Confiscation of property obtained through criminal offense presents only one side of the coin in Kosovo’s efforts to fight organized crime and corruption and any other goods that results from them. The other side of the coin has to do with the confiscation of property that is not potentially as a result of a criminal offense or the latter fails to be fully proven. And here is the problem.

Currently, the seizure and confiscation of property in Kosovo is regulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Law on Extended Powers of Seizure of the Property derived from crime. In both these laws, the seizure and confiscation of assets should be done in the context of the commission of a criminal act by which it is obtained that property or other assets. One thing is clear – any criminal offense that generates wealth is punishable and that property is confiscated. However, we have situations where a certain asset can not be justified, on the other hand can not even relate to a specific criminal offense. In this regard, currently, the prosecution authorities and Kosovo courts are limited and may not take any action of seizure and confiscation regarding those assets.

In a debate organized earlier by FOL Movement, the National Coordinator for Fighting Economic Crime in Kosovo presented impressive statistics of seized property – about 30 million euros per year, however, only about half a million of them were confirmed by final decision of the courts. The Coordinator raised the need for increased efficiency of the prosecution and courts about the seizure and confiscation of assets obtained illegally and the need for anti-mafia law.

Untill now, the initiative for drafting the anti-mafia law was not successful. This law basically dealt with unjustified wealth. Anti-mafia law would not necessarily require a charge or criminal proceedings against a person for confiscation of unjustified property. But, there are some considerations about such a law. First, who should bear the burden of proof in the event that a particular asset is seized – the owner of the property or body seeking seizure. Second, is it guaranteed and van be guaranteed the constitutional and legal rights of the parties against arbitrary state interference in private life and property. Third, could anti-mafia law act back in time?

A number of attornies are sayibg that primarily the individuals should have the burden of proof to justify a certain asset whether it is lawfully obtained, on the other hand, yet a great deal of attornies including me say the the body that requires the seizure, in this case the prosecution or other body we must bear the burden of proof to prove that a property was obtained illegally. The importance of this argument lies in the role that the state has in monitoring and fighting crime in any circumstance, including the seizure of property obtained illegally. The state can not transfer this role to individuals and play only a passive role.

Seizure and confiscation of property in each case requires state intervention in private wealth and property of citizens. In the case of criminal offenses such intervention is justified. In the absence of a criminal offense, the interference could jeopardize the constitutional and legal rights of citizens, where the state will have the opportunity to seek seizure of a property grounded on a suspicion about the origin of an asset. In this respect any law that the government will bring, would require the need to exercise caution in establishing a fair balance between the interests of the state and society to fight crime and the goods that are generated by crime, in one hand and constitutional and legal individual rights to use private property freely and without the risk of an arbitrary state interference through unjustified confiscation of property.

Can we draft an anti – mafia law which would allow us to go back in time and to seize assets that have been obtained illegally? No and yes. No, because in principle every law operates looking forward, otherwise violates the principle of legality and legal certainty. Yes, if it is argued that a certain property acquired illegally before 10 or 20 years continues to generate benefits for its owners. But the last argument is difficult to be related to the first argument.

Eventually, the need for anti-mafia law prevails all of the above considerations. They should serve more to make a good law than to refuse to make such a law. On the other hand, the current framework, however, creates a good basis for the responsible authorities to do more in fighting organized crime and corruption and the confiscation of assets that generate these affairs.

[av_heading heading=’This project was funded through a grant of the American Embassy in Prishtina. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the Author (s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State’ tag=’h4′ style=” size=” subheading_active=” subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]

Prishtina, 26 August 2014 Today FOL Movement sent a letter to Procurement Review Body – PRB where they asked for additional clarifications about two PRB decisions on the tender “Supply of Vehicles” of Kosovo Police.

In their first decision, the Review Panel of PRB on 30 July 2014 partly approved as grounded the appeals of three economic operators and that the case had to be returned for re-tender. Whereas the Chairman of PRB on August 8, 2014, takes another decision declaring the decision of PRB Review Panel as with no legal effect emphasizing that the Review Panel has decided under the pressure of influence and contrary to Procurement Law.

