Pristina, 05 December 2012 – FOL has been attending with concern the developments regarding the publication of several surveillance videos of some politicians. Besides the vocabulary, entirely non-political and non – institutional that we heard from officials on the tapes, insulting citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, denigrating the media and threatening the country’s higher institutions, we have also seen a lack of responsibility in relation to the development of processes and policies of these officials. Such communication by public officials continues to impact negatively on the credibility that citizens should have in public institutions.

Being faced with an unprecedented scandal in Kosovo, the Kosovo Government approves the draft law on wiretaps. The approval of this law, in the current situation, clearly shows that these institutions and those public officials do not have the will to protect people from possible tapping, but only themselves and in this way cover their scandals.

As a reminder of this, Movement FOL has proposed since April 2009 drafting such a law, due to the fact that at that time tapping the people of Kosovo were present and it was an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty about what institutions offered at the time. Despite meetings and explanations that we had done, since it was not a problem of the Government of Kosovo, which means that the public officials were not being tapped, had ignored our request. And now when these officials have been the subjects of tapping, the Government is hasting to draft the law. Same, like 3 years ago, the Government of Kosovo lacks the seriousness in relation to citizens and institutions.
Therefore, being a sensitive situation for the safety of the citizens of Kosovo, FOL requires that the draft law on tapping should undergo a broad public debate before it goes to the Assembly. Movement FOL also requires accountability and responsibility of officials involved in these scandals, as the tapping in question have seriously damaged the credibility of public institutions and the integrity of the state of Kosovo.

Pristina, 11 November 2012 – Movement FOL published the report ‘Corruption Monitor’, which includes all institutional activities taken in the fight against corruption for the period of three months from July to September 2012. This report shows that public institutions iare very passive n preventing and fighting corruption.

The Kosovo Assembly is not shown at all productive in preventing and fighting corruption. From 8 plenary sessions held in total, in none of them was discussed the extent of corruption in public institutions, indicating it as the most passive institution in the fight against corruption. For further details see:
http://levizjafol.org/images/uploads/files/Monitoruesi_i_korrupsionit_%28Korrik_Gusht_Shtator%29.pdf

October 28, 2012 – Movement FOL published the analysis ” The Impact of Government Decisions in the Fight Against Corruption 2010-2011″. Researcher of FOL Movement, Armend Mazreku, said the policy brief highlights the impact of government main decisions in the fight against corruption that have been approved over the years 2010 and 2011.

“From 2008 until now, the main priority of Thaci’s government was said to be fighting and preventing corruption. However, the reason why it is repeated so many times is because fighting corruption has never been a priority of this government. If fighting corruption would be indeed a priority of this government, the level of corruption in public institutions would become very low and Kosovo will not be ranked as the most corrupt country in Europe “, he said.

This policy brief demonstrates a lack of seriousness of the Government issuing consistent decisions in the area of preventing and fighting corruption. The six decisions analysed, two issued to consolidate the institutional framework and four to complete the anti-corruption legal framework, show a general lack of the impact that they should have to reduce the level of corruption in public institutions.

Full Report:
http://levizjafol.org/al/aktivitetet/artikulli/hulumtim_politikash_vendimet_e_qeverise_qe_nuk_luftuan_korrupsionin

This policy research reveals a lack of seriousness of the Government to issue sustainable decisions regarding prevention and fighting corruption. The six analyzed decisions, two issued to consolidate …

 
Policy Brief: The Impact of Government Decisions in the Fight Against Corruption 2010-2011

October 18, 2012 – Movement FOL held a press conference, and published Procurement Monitor report for the period July to September 2012.
Movement FOL researcher, Armend Mazreku, stated that the report “Procurement Monitor” includes law irregularities and violations committed by Ministries, Municipalities and Public Enterprises (PTK & KEK) in the area of public procurement. “The data in this report show the continuity of law violations and irregularities committed by the institutions and public enterprises in procurement activities during this three – month period,” said Mazreku.
Meanwhile, Kenan Tora, coordinator at Movement FOL said that during the three months period that we report about, the champion of legal violations is PTK, committing offenses in 4 tenders.

