Basic Prosecution of Mitrovica with the lowest performance in handling corruption cases for 2020

Pristine, 08 April 2021 – The FOL movement held a press conference on which occasion it published the report “Performance of the Prosecution in the Fight against Corruption 2020”.

Albana Hasani from FOL said that out of 646 corruption cases that were at work in all prosecutions of the Republic of Kosovo for 2020, prosecutors have managed to deal with 329 of them or 51%. Meanwhile, 317 cases have remained unprocessed and have been transferred for 2021. According to her, “the transfer of a large number of cases from year to year still remains a concern, where in 2020 alone a total of 267 corruption cases were transferred from the previous year “, said she.

The rate of resolving corruption cases in all Prosecution Offices of the Republic of Kosovo for 2020 has reached 87%. This result is due to the fact that the number of cases resolved during this period was lower than the number of new cases – created during 2020.

According to the methodology, “354 days are needed for the State Prosecutor to solve all corruption cases that have remained unsolved in 2020,” said Hasani.

The Basic Prosecution of Prishtina faced the largest influx of corruption cases during this period, which had a total of 221 cases at work, 115 of which it resolved. Whereas, the lowest influx of corruption cases during 2020 was faced by the Basic Prosecution of Gjakova, which had a total of 27 corruption cases at work, 15 of which it solved.

In the terms of the performance “The Prosecution that has achieved the best results in dealing with corruption cases during 2020, is the Basic Prosecution of Gjilan which during this period has achieved the highest turnover rate, and the lowest index of the collected materials “, she said. Out of 41 corruption cases at work, this prosecution has managed to solve 33 of them, while only 8 have been transferred for 2021.

Always referring to the statistics of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, the prosecution with the lowest results in handling corruption cases during 2020 is the Basic Prosecution of Mitrovica, which out of 100 cases at work during 2020, has managed to handle only 17. So this prosecution during this period has reached the lowest rate of turnover of cases, as well as the highest index of collected cases.

Based on the above findings, FOL makes the following recommendations:

Increase the number of prosecutors in the Serious Crimes Department dealing with corruption cases;

Corruption cases, especially high profile ones, should be treated with absolute priority;

To strictly respect the obligations in handling corruption cases according to the deadlines and obligations set out in the law;

Continuously increase the transparency of the State Prosecutor and the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council regarding the provision of access to public documents in accordance with the obligations arising from the law;

Continuously publish statistical reports on the official website of the Prosecutorial System regarding the number of solved cases and the handling of corruption cases.