Prishtina, December 4, 2011 ” Today movement FOL presented its analysis on “The weaknesses of the Anti-Corruption Strategy 2009-2011”.
Executive Director of the Movement FOL Petrit Zogaj, said that “the high level of corruption in the country is harming the interests of the citizens of Kosovo”. Further, he claimed that the report of Transparency International confirms that the institutions did not fight corruption, for Kosovo is ranked two places below.
Meanwhile, policy researcher in this movement, Armend Mazreku, said that “anti-corruption strategy 2009-2011” has been very little a strategy, but worse than that, it was even less in the fight against corruption “. Further, he stated that “even this strategy was drafted within the model of bad governance, which consists only in having these strategies, but not implementing them.”

Furthermore, Mr. Mazreku said that “the strategy was characterized by multiple vulnerabilities, thus, it didn”t reduce corruption in public institutions.”
According to the findings of this analysis the main weaknesses that have accompanied the anti-corruption strategy 2009-2011 are: lack of studies, research and preliminary reports on the characteristics, nature and causes of corruption, the lack of involvement of civil society in the drafting of Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2009-2010; a comprehensive approach: discrepancy between Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2009-2011; the lack of seriousness in determining time of anti-corruption measures and their financial costs, the lack of supervision of implementation of Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2009 -2011 by the Anti Corruption Agency and, insufficient implementation of objectives and operational measures against corruption.
However, this analysis addresses the following recommendations as well: Preliminary researches should be conducted on the characteristics, nature and causes of corruption in Kosovo: An integrated analysis of the anti-corruption legislative package should be conducted; identifying sectors that are most affected by corruption – with particular attention on public procurement; defining objectively the deadline of implementation of concrete actions provided by Action Plan: Defining the approximate financial cost to implement the measures provided by Anti-corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2012-2016; strengthen the supervision of Anti-corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2012-2016 by the Anti-corruption Agency and Civil, Promotion of the Strategy as a strategic document – so that, all institutional policies, and especially government ones, to originate from such a strategic document.

Monitoring Report on Institutional Activities in the Fight Against Corruption September-October 2011

 
Corruption Monitor for September-October 2011

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

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

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

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

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

Statement: “No one ordered me to retreat”. This statement of mine is valid till 1st of November, until the time when we wait for the working groups to define the achieved deals. “

Author: Bajram Rexhepi, Minister of Internal Affairs.
Date: 13th of November 2011
Evaluation: FALSE

Reasoning: Not only in the Northern part, but in the whole territory of Kosovo, Serbian citizens keep challenging the state of Kosovo. Not far away from Prishtina, there are cars with Kosovo cities car plates but released in Serbia, Minister of Internal Affairs Bajram Rexhepi, which warned the confiscation of those car plates after the 1st of November, made another tolerance for Serbs, giving them another deadline at least until 31st of December. Delaying a deadline because he was unable to fulfill his promises. “

“”

“Statement: “” This will put an end to decision of 20th July for banning the imports from Serbia. Recognizing the custom seals is a start of recognizing Kosovo from Serbia. On 16th of September, in the border crossings with Serbia, in the Northern part, Kosovo customs will start functioning.

Author: Hashim Thaçi, Prime minister
Date: 7th of September 2011″
Evaluation: FALSE”

Reasoning: Kosovo customs in the border with Serbia are useless and are not working, the way that the Prime Minister Thaçi promised. Even though it cannot be seen publicly, Kosovo customs officials can go there and don”t have anything to do, because 2 months after this promise, borders with Serbia remain closed. Only in other custom points there is a development of trade but it is disproportional and it is in the benefits of Serbia.

“”

“””Statement: “After 25th of July, Kosovo has taken under its control even 30% of the territory that they didn”t have before”.
”
Author: Adem Grabovci- PDK”s whip.
Date: 25th of July 2011.
Evaluation: FALSE”

Reasoning: Prishtina continues not having sufficient control on the north, and let alone of the whole territory that includes 30% of Northern part of Mitrovica, also Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan. The statement of the PDK whip, Grabovci, it is completely false because there is no presence of Republic of Kosovo”s institutions in the municipalities that are controlled from illegal parallel structures of Serbia. This is another false statement with the attempt of deceiving the citizens of Kosovo.