In this period, the above-mentioned institutions have committed violations in 18 different tenders. “From these 18 tenders, PRB returned 11 tenders for re-evaluation, 5 were returned for re-tendering and 1 procurement activity has been cancelled due to the request of the contracting authority for another tender, the contracting authority was sentence, “said Tora.

According to him, the ministries have violated the law of public procurement in 4 different tenders; the Ministry of the Kosovo Security Force has committed offenses in 2 different procurement activities, while the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1 procurement activity and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1 procurement activity.

“Public Enterprises (KEC and PTK) during this period did not comply with procurement procedures in accordance with the law in 7 different tenders. PTK has violated the law in 4 different procurement activities, KEC in 3 ” said Tora.
Tora stated that municipalities have committed offenses in 7 different tenders. Kamenica, Ferizaj, Gjakova, Lipjan, Suhareka violated law in1 tender, and Peja violated the law in 2 different tenders.

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October 7, 2012 – Movement FOL published the analysis “Abuses in Public Procurement” an analysis on abuses of the public authority in the area of public procurement.
This analysis also includes the functionality or non-functionality of institutions in order to fight these abuses. The analysis also provides recommendations for improvement of the situations.

According to this analysis, a major concern is the dependence of public procurement officials on political parties. They are appointed, act and indeed are supervised by political parties. This connects corruption directly with political parties, and as a consequence the fight against corruption remains fully in their political will.

All recommendations of this analysis, in order to improve the situation, are dependent on political will. FOL recommends organizational reforms in the central administrative bodies in the area of public procurement.

Due to a confusing structure of the functioning of anti-corruption institutions, there is a great risk of creating some institutional addresses regarding this issue. This confuses people who may not be clear what is the right address for fighting this phenomenon. In this context, such an action is avoiding institutional responsibility. For further details see: http://levizjafol.org/images/uploads/files/ANALIZ%C3%8B_P%C3%8BR_SHP%C3%8BRDORIMIN_ME_AUTORITETIN_PUBLIK_N%C3%8B_FUSH%C3%8BN_E_PROKURIMIT_PUBLIK.pdf

Prishtina, September 28, 2012 – September 28 is the International Day (informal) of the right to know or access to official information. The international right to know began on 28 September 2002. On this day, organizations around the world work together to promote the right of access to official information by strengthening transparency and accountability. Mexhide Demolli Nimani, Media Office Coordinator stated that Movement FOL has traditionally respected this date with different activities. “This year, FOL , in order to analyse the level of implementation of the law on access to public documents, in September began the campaign” Accountability Test “. During this campaign, FOL has communicated directly with citizens in the 8 municipalities of Kosovo, providing assistance to interested citizens to make requests for access to public documents, “said Demolli Nimani.

According to her, part of this campaign was a non-standardized survey, the purpose of which was to collect information on citizens’ experience regarding the use of public services, ie access to public documents at central and local level institutions.

Meanwhile Jetmira Bajrami, coordinator at Movement FOL, said that the non-standardized survey includes 274 citizens. “Although the majority of respondents (53.6%) answered that they know of the existence of the Law on Access to Public Documents, the level of knowledge about the content of the law is extremely deficient,” said Bajrami.

The survey findings show that the level of interest of citizens to make requests for access to public documents is very low. “Only 22.2% of them stated that they had made such requests to institutions, while 77.3% stated that they have never made such requests. Most of these requests are made at the municipal level: 98.3% of people stated that they had made the requests in their municipalities, and only 1.6% of them had applied to the central level. About 60.6% of these requests that were made by the citizens of Kosovo never received a response from the institutions, compared with 39.3% of the cases that have received a response. In these responses, 58.3% of the cases were positive response, 8.3% were negative and 33.3% of cases, institutions have allowed partial access.
In addition to the implementation of the survey, Mexhide Demolli Nimani said that during this campaign were made 123 requests for access to public information in accordance with the Law on Access to Public Documents. “The number of requests received by the municipalities of Kosovo is: Mitrovica-19, Prizren-15, Gjakova-14, Podujeva-15, Ferizaj-15, Gjilan-15, Kamenicë-15, Peja-14, the Ministry of Education, Science and technology – 1, “. For further details see: http://levizjafol.org/images/uploads/files/Raporti_Testi_i_Pergjegjshmerise-2.pdf

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Prishtina, 14 September 2012 – Movement FOL, had a meeting with the Head of the Kosovo Judicial Council, Mr. Enver Peci. At the meeting they discussed the state of the judicial system in our country. Both sides agreed that cooperation between civil society and Kosovo Judicial Council is necessary. In this meeting was signed the Memorandum of Cooperation between FOL and KJC, which enables access to monitor proceedings against corruption.

