Publication of report on Rule of Law in Public Administration
Pristina, May 24th, 2016. FOL Movement as an implementing partner of pilot project on measuring the Rule of Law in Public Administration, today published the report “Measuring Rule of Law in Public Administration in Kosovo Municipalities”. This project was supported by Folke Bernadotte Academy, UNDP and the OSCE Mission in Kosovo.
FOL Movement conducted the research through three phases through “Self-assessment tool and measuring rule of law” prepared by Folke Bernadotte Academy and UNDP.
Through these phases was identified the legal framework that regulates the matter of social housing and were analyzed all judicial acts- how they define and cover the principles of rule of law: Principle of Legality, Accessibility, Right to be heard, Right to appeal, Transparency and Accountability.
Interviews were held with officials from four beneficiary municipalities: Gjakova, Istogu, Kamenica and Lipjan; with a total of 53 civil servants included in the survey.
To measure the perception of users towards public services in these municipalities, were surveyed 259 users, including beneficiary users, rejected applicants and queued applicants.
The results from the surveys show discrepancies in the answers of officials compared from the answers of users; mostly regarding the accessibility to public administration, municipalities counseling and guidance towards citizens, municipalities’ objectivity while reviewing complaints regarding their decisions, and the right of informing involved parties on decisions related to them.
Both categories of respondents- officials and users, agreed the treatment of requests in more than in one language is possible to a large extent, and that in case of abuse of office by officials and bribery, the Users emphasized that civil servants accept bribes without being caught at a small extent.
During this conference were present Mr. Andrew Russell- UN Development Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Kosovo; Ambassador Jean Claude Schlumberger- Head of OSCE Mission in Kosovo; Mr. Richard Sannerholm- Head of Rule of Law at Folke Bernadotte Academy, and other relevant central and local institutions. Mayors of beneficiary municipalities were present to discuss on findings of the report, the matter of social housing and the difficulties municipalities face regarding this matter.
They stated that recommendations of this report will be key pillar on improving the matter of social housing from municipalities.
This reports’ methodology and its findings were presented from partners FOL and UNDP while leaving space for participants to discuss.
In the end of this meeting it was emphasized the need of a transparent administration in order to improve the current procedures or social housing in these four municipalities.