“”

“””Statement: “Agreements will start applying from the 1st of November 2011. From this date the law is going to be executed in the whole territory of Kosovo and the parallel structures are going to be eliminated, and the citizens will be able to move freely. The agreement for recognition of custom seals is very important in the political plan also in the economical and regional cooperation plan. With this agreement there is a mutual recognition in between Republic of Kosovo and Serbia in customs field.
”
Author: Edita Tahiri”
Date: 3rd of July, 2011″
Evaluation: FALSE

“”Reasoning: Parallel Structures in Kosovo are stronger than ever, they are playing the tough guy and are controlling the northern part. The promise in July of Deputy-Prime Minister, Edita Tahiri, seemed more like a desire than reality, as it is proved from the situation in the place. There is no freedom of movement in a considerate part of the territory and the situation hasn”t improved, but it has worsened from the time of the promise of the Deputy-Prime Minister Tahiri. From the recognition of customs seals without the logo of Republic of Kosovo the only one benefiting is Serbia.

“”

“”Statement: “If this political party takes the governing after the elections of 12th of December , Kosovo in September of the next year will be a member of the United Nations, UN”.
”
Author: Behgjet Pacolli”
Date: 25th of November 2010
“Evaluation: FALSE

“””Reasoning: This was the most scandalous pre-election promise. Pacolli promised membership of Kosovo in UN with 1 year of his party in power. AKR entered the government as a small partner of the coalition, and Pacolli once was President and more Deputy -Priminister, and still Kosovo misses more than 20 Recognitions just to try the membership in the UN. Inner competition for recognitions mostly has resulted counter-productive.

Prishtina, November 18, 2011 –  Movement FOL consequently for the second year has conducted a public policies research. Similarly with the study in 2010, this study evaluates the transparency of institutions and public enterprises operating in Kosovo. This year movement FOL was focused primarily on the progress made since last year’s study in the functioning of the internal structures of institutions and public enterprises that are responsible for issues of communication and public information, of course evaluating the same issues like in the previous report. Thus, this study focuses on the level that institutions and public enterprises have developed the capacity of their formal structures to ensure their full and effective implementation of constitutional and legal provisions guaranteeing the right of citizens to access public documents, respectively, communication and public information, in order to strengthen transparency and accountability to the public.

During today’s press conference was published the analysis “Transparency Index of Institutions and Public Enterprises in Kosovo II” in 2011. The analysis focuses on the implementation of the Law on Access to Public Documents, by the Offices of Public Communication in the respective institutions.
Director of Movement FOL Petrit Zogaj, said that “the questionnaire was sent to 32 public institutions, 16 of them responded, only 1 was ranked as an open institution, Kosovo Customs, respectively, Office of Public Communications. According to our study this office is estimated to be the most transparent and open regarding: institutions, media, civil society and citizens. This office got 93 points out of 100. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communities and Returns, according to our assessment has taken 24 points out of 100, ranking it as the most closed institution. “

Please find in the chart below the ranking of the institutions

Transparency Index of Institutions and Public Enterprises (ranking for 2010 and 2011 ” comparative review):
NO. INSTITUTION/PUBLIC ENTERPRISE INDEX TREND
2010 2011
1. Kosovo Customs (KC) 90 93
2. Ministry of Local Administration (MAL) 47 55
3. Kosovo Privatization Agency (KPA) N/A 55 N/A
4. Ministry of Health (MH) N/A 55 N/A
5. Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo (ARK) 53 50.5
6. Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) 69 48
7. Ministry of European Integrations (MEI) N/A 48 N/A
8. Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC) N/A 45.5 N/A
9. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) 62 45
10. Prime Minister”s Office (PMO) 41.5 42.5
11. Post and Telecommunication of Kosovo (PTK) 43 42.5
12. Ombudsman Institution (OI) N/A 39 N/A
13. Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP) N/A 39 N/A
14. Ministry of Justice (MJ) N/A 29.5 N/A
15. Ministry of Economical Development (MED) N/A 24.5 N/A
16. Ministry of Communities and Return (MCR) N/A 24 N/A

