The 5th” debate on “Law on Protection of Informers” in Mitrovica

August 7, 2013 – Today, FOL Movement, within a series of debates in municipalities regarding the “Law on Protection of Informers’ held the next meeting in Mitrovica on the topic” Anti-Corruption Legal Package: Law on Protection of Informers “. In this debate was discussed about the level of implementation of anti-corruption laws, respectively, the Law on Protection of Informers and on how public officials denounce irregularities or illegal acts of corruption cases within their respective institutions.

At the beginning of the debate, Elbasan Racaj from FOL Movement, presented the findings and legal gaps of the law in question, both, in terms of provisions and sanctions as well as the perspective of experiences of public officials about the existence and content of the law. Among other things, he said that “about 73.6% of the officials are aware of the existence of the Law on Protection of Informers, while 23.4% are not aware of the existence of the law in question.” Furthermore, Elbasan Racaj added that public officials are even little informed when it comes to the content of the law “where only 15.3% of these officials seemed to have deeper knowledge, about 60% about average, 21% have too little, while 4% stated that they do not have any idea at all.”Then the debate was opened for discussion.

The Director of the Administration in Mitrovica Municipality, Abdullah Bejtullahu, said, “This law should have been discussed earlier.” He then added that, “there is not that much information about this law in the Municipality of Mitrovica, only 60 % of them are aware about the existence of this law. He went on, “Mitrovica Municipality has no official person to supervise the irregularities, and thus the informant usually passes the information directly to his superior, which means in a hierarchical manner.” He further stated that, “based on my personal experience as director of public administration we had no whistleblower reporting irregularities.”

Later on, Director of Procurement, Sefik Fazliu said, “I heard about the law in question just recently.” He then said that there was no any reporting in the department where he works. According to the Director of Procurement, “the informant should be careful denouncing false information and should respect the provisions of this law.”
While Avni Alidemaj from Civil Initiative for Protection of Human Rights in Mitrovica said that he had not any knowledge about the law in question, until this meeting organized by the Movement “FOL”. In this case, Alidemaj, blames it on the respective institutions for not promoting enough this law. He also stated that except gaps in the provisions of this law, on the other hand there is no Administrative Court, which would probably be the most competent body to process these cases, because other courts, respectively the Basic Courts don’t take it seriously reporting of any possible about any affair of corruption or any irregularities committed by municipal officials.

Hysni Syla, municipal official in Mitrovica said, “the percentage shown from the research of Movement “FOL”, which states that 73% of public officials have knowledge about the law, does not correspond with reality, because it is thought that there are less officials who are aware of the law. “He further added that,” this law has major deficiencies, which initially did not ensure anonymity of the reporter and does not provide protection for reporter. “

During the discussion Selvije Kurti, a Civil Society activist said, “The law is confusing especially in Section 2.1.1, where it is not clear if this law refers only to public officials or to citizens at the same time.”She further added that,” this law should be promoted because according to this law the administration in the municipality of Mitrovica has no knowledge regarding the law. “

Fahrije Kabashi, also activists of Civil Society in Mitrovica stressed that “civil society should be involved in this law along with other categories provided in Article 2.1.2 of of Law on the Protection of Informers”.