Thanks to this memorandum, FOL will monitor all trials at all stages of criminal proceedings, dealing with corruption and abuse of official position, taking bribery, giving bribery, and all other violations in the area of public procurement, and transparency in spending public money.

This memorandum expresses the good will of both parties to improve the transparency and accountability of the judicial system in Kosovo institutions and increase their efficiency in the fight against corruption.

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FOL Newsletter (January- May 2012)

 
FOL Newsletter (January- May 2012)

Prishtina, 11 September 2012 – This year Movement FOL has organized various activities related to transparency as a key point in the development of democracy in Kosovo.
Movement FOL, since its establishment, part of its commitments has been the promotion of transparency and accountability of public institutions. In this context, Movement FOL began the campaign “Accountability Test” on Monday which will last from 10 to 28 September. During this campaign, FOL will be in nine municipalities of Kosovo, assisting citizens to apply for Access to Public Documents at municipal and central level.

On Monday, September 10, Movement FOL’s staff was in Mitrovica filling dozen of requests and questionnaires about the access to public documents. Requests addressed to Mitrovica later were sent to the municipality, and responses are expected within the time provided by law, whereas the requests addressed to the central institutions, by citizens of Mitrovica will be sent once collected from other municipalities as well.

The data derived from the completed questionnaires will be published in a report, which will be published after the end of the campaign. During this three-week period FOL has been in the following municipalities:

Mitrovica, Prizren, Gjakova, Peja, Prizren, Gjilan, Kamenica, Podujeva, Prishtina.

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Prishtina, 10 September 2012 – Movement FOL has congratulated the citizens and institutions of the Republic of Kosovo for the work they have done regarding the fulfilment of obligations in order to complete the conclusion of the supervision of independence. By this stage of supervision, through which Kosovo went through, most of the people are disappointed for the lack of results in particular: the extent of authority in the North, economical development, as well as the independence and strengthening of the justice system.

Completion of the supervision of independence should increase the accountability to the citizens of Kosovo and in no way find other addresses to justify failures. After September 10, 2012, national institutions can no longer hide behind internationals for domestic policy failures and this is a special opportunity to witness the maturity of the state of Kosovo.

September 9, 2012 – Movement FOL has presented five statements of state leaders with Truth-o Meter. Check the link to read the statements: http://levizjafol.org/al/aktivitetet/artikulli/matesi_i_se_vertetes3

Pristina, September 5, 2012 – Movement FOL, published online the platform of the declaration and comparison of assets of senior public officials.
This platform is integrated into the website of Movement FOL (http://levizjafol.org/al/deklarimet), and which enables: a) Automatic declaration and comparison of the assets of senior public officials, b) Inclusion of Kosovo citizens actively through comments and facts that they have regarding the statements of certain officials, and c) Through this platform and through the facts to come in the coming days we will initiate procedures to amend the law on declaration, in order to include investigation of the property when there are certain doubts.

The platform includes 224 senior public officials, where for each individually Kosovo citizens can compare the statements of assets and also comment on them for each category declared. Comments that will be provided in the platform after a certain period of time will be sent to the Anti-Corruption Agency and the State Prosecution Office, in order to start an investigation about the declarations that eventually are not accurate or about high level of the differences from a year to another without any reasonable explanation.

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About 40 volunteers participating in this camp will be from three different municipalities; Prishtina, Gjakova and Podujeva. Participants will be young people who are active and influential in their organizations, councils and youth clubs in their respective municipalities so that the knowledge gained while attending the camp will be transmitted to the young people of the municipalities they come from.