Prishtina, November 12, 2012 – Today, the citizens of Kosovo will be taken over by the news of the inauguration of the first segment of highway Vermicë-Merdare. Certainly, the main protagonist of the ceremony will be Prime Minister, who will give long speeches on the major project that this government has invested and how this project has employed thousands of unemployed and have boosted the country’s economic development.

This will be in the continuance of successive statements of the rhetoric of government Thaci 1, which has continues with the government Thaci 2, how this is national project, that the critics of this project are against the road of the nation, who do not like the development of Kosovo, who do not want the creation of new jobs and such accusations, trying to overcome entirely the transparency of this project.
However, since the beginning, this project has been completely closed to the taxpayers of the country, civil society and media. Although investment in this project will continue to take more than half the capital investment for the next two years, its construction contract has never been made public, including funding sources, the final costs, timing and process of supervision of the works, setting track and the process of expropriation.
Movement FOL support capital investments in infrastructure, but it is against investment which are kept closed, non-transparent and non-accountable to citizens and institutions.

Prishtina, 11 November 2011– Movement FOL, has organized a press conference presenting the report “Procurement Monitor” for the period July ” September 2011. This publication is made in the context of many activities that FOL movement has organized regarding public procurement since March of this year. The findings of this report are based on the monitoring of procurement system of Kosovo institutions, respectively, the data obtained by directly monitoring of contracting authorities, researches, decisions of the PRB and the media.

Program Manager at Movement FOL, Fidan Kalaja, during the conference stated that “during this reporting period there were several developments in the area of procurement. In August of this year, Kosovo’s government has approved a new law on public procurement, which was approved by Parliament and become applicable with the enactment of the Presidency of the Republic of Kosovo “. According to him, it is disappointing that “this law does not contain any positive change in terms of increasing transparency and accountability of procurement procedures.” He stressed that “the findings of this analysis show that the new law on public procurement has not reduced bureaucracy, by not responding to article 120 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, by not providing transparency, accountability and efficiency in spending public money.”

During this period the Ministry of Internal Affairs was searched and there were arrests connected with investigations into corruption and misconduct in the procurement of this ministry. But, Fidan Kalaja said that “investigations of misconduct in public procurement should be intensified and produce concrete results considering the high level of corruption in this sector”. In this context, “the situation of procurement in the Ministry of Health is alarming, where the concerns raised by Movement FOL regarding misuses in this ministry are ignored by the institutions while allowing continuation of misuses and corruption just like before with the tenders of the Ministry,” he concluded.

Project Coordinator, Armend Pajaziti presented the findings of this report. He said that during this reporting period July-September “The Government has violated the law in 12 different tenders.” Also, the Procurement Review Body – PRB has fined the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, and has threatened to fine the Ministry of Health for failing to respect the decisions of the PRB. According to him, “the trend of legal malpractice and violations continued in public enterprises PTK and KEC, which indicates that these enterprises have not shown willingness to prevent abuses and violations that are occurring in the procurement of these enterprises.” “It is concerning that during this period, the municipalities have committed violations in 14 different tenders, which constitutes the largest number of violations compared to the violations that municipalities have committed in the previous period,” said Armend Pajaziti.
During this conference, Movement FOL offered recommendations that would increase the level of transparency of these procedures and will prevent abuse and corruption that is taking place in public procurement in Kosovo.

