By visiting the villages Strezofc and Leshtar in Kamenica municipality on Friday, FOL completed the FOL’s week called “You too, Speak Up”‘. Throughout the week, FOL visited several villages of the five municipalities of Kosovo. Residents demands from all those villages will be sent to each municipality and will be advocated that municipal investment are carried out in these villages as well.
On Monday, FOL began FOL’s week called “You too, Speak up”‘, where will be visited several villages in five municipalities of Kosovo. While meeting the residents, FOL will make possible for them to make specific requests regarding investment in those villages and later these requests will then be sent to the respective municipalities. On Wednesday, FOL was in Bare village in Mitrovica municipality and on Thursday in Jezerc in Ferizan municipality.
Last Monday, FOL began FOL’s week called “You too, Speak up”‘, where will be visited several villages in five municipalities of Kosovo. While meeting the residents, FOL will make possible for them to make specific requests regarding investment in those villages and later these requests will then be sent to the respective municipalities. On Tuesday, FOL was in villages Baran and Poqesta in Peja municipality.
Prishtina, 19 May 2014 – Today, FOL Movement began the implementation of the campaign “FOL’s Week,” in several villages of major municipalities in order to identify the needs and advocate about municipal and government investments in these areas.
FOL’s activists, during this campaign, will offer the opportunity to the residents of these areas to make specific requests regarding the investments, and then these requests will be sent to municipalities or certain government sectors and FOL will advocate that these requirements be a priority of the budget planning of these institutions in the future.
Today, FOL Movement visited some villages of Prishtina municipality, and a preliminary investigation shows that there were no investments in the recent years. The residents of the villages Slivove and Llajshevc, told that despite their many request to the municipality and other government institutions for various investments, they never received a response from these institutions and leave alone any investment. According to the residents of these areas there is an immediate need for construction of water supply and sewage system, subsidies on agriculture and livestock, improvement of the electricity network, improvement of road infrastructure by building sidewalks whose lack endangers the safety of residents, investments in education and especially preschool program startup.
FOL Movement during this week will visit the villages of Peja municipality on May 20, 2014; Mitrovica Municipality on May 21, 2014, Ferizaj Municipality onMay 22, 2014 and Kamenica municipality on 23 May 2014.
Prishtina, 30 April 2014 – FOL Movement praises the approval of National Action Plan for Open Government Partnership. After more than a year of intensive work of the group consisted of civil society organizations and public institutions in the process of drafting the National Action Plan for Open Government Partnership (OGP), the Government of Kosovo approved the two-year plan yesterday.
The obligations arising from this National Plan are exceptionally important for policy-making, function of institutions and providing services to citizens, and their participation in decision-making. This plan clearly shows the actions to be taken by the Government and public institutions in areas such as: Improving Public Services; Increasing public integrity; More effective management of public resources; and Increasing corporate accountability.
Moreover, the plan defines clearly the deadlines of the actions that public institutions should take in order to improve services in health, education, public finances, agriculture, civil service, public administration and a series of other sectors in order to progress services to citizens and political and public accountability. Therefore, the approval of this plan is an important news and the beginning of its implementation will be a very good news for the citizens of the country.
FOL will actively monitor each step which will be taken by public institutions during the implementation of the plan in terms of monitoring and supervising the implementation of this Plan. FOL will make sure that such monitoring will involve other factors in Kosovo, as well as representatives of civil society in Open Government Partnership.
Open Government Partnership – OGP is a global inter-governmental initiative, which began in the autumn of 2011 and its mandate is to create conditions for an open and accountable government towards citizens in the respective countries. This global mechanism obliges its member states to implement their national plans otherwise they may be excluded from this global initiative. The Republic of Kosovo is in a sensitive stage of negotiating for membership in OGP, where careful steps are taken in the accession process, believing that one day Kosovo will become a member of the OGP.
Prishtina, 25 April – Fidan Kalaja, Programs Director of FOL Movement, has become a member of Coordination Committee for Europe in the Anti-Corruption Convention of the United Nations, respectively the UNCAC Coalition. Besides the promotion of the principles and values of the UNCAC Coalition in fight against corruption, the members of this committee are responsible to consolidate and strengthen the coalition and its members in the fight against corruption, and support the performance of the coalition in national, regional and international aspect.
FOL Movement has became a member of the Anti-Corruption Convention of the United Nations, respectively the UNCAC Coalition. UNCAC Coalition is a global network consisted of more than 350 civil society organizations from more than 100 countries worldwide. This network of organizations is committed and promotes anti-corruption fight through advocacy for the ratification, implementation and monitoring of the Anti-Corruption Convention of the United Nations – UNCAC. The coalition was established in 2006, through the mobilization of civil society organizations of UNCAC in international, regional and national level.
Movement thanks the media, organizations and its partners who supported and contributed to the selection of Mr. Kalaja as a member of the Coordination Committee for Europe of the UNCAC Coalition. Being part of the UNCAC and its Coordination Committee, FOL will be even more engaged in promoting anti-corruption war in Kosovo by exchanging experiences and implementing effective practices of the UNCAC Coalition members in fight against corruption fight.
Prishtina, 18 April 2014 – With the support of the British Embassy in Kosovo, today FOL Movement organized a regional conference on “The road towards membership in the Open Government Partnership – OGP”. The conference was attended by representatives of institutions and civil society from Kosovo and region, as well as representatives from OGP.
