MACEDONIA: POLICE ACADEMY DIRECTOR RESIGNS -

C O N F I D E N T I A L SKOPJE 000899

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, DS/T/ATA, INL/C/CJ

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC MK
SUBJECT: MACEDONIA: POLICE ACADEMY DIRECTOR RESIGNS -
POLICE TRAINING CAN FINALLY BEGIN


Classified By: Poloff Katrina Mosser for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Macedonian Police Academy Director Slagana Taseva
resigned from her position on November 2, citing a
disagreement with the government over its recent move to
bring the academy under the oversight of the Ministry of
Interior (a government move the international community
unanimously supported). In her resignation statement, Taseva
claimed that over the past nine months the MOI had sought to
undermine the Police Academy by establishing a separate,
private police training program at a local private
university. (NOTE: Taseva is a board member and the donor
coordinator for the NGO Zero Corruption, the newly
re-established local branch of Transparency International.
END NOTE)


2. (SBU) Under Macedonian law, the Police Academy in fact
falls under the jurisdiction of the MOI. Taseva, who ran the
academy as a private fiefdom -- collecting tuition from
civilian students who were promised police force jobs that
never materialized -- had refused to coordinate or cooperate
with the MOI for the past three years. As a result, the
academy failed to provide basic or in-service training for
actual police officers. That situation finally led the MOI
to look for other options for professional police training,
including using private institutions, while in the meantime
working to place the academy under MOI control. Taseva's
resignation therefore ends a long-running battle between her
and the MOI, and the academy is expected to begin providing
professional training for police in the near future.


3. (SBU) Over the past year, Emboffs and representatives from
the OSCE and EU had urged MOI officials to resolve the
differences between Taseva and the Ministry so that police
recruits and veterans could be trained at the academy. The
Police Academy facility in Skopje had received numerous
equipment donations and funding from international donors,
including the USG. A major concern for all donors while
Taseva headed the academy was that the upgraded facility was
not being used for training police, the purpose for which it
originally was intended. We recently pulled DS/ATA donated
equipment from the academy because of the dispute between
Taseva and the MOI. Now that the dispute is resolved and the
police academy can begin training police again, post will
review the situation and consider returning the equipment to
the academy if we determine that the equipment will be used
appropriately.


4. (C) COMMENT: The MOI will need to search for and appoint a
new director who can ensure the academy provides quality
training programs for police officers. International police
advisors here, including our ICITAP representative, will
support the MOI's efforts to re-start police training at the
academy. While Taseva was correct in stating that the MOI
had begun to train police at a private institution, post does
not see this as a major concern -- continuing education for
police at private institutions is in line with standard
international practices. Our main concern was that Taseva's
refusal to cooperate with the MOI, in training police after
they entered the MOI and throughout their careers, eventually
would undermine the effectiveness and professionalism of the
police force. With Taseva now out of the way, a significant
obstacle to properly training police at the academy is gone,
and we believe the result will be a stronger, better trained,
and more professional police force.
MILOVANOVIC