In this context, FOL Movement asked PRB for additional clarification about the conclusion of the President of PRB that the first decision of the Review Panel was taken under the pressure of influence, thus:
1. Based on, particularly, the Article 130 of LPP, specifically under what sort of influence were the members of the Review Panel.
2. If the President of PRB concluded that this decision was taken under the influence, then what measures were taken by the PRB against the members of the Review Panel?
3 Is the Ministry of Internal Affairs informed about the situation, and is there any, if yes, what are the results of MIA regarding this matter in accordance with Article 130 paragraph 3 of the Law on Procurement.
The letter sent to PRB can be found in this link

Prishtina, August 3, 2014 – Today, FOL Movement held a press conference and published the six month period statistics of Police, Prosecution and Courts within the Anti-Corruption Statistics Platform and also the decisions and actions of the Assembly and Government of Kosovo in the fight of corruption in Kosovo during this period.

Fidan Kalaja from FOL Movement said that during the first six months of 2014, Kosovo Police has dealt with 19 cases of corruption and taking bribes, filing criminal charges against six people and six other people have been arrested. For the offenses of corruption and bribery during the first six months of this year they have dealt with 30 cases, filing criminal charges against 10 people and six people have been arrested. Meanwhile, for the offenses of corruption, abuse of authority, Kosovo Police has handled 236 cases of corruption, filing criminal charges against 106 people and 34 people have been arrested.

He further said that Kosovo Prosecution during the first six months of 2014, for the offenses of corruption and taking bribes had ongoing cases implicating 53 people, only 13 of them have been solved, whereas at the end of the period were left unsolved 19 cases. For the offenses of corruption and giving bribes, the prosecution had ongoing cases implicating 55 people, 24 of these cases have been solved while 16 of them remained unsolved at the end of the first half of 2014. For the offenses of corruption and abuse of authority, the Prosecutor of Kosovo had ongoing cases implicating 1,244 people, only 372 of these cases have been solved while 1,065 cases remained unsolved during the first six months of 2014.

According to him, during the six month period of 2014, Kosovo Courts for criminal cases of corruption and bribe taking handled ongoing cases involving 171 people; only 20 of these cases have been solved, while 77 cases remained unsolved at the end of this period. For the offenses of corruption and giving bribe Kosovo Courts handled ongoing cases implicating 87 people, 8 of these cases have been solved while 44 of these cases remained unsolved at the end of the first half of 2014. For the offenses of abuse of authority,

Kosovo Courts handled ongoing cases implicating 619 people during the first six months of 2014, only 93 of these cases have been solved while 573 cases remain unsolved at the end of this period.
Fidan Kalaja also said that FOL Movement, except these three institutions involved in this platform during this six-month period, has monitored the decisions of Assembly and Government of Kosovo.

Kosovo Assembly from 15 plenary sessions held in the first six months of 2014, only one of them discussed the fight against corruption. While the Government in the first six months of 2014 from 169 approved decisions, only one was in the fight against corruption.
For more information on Anti-corruption Statistics Platform check the attached link http://www.levizjafol.org/plateforma-statistikave-anti-korrupsion/?message=true&FaqeID=1

Ferizaj, July 18, 2014 – Today, FOL Movement has organized a roundtable discussion in Ferizaj on the topic “Public procurement activities in the first six months of the year.” During this meeting was presented a report with summarized statistics on procurement activities initiated by Gjakova municipality.
Participants in this meeting were the Mayor of Ferizaj, Muharrem Svarqa, director of procurement, Hanife Obrazhda – Selimi, assembly members of various political parties and representatives of civil society and media.