Minister of European Integration, Mrs. Citaku said that the Republic of Kosovo was committed to open government and use of technology in order to be more accessible by citizens . Mrs. Citaku mentioned that Kosovo faces a serious of challenges, where corruption is a serious challenge and the membership in OGP, is seen by Kosovo as an opportunity to intensify the efforts to fight corruption. She said that it was important that government and other institutions make their data public at the right time because the data that actually are public is not sufficient. Thus, according to Ms. Citaku, the open government aims to increase accountability, reduce inequality and increase access in education, and health care. According to Minister Citaku, despite any possible political problem in Kosovo’s qualifying process in OGP, Kosovo government must demonstrate a commitment to the principles of OGP by implementing the National Action Plan 2014-2016.
Paul Maassen , the coordinator of Civil Society in OGP, stressed that the main challenge for Kosovo and other member countries of OGP is the implementation of the National Action Plan, and then he said it takes not only political will but also the commitment of civil servants from several institutional. Kosovo National Action Plan is a plan that meets the principles of OGP, it provides concrete actions and results and it is a plan that is not based only on activities. The reforms foreseen in this plan will help a lot about how institutions will cooperate with citizens in decision-making. According to Mr. Maassen ” without civil society this process will not work and the challenges are that civil society remains involved and interested in the process.” And this is something that they should do it themselves, by working together but also the government should take seriously the demands and ideas of civil society and thus to achieve the joint ownership in the process.
Lorin Ymeri, from Ministry of Innovation and Public Administration of the Republic of Albania, presented the process through which Albania went through during the membership in OGP and work that the government is carrying out in the second action plan, a plan which Albania will submit to OGP. Ymeri said that this is the second action plan of the Government of Albania. Now we are interacting to get the observations of the civil society on the second plan.
Natalia Mirkovic, a representative of the GONG organization from Croatia, presented the experiences of Croatia during its membership in OGP. She said that during the period when Croatia was preparing to join the OGP, the country was going through an important period. During that year there were elections in Croatia as well as the process of joining the European Union. One of the challenges that she mentioned was the challenge of the involvement of local government in the OGP plan. According to her Croatia’s new action plan will focus more in local level. And there are many members who are interested to do more at a local level by opening the local budget.
Petrit Zogaj from FOL Movement, made a presentation of the performance FOL Movement so far within the Coordination Group in terms of Kosovo’s membership in OGP. He said the Coordinating Group has held five regular meetings, online public consultations with citizens across 6 regions of Kosovo were conducted. The Coordination Group has also held the final workshop where the group has structured and finalized the National Action Plan which then was sent to the government for approval.
Prishtina, 16 April – Today, FOL Movement held a press conference presenting the request which will be sent to Kosovo municipalities regarding the review and amendment of the Municipal Transparency Regulation in accordance with the Law on Access to Public Documents which has been approved in October 2010.
Mexhide Demolli- Nimani from FOL Movement stated that the findings of FOL Movement show that from all municipalities of Kosovo, 11 of them did not publish the Transparency Regulation on their official website, these municipalities are: Klina, Novobërda, Partesh, Ranillug, Shtërpca, Vitia, including here northern municipalities Zubin Potok, Leposaviq and Zveçan whose websites are still being developed whereas North Mitrovica has not yet anofficial website. Decan and Suhareka, seem to have the Transparency Regulation on the list of regulations, but they are not complete.
According to Demolli-Nimani, only eight Kosovo Municipalities (Graçanica, Hani i Elezit, Istog, Mitrovica, Obiliq, Prizrei, Rahovei and Vushtrri) have made amendments to the Transparency Regulations.
“Kllokot is a special case even though they have approved their regulation in February 2011 they still apply the new Law on Access to Public Documents, regarding the deadline of response to a requests for access to public documents, the deadline is 15 days,” she said.
Meanwhile, 17 other municipalities such : Dragash, Ferizaj, Fushë Kosova, Gjakova, Gjilan, Gllogoc, Junik, Kamenice, Kaçanik, Lipjan, Malisheve, Mamushe, Podujeve, Peja, Prishtina, Shtime, Skenderaj, they have the old regulations which due to the changing of the legislation on access to public documents they must be change their municipal transparency regulation as well.
She further said there are cases where municipalities have approved the Transparency Regulation later than 2010, that is, after the approval of the new law, but they used to apply the old law on access to public documents 2003/12.
The reason why this regulation should be changed is that the current regulation is compatible with the old law on access to public documents no.2003/12, this law was revoked with the application of the new Law on Access to Public documents.
According to the current transparency regulation the deadline to respond to a request for access to public documents is 15 days, whereas according to the Law on Access to Public Documents is only 7 days. Also the application forms, according to the current regulations is limited only in written form, whereas the Law on Access to Public Documents reads that “Requests for access to public documents can be summoned in any form which enables the public institution to identify the document.”
“Therefore, considering as necessary, that municipalities strengthen the increase of transparency and accountability, FOL calls the Municipalities to the make necessary changes in their Municipal Transparency Regulations. Besides, this is also one of the recommendations of the report ‘Transparency Index 2012 “, where it is required the accordance of the legal provisions for public communications and information at the municipal level,” Demolli-Nimani said.