This policies research is the second, the first one was done last year. This research, likewise the research of 2010 evaluates the transparency of institutions and public enterprises operating in Koso…

 
Institutonal transparency Index 2011

Prishtina, October 30, 2011-Two days ago, Movement FOL has published its comparative report on declaration of the property of senior public officials for 2010-2011. However, after the publication of this report, the (Anti-) Corruption Agency, through an announcement for media has reacted, mentioning some “logical and mathematical errors that this report contains”.

In this sense, movement FOL public wishes to clarify that the two matters that the Agency has addressed are false and unstable:
1. Regarding the declaration of the property of the Agency’s head, Mr. Hasan Preteni. Based on the Law on Declaration, Origin and Control of Property of Senior Public Officials, respectively article 3, section 1.1.9, agency leaders should declare their property to the (Anti-) Corruption Agency. Thus, this article and this section include Mr. Preteni to declare his property to this institution. In the meantime, the Agency’s response was that Mr. Preteni declared his property to the Supervisory Parliamentary Commission of this institution. If so, how come Mr. Preteni declared his property in 2011 according to the law which became applicable in February 2010″ Therefore, it is illegal, for when the law on DOCPSPO became applicable, has abolished the legal provision of the previous law regarding the declaration of the officials of this institution. In this case, Mr. Preteni violated the provisions of this law, and therefore he should be publicly responsible.

2. The second issue that the Agency is suspicious about the report of Movement FOL is also declaration of the property of the President of Kosovo Assembly, Mr. Jakup Krasniqi. According to the forms that the Agency has published in its official website show clearly that Mr. Krasniqi has published the same property, but with different values for the years 2010 and 2011. (see attached the forms which are downloaded from its web site). Therefore, such a reaction, not only is in disfavour of the function of this mission, but rather contributes to further growth of corruption and its widespread in public institutions.
We appeal to the (Anti-) Corruption Agency, that instead of protecting officials who are involved in various corruption affairs, it is better to verify the origin of the property of these officials, who are harming the general interest of the citizens of our republic.

Prishtina, October 27, 2011-Movement FOL within the project “Fighting the Conflict of Interest”, is focused in the declaration of the property of senior public officials, this very sensitive area for these officials, who in most cases are reluctant to be transparent declaring their property. Movement FOL today published the report “Declaration of the property of the leaders of major public institutions in 2010 and 2011”.

In the property declaration in 2011, it is clearly noticed the tendency of senior public officials to represent the year as “barren” regarding the property they own, stating decline in their wealth. In this context, the director of the Movement FOL Petrit Zogaj, mentioned the case of Minister of Economic Development, Besim Beqaj, who in the declaration of the property for the year 2011 comes to about 1.4 million poorer than in the previous year, and according to the analysis of Movement FOL this “poverty” is a result of undeclared values of the same property declared for these two years. “Also, the property of the President of the Assembly of Kosovo, Jakup Krasniqi in 2011 appears to have decreased to around 533 thousand euros, and this decrease is the result of non compliance of the values for the same properties declared. The property of Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, in 2010 and 2011 was also compared who declared this year about 100 thousand fewer than in 2010. For this fall, Prime Minister did not give any explanations for its 100 thousand euros that are not listed in the category of savings.

Unlike these officials, this year has been more fortunate for the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Nenad Rasic, whose wealth has increased for 200 thousand euros more compared with 2010. Similar case, but with a drastic increase of wealth, has presented the General Commander of KSF, Sulejman Selimi, the difference of whose property is set to about 100 thousand euros only last year.

A special case is the case of the first deputy Prime Minister, Behgjet Pacolli, who in 2010, illegally asked not to declare his property.
During today’s press conference, where the report “The declaration of property of the leaders of major public institutions in 2010 and 2011”, was published, the director of the Movement FOL Petrit Zogaj, said, “it is required by the Anti – Corruption Agency, that the declaration of the property of public senior officials are verified for accuracy and the results of that verification be public for the citizens of Kosovo “. He further added that movement FOL will send a request to the Prosecution of Kosovo, in order to start investigations regarding the property of senior officials.