The camp program will be based on 4 modules: State and Elections, Judiciary, Media and NGO / Street Theatre.

The purpose of the camp is to support and strengthen active citizenry in Kosovo as the best way to advance democracy and increase the accountability of public institutions towards citizens. Accountability and transparency are the best ways to fight corruption and abuse of public authority.
Volunteer Summer Camp 2012 is organized by Movement FOL and supported by Charless Mott Foundation

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Prishtina, August 4, 2012 – Today, Movement FOL has published its report ‘Corruption Monitor’, which includes all institutional activities undertaken in the fight against corruption for six-month from January to June 2012.

According to the findings of this report we find out that “a larger geographical extent of corruption is in Prishtina – with 50 cases in prosecutions of the country, then Peja with 19 cases; Gjilan with 10; Prizren with 7; Ferizaj with 8; and Gjakova with 4 cases.
Meanwhile, the prosecutors that were not successful in the fight against corruption are: district and municipal prosecution of Mitrovica, and Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo, which in the first half of this year did not raise even one single charge.

According to this report nearly the same are the municipal courts of Kosovo, which during this period have solved 64 cases: 36 in the context of abuse of official position, 10 in category of Taking Bribe and 18 in Giving Bribe. Meanwhile, at the end of the reporting period there are 187 cases unsolved: 126 in the category of Abuse of official position, 40 in category of Accepting Bribes and 21 in Giving Bribe.

FOL , within this report also published the statistics of the Department for Investigation of Economic Crimes and Corruption (DIECC), which shows that the Kosovo Police in the first six months of 2012 has conducted investigations in 95 Cases, 28 various public officials have been arrested, 69 Cases have been sent to the Prosecution with identified perpetrators, 1 case with unknown perpetrators (N / N), and 9 other cases with special prosecutor’s report.

Movement FOL concludes that the executive of the country has not demonstrated the will to fight corruption and prevent it in public institutions. Among the 180 decisions taken, according this report, only 4 of them have been in the “fight” against corruption: a) the approval of the Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2012-2016, b) establishment of the Executive Committee “Governance” (which will be focused on anti-corruption policies), and c) approval of the Anti-Corruption Agency’s request for dismissal of Mr. Elez Hajdaraj, a member of the Board of Directors of “Hidrodrini”, Sh.A. Peja and d) approval of another request of ACA for dismissal of Mr. Ismajl Jonuzi, member of the Board of Directors of the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK).

According to the report neither the Assembly of Kosovo was more productive in preventing and fighting corruption. From 29 plenary sessions held , only in two of them was discussed about the fight “against” corruption: a) Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2012-2016 and b) Annual Report of the Anti Corruption Agency (2011). Regardless the discussions in these two sessions, they had no impact on reducing the high level of corruption in the country.
Check this link for full report link: http://levizjafol.org/images/uploads/files/Monitoruesi_i_Korrupsionit_-_Raporti_Gjashtemujor_2012.pdf

Prishtina, August 2, 2012 – Today, Movement FOL held a press conference, presenting the report “Procurement Monitor” for April to June 2012 period. This report includes legal irregularities conducted by Ministries, Municipalities and Public Enterprise in the field of public procurement.
Programs Manager at Movement FOL, Fidan Kalaja, said that “the data in this report show ‘recidivism’ of many institutions and public enterprises in the legal violations committed during the procurement procedure.” According to him, “KEC leads this group, where during the first half of this year this company has committed offense in 6 different procurement activities, followed by PTK and the Ministry of Infrastructure in three tenders.”

Furthermore, Fidan Kalaja said that “during three-month period from April to June 2012, these institutions have committed violations in 13 different tenders.” He stressed that “among these 13 irregular tenders, we managed to find out their financial amount for only 4 of them, which turns out to be 2.6 million euro, an amount which potentially may have been misused.” However, the majority of other tenders are of great value, which according to the Procurement Law are tenders over 500 thousand euro.
Meanwhile, the Project Coordinator of the Movement FOL, Kenan Tora, said that “ministries have violated the provisions of public procurement in 4 tenders, the Ministry of Infrastructure has violated on two different procurement activities, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports in one procurement activity and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development in one procurement activity. “

Public Enterprises (KEC and PTK) have continued with violation even during this period, Kosovo Energy Corporation has committed violations in 3 procurement activities, while PTK have committed violations in two tenders.