Prishtina, April 5, 2014 – Today, FOL Movement held a press conference presenting the annual police, Prosecution and Courts statistics within the Anti-Corruption Statistics Platform (platforms: http://www.levizjafol.org / statistics-platform anti-corruption /? message = true & FaqeID = 1) and also the decisions and actions of Assembly and Government of Kosovo and European Rule of Law mission – EULEX in the field of fighting corruption in Kosovo in 2013.
Fidan Kalaja from FOL Movement said that during 2013, Kosovo Police has handled 57 cases on corruption offenses and taking bribe. Criminal charges have been filed against 22 people and 12 people have been arrested. During this year they have handled 43 cases on corruption offenses and giving bribe, criminal charges have been filed against 16 people and 10 people have been arrested. Regarding the cases on corruption offenses, abuse of authority, Kosovo Police has handled 441 cases of corruption, filing criminal charges against 242 people and arresting 45 people.
He further stressed that the Kosovo Prosecutor in 2013, regarding the corruption offense, taking bribes dealt with cases where were implicated 56 people , among all these cases the prosecution solved an amount of cases involving 30 people and at the end of the period remained unsolved cases where were involved 26 people . On the corruption offense giving bribe the dealt with cases where were implicated 59 persons , solving cases with 36 people involved whereas cases with 23 people were involved remained unsolved at the end of 2013. And on the corruption offense , abuse of authority, Kosovo Prosecution dealt with cases where were implicated 1,585 people during 2013, among all these cases the prosecution solved an amount of cases involving 363 people and at the end of the period remained unsolved cases where were involved 1,222 people .
According to him, during 2013, Kosovo Courts on the corruption offence taking bribe dealt with cases implicating 122 people, solving cases with implicating only 31 people whereas cases with implicating 91 people remained unsolved at the end of this period. On the corruption offense giving bribery Kosovo Courts dealt with an amount of cases involving 67 people, solving cases where were involved only 23 people whereas cases involving 44 people remained unsolved at the end of 2013. And for the corruption offense abuse of authority, Kosovo courts dealt with an amount of cases where were implicated 603 people during 2013, solving cases with 66 people implicated while cases with 537 people implicated remained unsolved at the end of this period .
Fidan Kalaja further mentioned that besides the three institutions involved in this platform, FOL Movement has been monitoring anti-corruption activities of three other institutions as well, such as the Government, Parliament and EULEX, regarding their activities in the fight against corruption.
According to the findings of FOL Movement, Kosovo Government in 2013 has approved a total of 427 decisions, among them only 4 decisions were in the fight against corruption, compared with 2012 where 5 of them were in the fight against corruption.
Meanwhile, Kosovo Assembly from 23 plenary sessions held in 2013, only in 6 of them was discussed about the fight against corruption, compared with 2012 where only in 3 sessions was discussed the fight against corruption.
According to anti-corruption statistics for 2013 from EULEX, EULEX courts held only nine trials on corruption cases while EULEX prosecution during 2013 has dealt with nine new cases, has conducted 29 preliminary investigations, there were 15 ongoing investigations, has filed five charges, has amended 2 charges, and confirmed 2 charges.
FOL Movement calls the Board of PRB not to pass on its responsibility to procurement officials, but try and find the possibility to review the filed complaints even with an expedited procedure and decide as it is mandated by law.
Prishtina, March 26, 2014 – Public Procurement Review Body, after a nearly eight-month period is re-functionalized with the appointment of new Board members by Kosovo Assembly at its session held on March 20, 2014. During the period from 1 August 2013 to 20 March 2014, the PRB has not performed its function of reviewing the complaints of public procurement procedures, in this institution are filed a total of 279 complaints about various procedures.
On the other hand, according to recent information that emerged in public, even from the employees of this institution, the PRB board will review only 24 complaints which were filed after 14 February 2014, whereas will not consider the rest of 255 additional complaints justifying that they have expired legal deadlines for review. These procurement procedures will remain to be decided by the relevant procurement officials in the relevant contracting authorities.
FOL Movement has constantly expressed concern that the non-function of the PRB has created opportunities for mismanagement, abuse and corruption in public procurement.
FOL concludes that if the complaint filed during the period when the PRB has been non-functional will not be reviewed and leaving them to public procurement officers to decide for, will create:
1.Possibilities for mismanagement, abuse and corruption in public procurement.
2. Damage the interests of economic operators, and
3. Create a precedent for other cases where authorities that are obliged by law enforce justice to refuse to do so.
Therefore, FOL Movement calls the Board of PRB not to pass on its responsibility to procurement officials, but try and find the possibility to review the filed complaints even with an expedited procedure and decide as it is mandated by law. We consider that any other form of action is extremely dangerous and can create abusive opportunities by contracting authorities.
Mitrovica, march 19, 2014 – FOL Movement in cooperation with CMB in Mitrovica, as a member of the Coordination Group for Kosovo’s membership in international organization for the Open Government Partnership, organized a public consultation today in Mitrovica Municipality in order to draft the National Action Plan 2014-2016.This event was attended by representatives of local institutions, civil society, media and interested citizens
Florentina Hajdari – Hajra from CBM after a brief introduction of the history of the establishment of Open Government Partnership – OGP (for more information please see OGP background: http://www.ogpkosova.org/what-does -open-government-mean /), said that they have supported this initiative. He said that “through this debate today, we are trying to identify the problems faced by the citizens of Mitrovica and Kosovo as well regarding the access to public institutions.