Mitrovica, 8-9 October 2011 – Movement FOL along with organization CBM from Mitrovica and in cooperation with organizations: Initiative for Progress (INPO)-Ferizaj, Malisheva Youth Center and Suhareka Youth Center organized the National Debate Tournament ‘Karl Popper’ – “Mitrovica Open 2011” on 8-9 October 2011 on the topic “debate on the minors”. ‘Karl Popper’ Debate aims to handle the essential elements of a controversial issue. It stresses above all the development of critical thinking, tolerance and appreciation of different views. This debate was developed in high schools.

Movement FOL with the support of SOROS/KFOS Foundation since January 2010 have worked together with partner organizations INPO, SIV and YIHR to establish debate clubs in town and to train club members in Karl Popper debate format. Meanwhile, since January this year the program was extended to three new cities in Mitrovica, Malisheva and Suhareka.

Currently in Kosovo there are 6 clubs in 6 municipalities, while the number of debaters from city high schools is constantly growing. Meanwhile, the debate club in Ferizaj city already formed teams with debaters of the community RAE.

On Saturday, October 08, during three rounds of debate were matched 16 teams from four municipalities in Kosovo: Ferizaj, Mitrovica, Malisheva and Suhreka. Meanwhile, quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals were held on Sunday. The semi-finals teams were four teams that have collected the most points based on the number of victories and points that have collected team”s speakers. On semi-finals debated these teams: Amazons from Ferizaj, Epigons from Malisheva, The MM Group and Wei8 from Mitrovica. On finals debated Epigons from Malisheva and Amazons from Ferizaj.
udges in this tournament were former debaters who have previously taken part in the “Karl Popper” debate. The judges who observed the finals of this tournament, announced the winner of this tournament Epigons from Malisheva.

The four resolutions as debate topics in this tournament were on minors, two of these resolutions were with limited preparation time while the two other resolutions, the debaters had the opportunity to prepare in advance.
The first resolution was: “In some cases, juveniles should be tried as adults”;
The second resolution was: “Females under 18 must have parental permission to abort”;
The third resolution was “religious education should be a school subject”;
The fourth resolution was “If a juvenile should be tried, there should be another juvenile in the jury.”
The tournament was held for two days at Gymnasium “Frank Bradhi”, while the finals was held at the Cultural Centre in Mitrovica.
This is the third tournament held in one of the respective municipalities while there were organized two other tournaments in the municipalities of Peja and Ferizaj also two national tournaments.

The debate program is supported by Kosovo Foundation for Open Society.

Prishtina, October 2, 2011 – Movement FOL, held a press conference on the occasion of the withdrawal from the Memorandum of Well-Understanding for monitoring the procurement procedures in the Ministry of Health, signed between Movement FOL and Ministry of Health on June 10, 2011 and the publication of a report on abuses in the procurement of this ministry. The reason for the withdrawal of Movement FOL from this memorandum was that this ministry, respectively the procurement office did not respect the agreement.

Program manager, Fidan Kalaja said, “Although movement FOL has tried consistently through constant communication, meeting twice with Minister Mr. Agani and informing him about the situation, it was impossible to succeed. Worse than that the minister did not answer about the concerns, doubts and facts that Movement FOL has addressed on its report about abuses that happened and are happening with this ministry tenders.”

According to Mr. Kalaja, “‘Occupation’ and ‘ownership’ of the Ministry of Health by the Secretary General Mr. Ilir Tolaj, through the chief of procurement Mr. Zenel Kuci, made this memorandum impossible to work by closing and isolating, non-transparency of procurement procedures in order to allow the continuation of chronic misuse of public money of the citizens of Kosovo, even risking their health through the bad qualitative and expired products.”
Mr. Kalaja concluded that “the attempt to use this memorandum to public opinion pretending that the Ministry of Health develops transparent and accountable procurement procedures deceiving citizens, media and civil society, today FOL Movement ends this agreement by providing and ensuring that FOL has continuously monitored this institution by preparing investigative researches regarding irregularities and misuses conducted by this ministry during the award of tenders and implementation of public contracts.

