Practice of Discretion Rights in R. Macedonia

Vague legal regulative allows possibility for manipulation

Professor Nikola Tupancevski from the Law Faculty in Skopje, states that there are discretion rights for the people with some function in a state, but the question is, how big are they and what are their authorizations?

Giving discretion rights to the people with some function in a state, corruption is stimulated along with the human rights and the misuse of the state budget, and this is not a way to promote democracy. These are some of the conclusions from the panel for Practice of Discretion Rights in Republic of Macedonia, a Rule or Exception; its Influence on Democracy Development, in organization of the Institute Open Society Macedonia.

             According to the opinion of the professor Dr. Borce Davitkovski, from the Law Faculty in Skopje, one of the essential questions is how the discretion rights are implemented in the real life:” Discretion rights of the people bearing some function in the state are inherited from the previous system and they should be brought to legally reasonable measures. However, there is a lot of ambiguity in our legal regulative, which leaves space for manipulation with the discretion rights. Thus, the public workers instead of providing service for the citizens break the rights of those on which account they exist. As an illustration, the public worker in Macedonia hasn’t got a clear idea on the issues like why somebody doesn’t get a licence for carrying weapons, or why some people can’t get citizenship. The laws and legal decrees are composed in a way to leave space for a decision which depends on the free will of the administrative workers.” –stated Davitkovski. The legally regulative basis of the discretion rights of the people with some function in a state, reflects also in the economic life in the state.” Nobody declares how is it possible with the inflow of 293 million € in the period of 14 years intended for programs for development, nothing concrete is being done in the area of economy, and at the same time there is no trace of the money. There is no continuity in development; we are witnesses of eternal accusations on relation government-opposition. For the reason of these intra-party accusations and the discretion rights, also such kinds of confusions appear: A collector is being built in a region where there is no proper infrastructure, afterwards there is a change of government, and until the time of another change of government and rebuilding of the necessary infrastructure, the collector is ruined and becomes out of use, and since the money is spent, nobody gives the financial report”, stated professor dr. Vesna Stojanova.

The professor Nikola Tupancevski from the Law faculty in Skopje, though, considers that nobody argues the fact the discretion rights of the people with some function in a state exist in other countries as well, but the question is how big are the rights and what are their authorizations? In the laws themselves, there must be a clear operation with the legal and non-legal categories, not from the type “obviously unconscious” which leaves space for manipulation with the height of the punishment and the estimation of the act of crime, for those who conduct the law. In this mode, those who write the laws indirectly participate in the manipulation and misuse of the discretion rights of the people with some function”, concluded Nikola Tupancevski.