Fidan Kalaja from FOL Movement, briefly presented the steps that have been taken and have to be taken from Kosovo in order to become a member of the in the Open Government Partnership. He mentioned that the Coordination Group is established which consists of representatives of civil society, institutions and private sector representatives, whose mission is drafting the Kosovo National Action Plan. He said the Coordinating Group has decided that the plan focuses on four main challenges anticipated and suggested by OGP, that is: Improving public services, Increasing public integrity, more efficient public resources management and Increasing corporate accountability. He also said that this public consultation campaign will serve to increase the inclusion of all interested parties in this process and also obtain concrete proposal activities, which will be included in the National Action Plan of the Republic of Kosovo.
Hajrullah Mustafa, from NGO ‘Shtëpia e Shokut’ said considering that we have lots of problems of disinterest on politics, the meeting of drafting this plan is completely independent of political influence. He said that independent institutions cannot function as such. According to him, in legislative terms Kosovo has made a great advancement, but regarding the executive the matter is different, and only because of political interference.
Skender Kerolli, from Association of the Blind said that access to municipality is very difficult. “There are two months since we requested a meeting with the mayor and we were not able to accomplish it regardless numerous requests. Also another big problem is the employment of blind people who even if they have graduated the college cannot get a job. “
Ragip Hyseni from LYAC stated that the focus should be on the selection of employees. “As it is now based on political orientations and the hired people should be in services of the political party which hired him. There should be more transparency in terms of employment and vacancies criteria to be clear, because right now the calls for vacancies are just for show, even in some cases they are published after the employee has started working “
Florentina Hejdari – Hajra from CBM stressed that it would be better if in municipalities were formed all-inclusive committees, including civil society but also experts in relevant areas. According to her, the planning of the last year budget was open, but in these meetings there were no prior analysis which would point out the most urgent needs of the citizens. It is also noticed that there are no cost analysis of those projects. It has happened that certain projects were planned and not included in the municipal budget but to foreign donations. “
Lulzim Hakaj, from Human Rights Civil Initiative, said that there should be more attention to the specifications of the criteria of special advertisements.
Ramadan Uka from NGO ‘Eco-Trepca’ said the they select directors with no previous work experience therefore this issue should be considered because although they are political staff, the mayors should be careful in their appointments.
Prizren, March 18 2014 – FOL Movement in cooperation with Ec me Ndryshe, as a member of the Coordination Group for Kosovo’s membership in international organization for the Open Government Partnership, organized a public consultation today in Prizren Municipality in order to draft the National Action Plan 2014-2016. This event was attended by representatives of local institutions, civil society, media and interested citizens
Elmedina Baxhaku from Ec me Ndryshe after a brief presentation of the activities of the organization in increasing the transparency of the Prizren Municipality, said that their organization has supported this initiative. She said that through this debate, they were trying to identify the problems that the citizens of Prizren and Kosovo were facing in terms of access to public institutions.
Kenan Tora, from FOL Movement, after a brief introduction of the history of the establishment of Open Government Partnership – OGP (for more information please see OGP background: http://www.ogpkosova.org/what-does -open-government-mean /), and went on explaining briefly the steps that have been taken and have to be taken from Kosovo in order to become a member of the in the Open Government Partnership. He mentioned that the Coordination Group is established which consists of representatives of civil society, institutions and private sector representatives, whose mission is drafting the Kosovo National Action Plan. He said the Coordinating Group has decided that the plan focuses on four main challenges anticipated and suggested by OGP, that is: Improving public services, Increasing public integrity, more efficient public resources management and Increasing corporate accountability. He also said that this public consultation campaign will serve to increase the inclusion of all interested parties in this process and also obtain concrete proposal activities, which will be included in the National Action Plan of the Republic of Kosovo.
Dea Spahiu from UNDP in Prizren expressed the support of the UNDP for Kosovo’s membership process in OGP.
Afrim Tejeci from Handicraft Association in Prizren said they were very committed to having greater transparency by the municipality in terms of the industrial area. “We have had foreign investors who intended to invest in Prizren, but we did not managed to have a plan for the industrial area. We lack such information and we do not know how to explain this to the interested parties since we don’t even know. ”
Aqim Emurli from OSCE said that in Kosovo there are different laws and regulations regarding transparency and accountability, but also there is also manipulation on how citizens are involved in decision making, it is because citizens do not receive a proper invitation and debates are held only for a show. The involvement of citizens in decision-making is particularly important especially on regulatory plans, where “debates are held, but when after the work has begun and thus there are reaction from people because they were not consulted earlier,”.
Veton Ruka from Caritas Suisse, stressed the use of information technology in Kosovo where every citizen has such knowledge. According to him, Municipality’s website should be active and regularly updated so that people begin to use and get more informed.
Naim Cahani from KDI said that information offices should be improved and advanced. Also in public meetings for drafting the budget there should be reports and make them public.