Project Manager, Armend Pajaziti, briefly presented the string of abuses that occurred in this ministry in 2011. He said that “management of drugs storage is made by company” Rimed “, which also participates in other tenders, which clearly presents conflict of interest. According to the information it is said that drugs are not managed well by this company and it is suspected that along with officials from the MH and other institutions, they false documents relating to the receipt / delivery of drugs, either when entering the store, or even when going from the store. “He further added that, “MH has awarded tenders even to high officials of this ministry, as it is the case with Mr. Hajrullah Fejza, who allegedly is involved in most of the frauds in the tenders of the MH and now he is known as “the merchant of tenders “. Although the Auditor General has noted that certain companies have supplied the MH with expired medicines, according to Armend Pajaziti the latter “has continued to reward the same company this year by further harming the state budget.”

Movement FOL will continue monitoring the procurement procedures of this ministry by undertaking and implementing such researches, will publish any misuse to be found and will be taken other steps to minimize these abuses.

Prishtina, 28 September 2011 -On the occasion of The International Day of the Right to Know, FOL Movement expresses its concern about the lack of transparency of the institutions in our republic. Kosovo institutions, unfortunately still continue to be closed for citizens of Kosovo.

Movement FOL has consistently required public institutions to be transparent about their decisions, activities and actions. However, our requests in most cases have been ignored, including other requests from civil society and media. An example was the constant demand of civil society for transparency of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, then the request to make public all expenditures of public money, then the request to some ministries to open up procurement offices, etc. FOL believes that this lack of transparency is one of the most serious threats of democratization processes that our country is facing.

Furthermore, the Kosovo government has not only been transparent in relation to citizens of Kosovo, but neither to the only democratic body in the country, the Assembly of Kosovo. In this sense, some parliamentarians often complained that regarding some issues they did not have the slightest idea what was going on, such as the case of highway construction contracts and negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, but that”s not all.

Precisely because of this lack of transparency of public institutions, FOL, last year has filed two complaints to the Municipal Court of Pristina because of the refusal of two applications by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Municipality of Prishtina, regarding making public the construction contract of the highway and access to real estate documents of some state leaders. Even after a year, FOL has not received any information about the status of these cases, which shows political influence in the judiciary.
Therefore, FOL requires institutions of the republic to be transparent and accountable to the citizens of Kosovo, since this is the minimum requirement of democracy.

Prishtina, September 25, 2011– Today Movement FOL held a press conference presenting its report Corruption’Monitor ‘, for the period July-August 2011. According to policy researcher, Armend Mazreku, “institutions, did not made any progress in fighting corruption”. Further, he stated that “despite the changes made in the context of anti-corruption legislation, there are still large legal gaps, which would further impede the intensification of institutional activities in the fight against corruption”.

The report shows that the Government of Kosovo during the two months (July-August) has approved a total of 88 (tetëdhjetetetë) decisions: 51 decisions in July, and 37 in August. In July were approved only 3 decisions against corruption, while in August it was even worse: with only one decision. Within these decisions are the draft-Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest, the Declaration, Origin and Control of property of Senior Public Officials, Protection of informants, and the one on financing political parties;

Assembly during two months (July and August) has held a total of 8 plenary sessions: 2 emergency sessions and 6 regular sessions. 7 were held in July and only 1 in August. In the plenary sessions of July were reviewed the draft laws on Protection of informers; Public Procurement, Declaration, Origin and Controll of the Property of Senior Public Officials; Prevention of Conflict of Interest and financing political parties;
Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC) has been very little productive during July. In the context of “official misconduct” 122 cases were unsolved at the beginning of the reporting period, one case has been filed, one case has been ongoing, and only 2 cases have been solved, while 121 cases are unsolved. In the context of “taking bribes” 20 cases were unsolved at the beginning of the reporting period, no cases have been solved, 30 cases have been ongoing, and 30 of them unsolve at the end of the reporting period. But in the context of “giving bribes” 14 cases were unsolved at the beginning of the reporting period, 2 cases have been filed, 16 cases were ongoing, only one case has been solved and 15 other cases remain unsolved;

