Schlumberger: Joint efforts of the entire justice system needed to fight corruption

(RTK2)

A two-day regional conference on fighting corruption is being held in Kosovo, where representatives of civil society and police are taking part. Identification of solutions in the fight against this problem is the main topic of this conference.

Representatives from Belgrade, Skopje, Tirana, Sarajevo, Ljubljana and Zagreb are taking part in this regional conference on fighting corruption.

Kosovo Minister of Internal Affairs, Skender Hyseni, said that efficiency of the fight against corruption depends on the cooperation of countries in the region.

“It is not enough only for the Police do to its job, and for the prosecution not to do it, or the other way around. It is not enough only for the prosecution and judiciary to work efficiently, and for others not to do it. Everything is interlinked, if one link fails this will influence on the collapse of the entire system,” minister Hyseni stated.

Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Ambassador Jean-Claude Schlumberger, said that fighting corruption requires a strong political will, but it also requires responsibility in planning and ability to implement plans. According to the 2014 annual report on the fight against corruption, the corruption related criminal offences continue to constitute the lowest number of criminal offences sanctioned, he added.

“The number of cases of freezing and confiscating assets ordered by the judiciary and executed by the police continues to be low. That is why joint efforts of the entire justice system and other mechanisms mandated to fight corruption are very much needed and events like this are important. Building a strong institutional system that produces concrete results in fighting this phenomenon and eventually creates a spirit of trust in public institutions is of utmost importance,” Ambassador Schlumberger underlined.

Participants of this conference agreed that corruption is still present in many fields.

“Corruption is a phenomenon that is characteristic for the human society and fight against it is becoming harder each day. We already have enough laws that regulate it. It is not in question how to build up the legal framework, but how to find the way to motivate people to respect laws and provisions and how to create the environment that would contribute to decrease of corruption for as much as it is possible,” the German Ambassador in Kosovo, Angelika Viets said.

“As far as conflict of interest is concerned, we have processed 900 cases and only 14 did not respect the authority of the Agency. On the other hand, as far as public procurement is concerned, since 2008, we have processed about 250 cases the value of which exceeds EUR 65 million,” Afrim Atashi of the Anti-Corruption Agency said.

Government does not plan RTK financing in 2016 budget

(RTK1)

In Wednesday’s session, the Kosovo Assembly Budget and Finance Committee gave its green light to Assembly to review the draft law on 2016 budget in its first reading. However, financing from the Kosovo budget was not foreseen for the only public broadcaster in the country, Radio and Television of Kosovo- RTK.

It was the PDK MP Safete Hadërgjonaj that asked the minister of finance, Avdullah Hoti, why a budget line was not forecasted for RTK. But, the committee chairperson Naser Osmani responded to this question saying that the minister is not responsible for RTK financing, but the Assembly.

After Osmani’s reaction, minister Hoti did not give any explanation about RTK financing for 2016.

On the other hand, RTK Director General Mentor Shala, who is currently taking part in conference organized by the European Commission on media freedom in Western Balkans and Turkey, reacted against the decision of ministry of finance. He also conveyed the message of this conference where it was requested from governments to provide adequate financing for public broadcasters. He called on Assembly of Kosovo and requested from PM Isa Mustafa to include also RTK financing in 2016 budget.

RTK Board Chairperson, Ismet Bexheti, also qualified Government’s decision not to allocate budget to public broadcaster as concerning. Bexheti also called on Assembly, as the founder of RTK, to seriously look into the RTK issue.

Mustafa: Kosovo deserves to be part of UNESCO

(Most monitored broadcasters, KTV)

Kosovo expects to become a member of UNESCO on 9 November, but prior to this date, lobbying in favour and against Kosovo’s membership, is not ending.

Kosovo leaders did not stop stating that admission of Kosovo in this Organisation should happen by all means.

According to Prime Minister of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, Serbia must become aware that it does not have the right to decide about the fate of another country. He said that Kosovo deserves and is ready to be part of UNESCO.

Opposition MPs do not boycott official travels with per diems

(KTV)

11 thousand and 377 Euros have been spent for two months on official travels by the Assembly of Kosovo, at a time when no session, aside from the one on Stabilisation and Association Agreements, was held.

Among the 22 travels from MPs of the ruling parties, there are also six MPs of the opposition that have travelled abroad.

In the Vetëvendosje Movement say they decide separately about each travel, depending on the importance of the meetings. Nisma për Kosovën said that these meetings have been planned earlier, while AAK said that opposition has already given up the official travels.

Political crisis causes problems to security institutions

(KTV)

The political crisis in Kosovo has started to also cause problems to security institutions. Non-functioning of the Assembly committees, such as the ones on Internal Affairs and Kosovo Intelligence Agency Oversight, has provided commodity to these institutions.

Although different reporting in front of parliamentary committees has been planned, absence of opposition MPs has caused flaws in this process.

For the former member of KIA Oversight committee, currently part of the Internal Affairs Committee, Fadil Demaku, the absence of opposition MPs in committees is inadequate action and it presents problems.

Security expert Bashkim Zeqiri says that many problems might come up from the current situation, as there is no one to monitor law enforcement from the Police and intelligence.

Opposition MPs call on Jahjaga not to decree recent laws

(KTV)

MPs of the opposition parties have called on Kosovo President, Atifete Jahjaga, not to decree laws voted on the Assembly session that started on 23 October and ended on early morning hours of 24 October.

According to them, if President Jahjaga decrees these laws, this will be an additional proof that she backs coalition entities even when they carry out illegal actions.

But, no matter that opposition MPs consider this session and these laws invalid; they did not use their right to send these laws to Constitutional Court, within the deadline that expired on Tuesday.

Albert Krasniqi of Kosovo Democratic Institute considers this as missed opportunity for the opposition.