Mentar Karjagdiu from OSCE said that the meetings with citizens regarding the budget should be organized by the Policy and Finance Committee and not by the mayor’s office. “We have noticed that that the Policy and Finance Committee was not very engaged in organizing these debates despite that they are obliged by law to organize these debates,”
Antigona Shestani from OPDMK said that when it comes to transparency and access to institutions “I think that special people should have a special treatment in this regard”. Special people have no access to institutions neither physical access. “
Peja, March 12, 2014 – FOL Movement in cooperation with Syri i Vizionit in Peja, as a member of the Coordination Group for Kosovo’s membership in international organization for the Open Government Partnership, organized a public consultation today in Peja Municipality in order to draft the National Action Plan 2014-2016. This event was attended by representatives of local institutions, civil society, media and interested citizens
Naser Lajqi, from Syri i VIzionit, after a brief introduction of the history of the establishment of Open Government Partnership – OGP (for more information please see OGP background: http://www.ogpkosova.org/what-does -open-government-mean /), said that they have supported this initiative. He said that through this debate today, we are trying to identify the problems faced by the citizens of Peja and Kosovo as well regarding the access to public institutions. According to him this public consultation campaign will help the inclusion of all interested parties in this process and also proposing concrete actions which will be part of the Kosovo National Action Plan.
Fidan Kalaja from FOL Movement, briefly presented the steps that have been taken and have to be taken from Kosovo in order to become a member of the in the Open Government Partnership. He mentioned that the Coordination Group is established which consists of representatives of civil society, institutions and private sector representatives, whose mission is drafting the Kosovo National Action Plan. He said the Coordinating Group has decided that the plan focuses on four main challenges anticipated and suggested by OGP, that is: Improving public services, Increasing public integrity, more efficient public resources management and Increasing corporate accountability.
Samir Lleshi from Kosovo Chamber of Commerce said the corporations corruption allegations, have the origin in Procurement Law, where despite the insistence of KCC two years from now to have an online procurement, nothing is done in this regard.
Mevylde Idrizi,, a municipal assembly member in the municipality of Peja ( working in the company ‘ Hidrodrini’ – Peja ) , said they needed essential changes , because those areas that were defined regarding public enterprises were far from implementation . “In public enterprise the transparency does not exist, citizen participation never was active, neither for any regulatory plan nor for a request for access to public documents . Managerial staff never gives accountability even I was a municipal assembly member I didn’t have access to public documents”. She said that her insistence resulted with threats of dismissing her from her job. Correct management and various documents open to the public would help workers to be informed of their rights they have. Also Mrs. Idrizi suggested that within the National Action Plan should be provided the preparation and implementation of systematization of jobs for all the levels of administration .
Gazmend Shabaj a municipal assembly member said that a great deal of the laws that they had today, happens very often that many articles contradict each other, changes should start from there. At the same time citizens should be aware regarding their duties toward the country, considering that very few pay property taxes, electricity or water fees. According to him, the use of technology in publication of vacancies, contracts, and many other issues would affect a lot for better in this regard.
Islam Husaj, the chairman of Peja Municipal Assembly, said that there are many laws that should be amended, especially the Law on Local Self-Government and the Law on Public Procurement . It is a practice in all Kosovo that Municipal Assembly serves the mayor, so he is given so much power that he himself can take any decision. This law should be amended also regarding the criteria for selection of municipal directors, and not be a competence of the mayor. Regarding transparency, Husaj said that very few articles are posted on the web site of the municipality. We should be in the service of citizens, we must organize also the consulting sessions with citizens to inform them of the rights they have. Citizens should be informed about any actions of the Municipal Assembly . Mr . Husaj said he agrees that the systematization of jobs is essential for transparent, accountable and effective institutions. His recommendations were that the disputed laws should be amended, provide finances , provide a supervising mechanism and drafting the regulations for systematization of jobs .
Ferizaj, March 11, 2014 – FOL Movement in cooperation with Initiative for Progress – INPO, as a member of the Coordination Group for Kosovo’s membership in international organization for the Open Government Partnership, organized a public consultation today in Frizaj Municipality in order to draft the National Action Plan 2014-2016. This event was attended by representatives of local institutions, civil society, media and interested citizens.
According to organizers, this public consultation campaign will help to increase the inclusion of all interested parties in this process and also proposal of concrete activities, which will be included in the National Action Plan of the Republic of Kosovo.
Samir Reka, Executive Director of INPO, after a brief introduction of the history of the establishment of Open Government Partnership – OGP (for more information please see OGP background: http://www.ogpkosova.org/what-does -open-government-mean /), said that they have supported this initiative. He said that “through this debate today, we are trying to identify the problems faced by the citizens of Ferizaj and Kosovo as well regarding the access to public institutions. Samir Reka from INPO also emphasized that apart from identification we will try to identify and propose actions and mechanisms that may change the situation and improve the function of the institutions and improve public services.
Fidan Kalaja from FOL Movement, briefly presented the steps that have been taken and have to be taken from Kosovo in order to become a member of the in the Open Government Partnership. He mentioned that the Coordination Group is established which consists of representatives of civil society, institutions and private sector representatives, whose mission is drafting the Kosovo National Action Plan. He said the Coordinating Group has decided that the plan focuses on four main challenges anticipated and suggested by OGP, that is: Improving public services, Increasing public integrity, more efficient public resources management and Increasing corporate accountability.
Faruk Guri , a municipal assembly member said the main weakness regarding the function of public institutions was the lack of inter-institutional transparency and accountability and to public as well. He mentioned various instances of such cases and proposed that in case of major capital projects there should be transparency regarding the realization of those projects.
Albion Sherifi from NGO “NA” in Ferizaj said that regarding specific actions that are to be included in the National Action Plan should be: improving access to public documents, the advancement of plans for local transparency, online database through which municipal expenditure will be published weekly and regarding citizens engagement in decision-making, local institutions should organize a campaign identifying citizens needs by drafting specific documents regarding these needs.