Municipalities have committed violations in four procurement activities, the municipality of Gjilan, Viti, Ferizaj and Kamenica have committed violations in one procurement activity.
During the three-month period the daily papers have published a total of 62 different reports. Among them 21 journalistic research reports: 6 in April, 8 in May and 7 in June. Meanwhile, 41 of them have been published as breaking news: 13 in April, 23 in May and 5 of them in June.

This activity is funded by the project Democratic Society Promotion (DSP) – funded by the Swiss Cooperation Office in Kosovo (SCO-K) and managed by the Foundation for Civil Society (KCSF) and supported by the Civil Rights Defenders (CRD).

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Movement FOL after the establishment of the debating club in Gjakova continued expansion of the participating municipalities in the debate program with Podujeva. On Thursday, July 26, 2012 at the offices of the Department of Culture – Podujeva, was held a training on “Karl Popper” format debate for high school students, where initially we established 3 teams. The newly established debate clubs in the municipality of Podujeva will participate in debate tournaments which will be organized in the future. During the Friday, we also held a training for RAE young people and also a debate among young people in the municipality of Gjakova.

Movement FOL has re-turned the debate program in Kosovo, in 2009. The debate program currently is active in eight municipalities in Kosovo. Initially were involved three municipalities (Municipality of Prishtina, Peja and Ferizaj) whereas during 2011, the program has been extended to three other municipalities (Municipality of Suhareka, Malisheva and Mitrovica). Whereas in 2012 have been included the municipality of Prizren. Besides the inclusion of Gjakova, FOL movement aims to expand the program in other municipalities of Kosovo as well, in order to include as many as possible young people in the program of debate.

The debate is an exceptional opportunity for youth development and education. To achieve success in academic and school life, young people need to know how to express their ideas and how to respond to the arguments of others who they disagree with. In a democratic society debate expands students’ knowledge, ways to understand the political and social developments and to argue about issues which they believe in.

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Prishtina, July 26, 2012 – Today, Movement FOL sent a letter to the President, Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga, proposing for Kosovo’s membership in Open Government Partnership (OGP).
OGP is an international organization for promotion of open government. This initiative aims to provide concrete commitments by governments for transparency, strengthen active citizenship, in the fight against corruption and strengthen good governance of a country.

In this context, considering the low level of transparency in public institutions as one of the promoters of the high level of corruption in the country, Movement FOL requires President Jahjaga to accept this proposal and initiate Kosovo’s membership in this organization. FOL Movement expresses its readiness for cooperation and assistance in every phase of Kosovo’s membership in this organization.

The letter sent to president can be found in this link:

http://levizjafol.org/images/uploads/files/Propozimi_per_anetarsimin_e_Kosoves_ne_OGP.pdf

Prishtina, 24 July – On Tuesday, Movement FOL Advisory Board held its next meeting. FOL Movement staff and board members of the organization welcomed the new member of the Board, Astrit Gashi, and who was reported extensively on the work of the organization.
Then, the meeting continued with a discussion regarding the general ongoing of the organization, FOL’s engagements in the first half of this year and the work and planned activities that will be realized until the end of this year.

At this meeting, among the most important issues discussed was the draft strategy 2013-2015 of Movement FOL, and evaluation of the work of FOL Movement in relation to the impact on institutions and the public. The Board in this meeting agreed that both documents be discussed during this period more widely with the staff, members of the Board, Assembly members and friends of FOL in order to be an objective, consistent, comparable evaluation and which would be in the service of a more advanced work in the favour of organization’s mission.

Regarding this, the Board agreed that until the next meeting, which will be held by the end of September to address all recommendations, observations, suggestions and advices on the draft strategy and evaluation of the work of FOL.

