Debate: Public Investment in Road Infrastructure: Transparency and Accountability
Suhareke, March 11, 2011 – Movement FOL has organized the next debate with citizens of municipalities of Suhareka, Rahovec and Malisheva, on the topic “Public Investment in Road Infrastructure: Transparency and Accountability”. In this debate was discussed about the trend of public investment in road infrastructure by central and local governments in these three municipalities, the current status, future plans and the level of transparency and accountability of these investments.
Participants in this debate were the Mayor of Suhareka, Mayor of Rahovec, municipal assembly members (Chairman and members of Municipal Assemblies of the two municipalities), civil society, media and citizens of these municipalities.
Initially, the project coordinator Mr. Fidan Kalaja, expressed the regret for not participation in this debate the Mayor of Malisheva Mr. Isni Kilaj, members of the Municipal Assembly of Malisheva, representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Economy and the Association of Municipalities of Kosovo, considering this as a lack of will and harmful indicator in promoting transparency and accountability of institutions to the citizens of Kosovo. In addition he introduced the report “Transparency of public investment in road infrastructure.” According to him, focusing mainly on the largest infrastructure project after the war in Kosovo, Merdare-Morine highway, this report has identified some weaknesses regarding the respect for the principles of transparency, such as not informing the public about planning of this project especially for financial cost, failing to provide information about sources of funding, denial of access to project documentation without any grounded reason, and the tendency to ignore the supervision by Parliament in this process.
The debate continued with the Mayor of Suhareka, Mr. Blerim Kuci, who declared that the planning and implementation of capital projects in the municipality of Suhareka regarding the transparency is satisfactory. According to him “there were 17 debates with citizens about municipal budget, capital investment and other projects.” During the presentation of municipal investments in road infrastructure he stressed that “about 50% of municipal budget is allocated to capital investment, while over 50% of capital investment are investments in road infrastructure.” Mr. Kuci said that “the current problem in public investment is the lack of a national strategy for development of infrastructure and that these investments are still made ad hoc.” Respecting the public accountability by institutions, according to him “is still at a very low level, it can be said that this principle does not exist”.
The mayor of Rahovec, Mr. Smajl Latifi said that “transparency is the motto of Rahovec municipality, and the accountability is the moral ticket to the citizens of this municipality.” He said that after he became the mayor of the municipality in January of this year, in this municipality he had found plenty of suspicious contracts and many projects submitted only on paper but never realized. He further added that “it”s like there is a deal” between government institutions to not be transparent regarding public investment, and this is best demonstrated the lack of reports that reflect public investments carried out in central and local level.”
This activity was made possible with support of USAID through the Program for Strengthening Civil Society implemented by ISC – Institute for Sustainable Communities.