Samir Reka from INPO during the debate stressed the need that all vacancies, applicants lists for certain positions, their selection process be open and transparent to the public including the education system, health and civil staff in public institutions.
Visar Demiri, a municipal assembly member emphasized the need for professional advancement of municipal administrations in order to use the technology providing various services such as basic online documents application form.
Bashkim Fazliu, a municipal assembly member stressed the importance of innovation, considering it as a priority that should be in the National Action Plan.
The Director of Infrastructure Department in Ferizaj Municipaliti, Mr. Gafur Ilazi stressed the need for compiling the list, which clearly specifies which documents can be accessible to the public and all other documents that are considered as classified documents in order to avoid confusion and efficiency of institutions in response to different requests.
Prishtina, March 3 – FOL Movement, today published the analytical report “Property tax in Kosovo municipalities.” In this report was analyzed the rate of the collection of property tax billed by Kosovo municipalities and the importance of this collection for municipalities financial sustainability.
Kenan Tora from FOL Movement said that “the report was compiled based on the data of collection of property tax billed, provided by municipalities upon the request in advance of FOL. The goal of this report is to present a real picture of collection of property tax billed by municipalities. “FOL sent the request to access these data to 34 municipalities, but only 26 of them provided the data and four other municipalities provided the data in a format which was not proper for analysis. Municipalities that did not respond to the request of FOL Movement for public documents access are : the Municipality of Prizren , Deqan , Klina , Lipjan , Shterpce , Kllokot , Mamusha and Partesh . FOL Movement filed a complaint at office of the Ombudsman for declining their request by these municipalities for public documents access. FOL will continue with other legal proceedings to realize the right of public documents access.
Kenan Tora also stated that “the property tax is one of the most important sources of municipalities own income, which are specified in Article 8 of the Law on Local Self-Government as financial resources that should be provided to municipalities for providing services to citizens. ” Based on the findings of the report , in the sense of rate, own income historically consisted about 17% of total municipal income every year. Regarding own income , property tax is the most important which consists about 30% of the income. Property tax billed represents about 4 % of the total budget of the municipalities that we analyzed in this report. Regarding the overview of the property tax bill, based on the data provided for 2012 by 22 municipalities, 80% of the invoiced value refers to property taxes for the respective year. The rest includes charging interest because of failing to pay the previous years’ taxes (15 % of the bill amount) and penalties for failing to pay the property tax within the due date for previous years (5 % of the bill amount) .
The analyzed data shows that 69.22% of the bill amount is collected. However, according to Kenan Tora “this overview may not be correct, since this collection includes all collections including the collections of old debts, penalties and interest.” After the analysis, we noted that only 52% of the amount collected has to do with the payment of property taxes during the current year (2012), while 48% of the payments collected by municipalities in terms of property tax payments is related to old debt (38%), payment of interest (7%) and penalties (3%).
Another problematic issue is that the property tax amount collected for the current year (2012) without penalties and interest is only 45% of the property tax bill for 2012, collected by analyzed municipalities. This represents a very important issue, as a collection rate below 50% of the property tax bill for a relevant year means the total debt on the property tax increases every year for over 50% of the bill amount.
Analytical report on the importance and success of roperty taxes collection in Kosovo municipalities
FOL Movement through press conference presented an open letter addressed to the European Union institutions on visa liberalization process for Kosovo.
FOL Movement sends an open letter to the leadership of the EU about visa liberalization process
Prishtina, 25th February 2014 – Today, representatives of FOL Movement met the Mayor of Prishtina, Mr. Shpend Ahmeti. The purpose of this meeting was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which will enable FOL Movement to monitor the procurement procedures in this municipality in order to increase the transparency in the sector.
The Mayor of Prishtina, Mr. Shpend Ahmeti said “considering the situation in procurement sector, we have gladly accepted the request of FOL Movement for monitoring the procurement procedures in Prishtina.” He further said “transparency in general is a priority for us and especially transparency of public procurement considering that this is one of the most significant sectors in terms of conflict of interest, fraud and various corruption affairs.”
The Executive Director of FOL Movement Petrit Zogaj said “FOL Movement has been intensively engaged for three years in monitoring the public procurement, where almost seventy percent of Kosovo budget is spent through these procedures.” By signing this agreement “we pledge joint commitments for its implementation in order to increase transparency and good management of public money,” said Petrit Zogaj.
Prishtina, 24th February 2014 – Today, FOL Movement held a press conference and presented an open letter addressed to the European Union institutions on visa liberalization process for Kosovo.
Petrit Zogaj, from FOL Movement hereby declared that ” FOL Movement, as a civil society organization, through this letter expresses its concern about Kosovo and its citizens regarding the situation they are in terms of the perspective of visa liberalization”. According to him “Considering their efforts so far, from the perspective of civil society and the general public, we consider that all institutions and political authorities in Kosovo, on the one hand, and the EU, on the other hand, has not yet have shown dedication, professional skill, sincerity and seriousness in meeting all the criteria provided by Guide on visa liberalization for Kosovo “.
Through this letter, FOL has addressed a number of claims which are regarded as key points when starting with addressing the deep concerns brought in this letter.