Kenan Tora from FOL Movement said that the purpose of that meeting was to discuss the possible problems and irregularities that might go with the development of public procurement procedures in Ferizaj Municipality. He further went on with the findings of the report of the municipality stating that during the first 6 months of this year Gjakova Municipality has announced 47 contract notices, 31 notices of contract award, 0 cancellation notices and 2 cancellation of the contract award, whereas the PRB has taken two decision against Ferizaj Municipality by returning a procurement activity in re-evaluation. Regarding the problems that are generally present in public procurement, he stressed the problem of non-standardization of the drafting process of the tender dossier, exceptionally low prices, non-coordination between different institutions and non-professionalism of evaluation committees.

Later spoke the Mayor of the Municipality of Ferizaj Muharrem Svarqa, who said that irregularities or problems raised by FOL Movement are partly present in the Ferizaj as well. He went on to say that there are often cases with exceptionally low prices and that this problem has been present in one of the cases that were sent to the PRB and that from now on they will seriously consider along with the procurement office cases where it is suspected that economic operators are trying to manipulate with low prices lower and these cases will be send to the prosecutor. The mayor Svarqa then went on saying that since coming to power he has implemented the standard of not allowing to tender in case they do not have available funds in order to avoid debts as it used to happen in the previous government and they have inherited these debts. He said that he also was working on implementation of the standard of not accepting guarantees from insurance companies except of banks and he had tried to have a systematic approach in order to address the evident problems and procurement office do its work in the most professional manner.

Whereas the procurement manager Obrazhda-Selimi said that exceptionally low prices are a problem constantly present in offers of economic operators and that this is creating serious problems in selecting quality bidders and then is reflected in the performance of work. In terms of professionalism, she said that committees tend to be professional but there is always a goal to do better, particularly in the context of supervision of activity.
Admir Salihu a law assistant, said that in despite that the current Public Procurement Law has some shortcomings, this does not prevent a contracting authority to develop procedures in a professional manner and that the municipal authorities should pay more attention to non-discrimination of economic operators.

On the other hand, Afrim Demiri, a journalist said that there should be investments in the procurement office capabilities and professionalism and that this office has often fallen prey to pressures from outside and even qualified as a black hole. He went on to say that the procurement office should report directly to the Municipal Assembly and in terms of project implementation should pay attention to the supervision of the activity based the signed contract.

Gazmend Rexhepi from INPO, in the context of the supervision of the implementation of projects said that it is evidenced that the Municipality of Ferizaj has more employees than it should, therefore, it should engage its employees in supervision of works and make sure they are done properly.

Gjakova, July 16, 2014 – Today, FOL Movement has organized a roundtable discussion in Gjakova on the topic “Public procurement activities in the first six months of the year.” During this meeting was presented a report with summarized statistics on procurement activities initiated by Gjakova municipality.

Participants in this meeting were the Mayor of Gjakova, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, Acting Director Jalal of procurement, Xhelal Halilosmani, assembly members of various political parties and representatives of civil society and media. Kenan Tora from FOL Movement said that the purpose of that meeting was to discuss the possible problems and irregularities that might go with the development of public procurement procedures in Gjakova Municipality. He further went on with the findings of the report of the municipality stating that during the first 6 months of this year Gjakova Municipality has announced 28 contract notices, 14 notices of contract award, 14 cancellation notices and 1 cancellation of the award, whereas the PRB has taken a decision against Gjakova Municipality by returning a procurement activity in re-evaluation. Regarding the problems that are generally present in public procurement, he stressed the problem of non-standardization of the drafting process of the tender dossier, exceptionally low prices, non-coordination between different institutions and non-professionalism of evaluation committees.

Later spoke the Mayor of the Municipality of Gjakova, Kusari-Lila, who said that the findings of FOL Movement’s report in general are sustainable since these problems are present in public procurement. She went on to mention the tender which was disputable in the PRB, because the price is exceptionally low, where in the economic operator’s complaining bid there are units priced with 0.0001 euro which makes no sense at all. Kusari-Lila further said that the Public Procurement Law needs to be amended because it leaves room for interpretation in many areas and since she came to power has tried her best to separate public procurement from political governance at the local government and thus to prevent political influence in the process.