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Prishtina, July 20, 2012 ” Today, Movement FOL held a press conference, publishing the report “Index of transparency in municipal level”, the purpose of this research was to evaluate the transparency of Kosovo Municipalities.
The Project Coordinator in Movement FOL Mexhide Demolli – Nimani, said that since this is a pilot project we have covered only four (4) municipalities: Gjakova, Podujeva, Prizren and Mitrovica. “The content of this report is based on the information gathered through a structured questionnaire, completed by each municipality during May-June 2012, and documents sent by these municipalities,” said Demolli-Nimani.

The Responsible officials for public information in Prizren have shown considerable knowledge, although not satisfactory, regarding the provisions of the Statute which aims to enforce the constitutional and legal provisions. Also in the Regulation for Transparency, the municipality has failed to explain what obligations, structures and specific resources provide it within the municipal structures. “The municipality has provided no explanation of the organizational structure of the office of information, and neither has drafted a policy document, implementation plan and annual work plan on public communication and information”, – she said, adding that ‘the press conferences’ is mentioned as the only activity in the municipality to inform the citizens of the right of access to municipal documents.

However, regarding the municipality of Mitrovica, information officers of this municipality have demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the provisions of the Statute, since they have listed all relevant provisions of the statute regulating access to official documents and citizen participation in decision making. “The situation seems slightly better regarding implementing measures, since this municipality has listed some of them: the transparency of the meetings of the Municipal Assembly and its committees, publication of the acts of the municipality, petitions, meetings with citizens, public consultation and access in official documents.”However, regarding the resources allocated for enforcement of the activities related to public communication and information, according to Demolli-Nimani, this municipality has given ” 10,000, allocated this year to publish a monthly magazine of the Municipality and some brochures.

Meanwhile, the local coordinator of the Movement FOL in Podujeva, Granit Thaci, said that Information Officers in the municipality of Podujeva showed satisfactory knowledge about the provisions of the Statute because they have provided all the legal provisions regulating the legal liability of the municipality for public communication and information. “Separating the documents, the sensitive ones and those that are accessible to the public Podujeva municipality has not provided any additional explanation, regarding the documents that are always accessible. Also, the budget allocated to this office, they stated that they have no budget for the office separately but within the budget of the Office of the Mayor and did not mention any concrete amount, “

The Coordinator of Movement FOL for the municipality of Gjakova, Drenusha Mula said that the office staff for public information showed insufficient knowledge about the provisions of the Statute, they only referred to the Statute, but did not provide the content of the provisions of the Statute regulating the legal responsibility for public communication and information. According to Mula, the mentioned officials have cited Regulation for Transparency but did not explain what obligations, structures and specific resources within municipal structures this regulation provides. “Performance Evaluation in Gjakova municipality is conducted on semi-annual and annual basis, but it is not clear what sort of standard of internal reporting and monitoring and evaluation work can be. Meanwhile, information officers have stated that they did not perform any additional activities for public communication and information regarding the access to public documents, “

Recommendations of this report:
” As the findings of this public policy study shows, municipalities are in the initial stage of completion and implementation of legislation and local policies that allow public access to their public documents and other measures to improve their transparency and accountability to the public.
” It is recommended that municipalities should review their statutes to ensure the reflection of the obligations arising from laws and regulations within the powers and responsibilities of their offices which are responsible for public communication and information.
” It is recommended that municipalities also focus on further development of these regulations, focusing on the elimination of ambiguities and inconsistencies with the framework legislation, more precise and comprehensive definition on the issues that aim to regulate.
” It is recommended that municipalities take action in terms of human capacity building for these offices to ensure that staff responsible for public communication and information knows in details the legal provisions and policies required to implement, and improve capacities to implement them.
” Development of Organizational Structure / Organogram, Terms of References and Job Descriptions of offices responsible for public communications and information and their staff;
” Development of annual work plans of the offices responsible for public communication and information, which will contain clear objectives and detailed activities to achieve them, and
” Development of database of information on communication and cooperation with non-government actors, particularly media and civil society organizations, which would allow making a clear statement about the purpose and types of activities to communicate and cooperate with each of them.

The full report can be read in this link:
http://levizjafol.org/images/uploads/files/Transparenca_e_Komunave_2012_Raport_FINAL.pdf

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