• First of all, both parties should come up with a joint assessment that clearly shows each criterion, one by one, that Kosovo has met so far and a list of other criteria that are still to be met.
• Secondly, they should also define clear lines of accountability for Kosovo, and the EU as well as, and apply this to the public.
• Thirdly, they should establish and maintain the accountability and transparency to the public and improve the participation of civil society.
• Fourth, the role of EULEX and its future are inevitably linked with visa liberalization process. Regarding its role, the guide clearly defines the criteria which EULEX, with an effective involvement should meet.
• Finally, the political dialogue with Member States is crucial. This requires that all relevant political decision makers (including legislators) from both sides, should interact much more with one other in building a deeper understanding of all the requirements and challenges that Kosovo is facing in order to meet each criteria.
Petrit Zogaj also said that “through this open letter, we intend to express our citizens’ confidence that now is the time that the EU institutions and the leaders of Kosovo institutions will equally share all the concerns brought by us”. We want to believe that you will consider in your daily work all the concerns brought hereby, and many others which you already are familiar with, and do everything within your power so that the process of liberalization visa for Kosovo does not stand still due to negligence. Kosovans deserve this, whether it is supposed to end the gap between initial expectations and continuous uncertainty about the final outcome of this process. We are sure that this is also in the best interest of the EU, said Petrit Zogaj.
Please find below full version of letter:
First of all, let us express all Kosovans’ and our own gratefulness and the highest considerations for the continuous support provided to Kosovo by the EU and its Member States to its state-building and European integration path. The purpose of this letter is to share with you our deep concern on the worrying situation in which Kosovo and its citizens are found with regard to the visa liberalisation perspective.
Over a decade ago, the 2003 joint EU – Western Balkans Thessaloniki Summit marked a shift in EU’s approach to Europeanization of Balkans’ post-conflict societies. It did so by introducing the perspective of visa liberalisation, in addition to the accession process based on the mechanism of the Stabilisation and Association process (SAP). In addition to providing incentives to carry out reforms and promoting rule of law domestically, the perspective of becoming part of the ‘white Schengen’ has since been momentously perceived as a people-oriented approach expected to bring about plausible improvements in citizens’ lives beyond the highly political, comprehensive SAP. As such, it created strong expectations amongst citizens of countries across the region that EU’s policy of accession conditionality was being further endowed with values of fairness and inclusiveness, driven by freedom of movement being promoted as one of fundamental human rights across the old continent.
And not only this. Such a momentous change has gradually created a widespread belief that visa liberalization is not only about reforms and the freedom of movement as a fundamental human right, but that it also promotes socio-economic development for all. Such a belief was inspired by the expectation that, as actually promoted by the EU itself, becoming part of the ‘white Schengen’ would particularly improve access of youngsters to better education opportunities, as well as of businesspeople and professionals to more competitive markets and professional development opportunities provided by the EU internal market and regional markets. Indeed, a much more important expectation still holds, namely that once lifting of the Schengen visa regime becomes a credible political stake genuinely worthwhile to invest in for each society, it certainly acts against Euroscepticism and contributes to gradually brining their values closer to those of developed European societies. Momentously driven by such fundamental shared values and beliefs, the EU and all Western Balkans’ countries jointly took swift steps to advance from visa facilitation to visa liberalisation in roughly two years time, yet only Kosovo was excluded from this. The respective processes with these countries provided for clarity, certainty, fairness in the eyes of the public and realistic approach, combined with thorough guiding by the EU throughout the way, based on full partnership and trust.
On the other hand, though Kosovo has embarked in meeting the criteria required since 2009 and received its visa roadmap from the EU in 2012, it is about to enter the third year into this process. In addition, it is formally part of the Stabilisation and Association Process (covering, among others, the same sectors covered by this roadmap) since 2003 and expects to conclude an SAA soon this year. It is also, since 2012, involved in a so-called ‘structured dialogue on the rule of law’, an invention of its very own kind allegedly tackling the very same sectors as the roadmap does. Moreover, Kosovo enters the sixth year of hosting the biggest ever EU rule of law mission and continues the dialogue with Serbia, both portrayed as bringing it closer to the EU and improving its citizens’ lives. The two latter are embraced by Kosovo’s leadership despite decreasing popularity domestically, due to widespread public disillusionment with EULEX’s performance in actually delivering justice and rule of law and the extremely slow conduciveness of this dialogue to either improving citizens’ lives or getting any closer to the EU. On the contrary, the perspective of visa liberalisation remains as distant as ever, perhaps even murkier than for some former Soviet republics.
We want to share with you our deep worry over the fact that no one seems to have any clear idea when the last two million people living in Europe will finally join the rest of hundreds of millions fellow Europeans who enjoy the fundamental human right to free movement.
We all need to be reminded that Kosovo remains amongst the most isolated countries on the globe, with its citizens allowed to travel without a visa to only about five countries. Seen through the eyes of an ordinary citizen living this reality on everyday basis, this leaves nothing but a perception of a paradox. Such an intrinsic paradox lies precisely in the contradiction between EU’s declared willingness for Kosovo’s accession (regardless of member states’ positions vis-à-vis its statehood) and what it actually does on the ground risking to take an opposite direction during the process. It is clear that the more this process is dragged on, the more isolation would be tried to be broken by ordinary people in search of better life, also given that the accession process will certainly take at least one more decade. Seen in this light, it is imperative that potential risks of continued isolation are paid due consideration and responded to. Potential radicalisation and extremism, be it ethnic, political, religious or of any other kind, would pose very serious risks to Kosovo’s public and constitutional order, thus potentially undermining its very foundations. With communication with other, more developed societies around shut off, we risk to take the path of an insecure society.
