Skopje, 8 February 2019 – At yesterday’s session, the Agency Council decided to inform the public that, for two months in a row, the Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) had been transferring to the Agency less than the legally stipulated amounts of funds for financing the radiobroadcasting activity in 2019.
According to Article 105, Paragraph 1 of the Law on Amending and Supplementing the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services, od 31.12.2018, the “funds for financing radiobroadcasting activity, the work and the development of the Macedonian Radio and television, the Macedonian Radiobroadcasting Public Enterprise and the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services, shall be provided from the Budget of the Republic of Macedonia, to the amount of 0.8% – 1% of the realized total revenues during the year preceding the fiscal year to which the amount refers”.
At the same time, Article 45, Paragraph 1, Indent 1 of the Law, stipulates that the percentage of funds allocated from the 2019 Budget shall be 0.8%.
Following the first tranche, the Agency addressed MISA in writing on 28 January 2019, requesting an explanation about the smaller percentage of transferred funds, however, there has been no reply yet. In the meantime, the amount of funds transferred for the month of February was identical with the previous one.
At the session, the Council adopted a conclusion that the Agency should initiate a meeting with the Minister of Information Society and Administration Damjan Manchevski, for the purpose of overcoming the problem that had occurred.