Speak Open: Uncoordinted Institutions Against Corruption

Prishtina, 25 November 2011 – Today, Movement FOL held the consequent debate of the forum “Speak Openly”, discussing the responsibilities of public institutions fighting corruption.

Panellists in this debate were the Coordinator of the Fight against Corruption in the State Prosecution, Mrs. Drita Hajdari, Director of Anti-Corruption Agency, Mr. Hasan Preteni and the Head of Kosovo Judicial Council, Mr. Enver Peci.

The coordinator of the Fight against Corruption in the State Prosecution, Mrs. Drita Hajdari, said “The prosecution has established a specialized group of prosecutors regarding this issue, respectively, the fight against corruption. Also, this institution has drafted the strategy for the fight against corruption. The anticorruption prosecutors group meets once a month and in the meetings of this group is talked about serious issues of corruption. Mrs. Hajdari added that “the objective of prosecution of Kosovo is to increase transparency through prosecutors. Prosecution is doing a good job recently, from January to September 2011, 116 charges have been filed. Mrs. Drita Hajdari further stressed that criminal charges arising from the ACA are not sufficient for filing charges.”

… the objective of the prosecution of Kosovo is increasing transparency through prosecutors …

The Director of Anti-Corruption Agency, Mr. Hasan Preteni said that “Kosovo has all the institutions to fight corruption, but its citizens do not trust these institutions. According to him, “the fight against corruption is missing figures. He further added, “During 2010 we filed 200 criminal charges, but only 6 verdicts were sentenced for the fight against corruption”. He further added that “ACA is not the institution that claims to persecute, investigate cases, but it is neither the institution which only provides the prosecution with information about the corruption cases. Mr. Preteni claimed that ACA is not satisfied regarding cooperation of ACA with other institutions such as prosecution and courts. The chairman of the Judicial Council of Kosovo, Mr. Enver Peci said that “the judicial system is undergoing a reformation phase; we need judges who will specialize in the fight against corruption, because cases in this area should be given more attention, especially political cases, which affect our budget greatly. He further added that “Kosovo’s judges, who accept this assignment should have the courage to deal with corruption cases of high level and these cases should not be entrusted only to EULEX. Now the salaries of judges are relatively good, all you need is the courage of a judge to work in the fight against corruption, “he concluded.