While fully recognizing their up to date efforts, from the perspective of the civil society and the wider public, we consider that all Kosovo institutions and political actors, on one hand, and of the EU, on the other, have yet to demonstrate full and clear commitment, competence, honesty and seriousness in meeting all the criteria set out in the Visa Liberalisation Roadmap for Kosovo. Let us therefore outline a number of demands for both the EU and Kosovan institutions which we find crucial if one would want to begin addressing the deep concerns raised in this letter.
• First of all, both need to come up with a joint evaluation clearly indicating each and every criterion that Kosovo has met and an exhaustive list of each and every outstanding criterion contained in the Visa Liberalisation Roadmap for Kosovo. Such a list needs to be clear, particularly in terms of the precise measures agreed to be undertaken to meet the outstanding criteria and a timeframe of implementation. It also has to be fully and continuously transparent and easily accessible to the public. On the other hand, the EU needs to set a clear timeframe of regularly assessing Kosovo’s progress in meeting the outstanding criteria. Such a timeframe also needs to be clear structurally and in terms of exhaustive deadlines, as well as, and most importantly, treat Kosovo as fairly and equally as other Western Balkans countries previously. Such a timeframe and related documents also need to be fully and continuously transparent and easily accessible to the public. The EU needs to bear in mind that continuously adding rather marginal criteria, in whatever form, and evaluating their implementation only once in a blue moon would certainly prove to be counterproductive to actually meeting them by Kosovo, as it would only distract the focus and ultimately diminish both parties’ commitment to the very process and public trust in it. The risk of a ‘visa liberalisation fatigue’ is clearly very imminent.
• Secondly, clear lines of accountability, both on Kosovo’s and EU’s side, need to be in place and communicated to the public. This also requires clear division of responsibilities throughout the respective institutional hierarchies (as prescribed by their respective functions per se) and avoiding existing overlapping between sectors and levels of institutions, including when it comes to monitoring, reporting and evaluation. The process, nevertheless, needs to ensure inclusiveness of stakeholders and responsiveness. Last but not least in this regard, the coordination structures in place, on both sides and at all levels, need to be only instruments serving the goal (implementation of the roadmap), not degenerate into goals in themselves. One such structure seems to be the ‘structured dialogue on the rule of law’, which seems to overlap and risks becoming a goal in itself.
• Thirdly, accountability and transparency to the public and improved involvement of civil society need to be established and maintained. This requires ensuring public access to the information reflecting all the dimensions and processes conducted and engaged in since Kosovo received the roadmap and up until the end of the process. Such information includes, but is not limited to, planning, reporting and evaluation documents produced by both parties, as well as conclusions of all official meetings, in particularly those at the political level. Last but not least on transparency, joint press releases and joint media briefings are ordinary practices in any democratic political system, and as such have to be part of each and every political-level meeting on visa liberalisation between EU and Kosovo. On the other hand, civil society would bring added value to the process if allowed to bring more of its own views and exert more of organized pressure.
• Fourthly, the role of EULEX and its future are inextricably related to the visa liberalisation process. As far as its role is concerned, the roadmap clearly sets out the criteria which EULEX has to contribute to meeting though its effective involvement. Though they might be often misread as exclusively tasks of Kosovan institutions vis-à-vis EULEX as an EU mission, this finally needs to be seen as a fully-fledged mutual approach. This requires clarity on what EULEX’s precise duties are given the full nature of its mandate, particularly when it comes to its ‘executive mandate’ and issues of membership and cooperation with the relevant international and regional organisations and mechanisms, where there seems to be the least progress. In this regard, the very fact that all its member states are in favour of Kosovo becoming part of the ‘white Schengen’ allows the EU room to play a more proactive broker role towards Kosovo formally becoming a member and establishing and maintaining cooperation with such organisations and mechanisms. Moreover, both sides need to recognize the political sensitivities that might derive for Kosovo in general of endlessly extending EULEX’s mandate, particularly given the public disappointment with its performance, a perception also recognized and shared by certain EU actors at times.
• Lastly, political dialogue with member states is crucial. This requires all relevant political decision-makers (including lawmakers) on both sides, to engage much more heavily with each-other in building a thorough understanding of all the criteria and challenges facing Kosovo in meeting each of them. Next to it, this requires the Kosovan side to directly and continuously engage, under EU’s facilitation (where needed) with EU member states. And not only them, but also relevant international and regional organisations and mechanisms and regional countries. Last but not least in this regard, both parties need to think creatively on how to make the dialogue with Serbia more structurally conditioned and better linked to facilitating meeting of the visa liberalisation criteria.
To conclude, through this open letter, we seek to express our citizens’ belief that the time has come for both you and our elected leaders to equally share all the concerns raised herein. We want to believe that you will take into consideration all these and other concerns you are already familiar with in your own daily work, and undertake all that is in your power so that the visa liberalisation process for Kosovo does not stall out of neglect. Kosovans deserve this if the gap between original expectations and continued uncertainty over the finality of this process is to be brought to an end. We are sure that this is also in EU’s best interest.