The acting director of procurement Halilosmani in meantime said that they tried to consist a committee by professional and asking each department or unit to carry the responsibility for drafting the specifications so that they are more professional.

On the other hand, Arbërie Nagavci, municipality assembly member from Self-Determination Movement said there must be done more in order that the committee members be professional and not be influenced whether by businesses or politics, because it is directly harming public money.

July 04 2014. FOL Movement considers that with the parliamentary elections held on June 8, Kosovo has managed to show progress in organizing elections. But the post-election process has plunged the country into a political setback in constitution of the main state bodies.
In accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court, FOL Movement calls the political forces that after the certification of election results to quicken the establishment of parliament and government in order to avoid any institutional vacuum.

We consider that referring to the decision of the Constitutional Court, it should be proceeded with the next steps to avoid the necessary for other new elections. The credibility of these elections can be preserved only if this process is concluded with the establishment of the new parliament and government.

Kosovo needs a Parliament, a Government and a Prime Minister
Through the performances, FOL wants to draw attention regarding the degradation of the process and the political class. According to this, FOL tries to remind to all potential candidates for Prime Minister, the failures they have been facing. Therefore, FOL proposes that all the contestants may be elected as Prime Minister in relation with specific areas such as: Hashim Thaci for Energy, Isa Mustafa for Local Governance Spatial Planning, Albin Kurti for Implementation of Brussels Treaty, Ramush Haradinaj for Infrastructure, and Fatmir Limaj for fighting Corruption and Organized Crime.

FOL Movement 5th Anniversary – Newsletter

 
FOL Movement 5th Anniversary – Newsletter

Prishtina, 25 June 2014 -Today, FOL Movement marks the fifth anniversary of its foundation. Faced with many challenges in its functioning and sustainability, today FOL has managed to advance its mission in promotion of good governance, law enforcement and advancement of active citizenry. Today FOL Movement is considered the leading organization in promotion of the fight against corruption, transparency and accountability of public institutions in Kosovo.

During this 5 years, FOL Movement has realized over 290 public activities, among them 54 different publications (Reports and Analysis), 67 press conferences, 57 roundtables in central and local level, we have coordinated 10 joint statements of Civil Society, we had 33 public reactions, we have signed nine understanding memorandums with institutions of central and local level in the area of ​​access to justice and public procurement. We have organized 7 National Debate Tournaments “Karl Popper”. We have organized the Summer Camp 2012 with young volunteers of FOL, we have realized the Declaration and Comparative Platform of the assets of Senior Public Officials have we also launched the Anti-Corruption Statistical Platform as the only platform not only in Kosovo but also in the region that measures the performance of institutions in the fight against corruption. With the aim of advancing the level of active citizenry FOL has conducted a series of street performances through which has reacted against various phenomena and events that relate to the organization’s mission. We have also organized the campaign Accountability Test in eight municipalities of Kosovo, public consultations regarding the process of Kosovo’s membership in OGP and the campaign FOL’s Week in different villages of Kosovo. Since 2009, FOL Movement has awarded five civil awards.

FOL Movement has initiated and co-coordinated the process of Kosovo’s membership in the Open Governance Partnership – OGP and since January this year, FOL has become a member of the Anti-Corruption Convention of the United Nations – UNCAC Coalition representing Europe Region in Committee Coordination of this coalition.

FOL is committed to continue with all its powers on its efforts and contributions to bring the institution closer to the citizen, to decrease corruption in the country, as well as to enhance the transparency and accountability of public institutions in spending the state budget.

On the occasion of the 5th anniversary, FOL Movement has prepared the bulletin which contains a number of major activities carried out during these years. For more click here!

FOL Movement in this 5th annual thanks all the members of the Advisory Board, the members of the Assembly of FOL, activists and supporters, media and donors for their help and great support they have provided over these years.

FOL will always speak up for public interest!

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.