Skopje, 27 November 2023 (MIA) – At Monday’s session of Parliament, the MPs unanimously voted to appoint Marija Janicheska as the new director of the Operational Technical Agency (OTA).

Ninety-three MPs were present in Parliament during the vote, and the item was adopted unanimously.

Janicheska is an expert associate for general and common affairs at the Operational Technical Agency.

Twenty-one candidates responded to the call for new director, published 30 days ago. The 5-year term of director Zoran Angelovski ended a month ago.

OTA was established as an independent state body after the mass wiretapping scandal and the Report of the European Commission’s experts group led by Reinhard Priebe. As a result of several legal amendments, the Administration for Security and Counterintelligence (UBK) was succeeded by the National Security Agency (ANB), which kept a large part of UBK’s authorizations, while the surveillance equipment was transferred to OTA.

Photo: MIA Archive