and initiates procedures for collecting debts owed to the state. It is our duty to protect citizens’ funds and bring order to legal proceedings”, minister of energy, mining and mineral resources, Sanja Bozhinovska emphasized.
Upon assuming its competencies, the Ministry of energy, mining and mineral resources inherited six court cases with lawsuits totaling 421,862,824 MKD, filed against the Ministry of economy. The Legal department of MERMS immediately reviewed the cases and took part in the proceedings by undertaking legal actions. There are already concrete results: two lawsuits against the state worth 315 million MKD have been rejected, protecting the budget from enormous costs, and the total value of cases against the Ministry has been reduced from 421.8 million to 106.8 million MKD.
The Legal Department, upon reviewing the documentation, determined that no lawsuits had been filed against debtors (individuals and legal entities) for the collection of debts arising from unpaid fees. However, in cooperation with the Department of mineral resources, it was detected that there are several overdue claims based on concession fees, as well as claims for unpaid concession fees for which no court proceedings had been initiated, despite the state having grounds to demand payment.
The Ministry has initiated 17 proceedings for debt collection totaling 32.8 million MKD, some of which have already been concluded with settlements and positive rulings. At the same time, around 20 cases related to concessions are ongoing at the Administrative Court, whereas positive practice has already been established for rejecting lawsuits and proposals for temporary measures.
“Our duty is to protect budgetary funds, to end the long-standing chaos and to bring order to all legal processes. In doing so, we defend the state and, above all, the interests of the citizens”, the Ministry stated.
With regards,
Ministry of energy, mining and mineral resources