Statistics of the Department of Investigation of Economic Crimes and Corruption (DECC) shows that in the months from July to August have been conducted 277 investigations: 151 cases in July and 126 in August. As a result of these investigations have been arrested 11 officials: 3 in July and 8 in August. Also, 142 cases were sent to the Prosecution: 73 cases in July and 69 other cases in August. From these cases 87 cases were sent to the prosecution with identified suspects, 5 cases with N / N suspects. Meanwhile, within the cases sent with prosecutor’s report were 50 cases: 21 cases were sent in July and 29 cases in August. Meanwhile the value of alleged damages is ” 1,226,300.00: “666,313.00 in July and ” 559.987.00 in August;
Kosovo Customs during two last months have announced 6 disciplinary actions. The whole 6 were in July and none in August. Within these 6 disciplinary actions 2 were written warning, 2 were ban of promotion, 1 recommendation for non-extension of the employment contract, and another case transfer to another assignement. Meanwhile, in the Professional Standards Division were 2 cases: 1 case in July for unprofessional conduct and another case in June for abuse of official duty.
Publication of this report is supported by the British Embassy in Pristina.

Prishtina, 23 September 2011-Today, Movement FOL held the procurement debate on the topic “The procurement process in the Ministry of Public Administration – Tender: Expenditure management system of vehicles” or known as GPS-s tender. This tender received media and institutions attention, including investigations by the Anti Corruption Agency, whose representatives were not present at the debate.
Policy Researcher at Movement FOL, Armend Mazreku, stated that “the purpose of this debate is to clarify the mess created in the award of the GPS tender, in order to obtain a more objective overview of the different attitudes of institutions involved in this procurement process.”

The Director of Procurement Department in the Ministry of Public Administration, Arton Berisha, said “this ministry after the evaluation of the GPS tender bids, received a complaint from the Anti-Corruption Agency, which has complained that the company PBC Kosova has forged documents, thus we, the procurement board, have canceled the tender, and then we have been critisized from our ministry for cancellation of this tender, since the Anti-Corruption Agency decisions are only advisory and should not be taken as final. Then we turned the tender for re-evaluation and the tender was awarded to the company PBC Kosova “.
Whereas the expert of Procurement Review Body, Besim Mulaj, who had investigated this case on the appeal of the company “Logistics Plus”, justifying his opinion and the Evaluation of the PRB announced the official decision which was made with manufacturing companies to verify the licenses that the company PBC had. He further stated that “the Anti-Corruption Agency has sent a letter accusing the PBC Kosovo Company that has madeforgery of documents and then sends a written memorandum stating that he was not filing any charges against anyone, and this is absurd to our opinion”, stressed Mr. Mulaj.

On the other hand, PBC Kosova company director, Gazmend Selmani said “when the bids were opened, and we were potentialy to win this tender, the competitive company has asked us to withdraw from the tender. I do notwant to suppose that ACA has been influenced by the complainant but there is a connection between this company and the letter of Anti-Corruption Agency. “Mr. Selmani in this debate presented various documents showing that there is nothing counterfeit in this tender. Further, he claimed that the device that they have offered has been more advanced than it was required in the tender. Such a claim has been confirmed also by the MPA Procurement Officer, Mr. Berisha.

GPS tender was awarded in 2010 and is still in implementation stage. Most of the official vehicles are already equipped with GPS and it is nearly completed the control center, which enables visual control and real-time location of official vehicles and the amount fuel refill. Mr. Selmani from PBC Kosova said that within 10 days it may also be technical acceptance of the contract.

Prishtina, 07 September 2011– It has been held the inaugural meeting of the Advisory Board of the Movement FOL, discusssing the general situation of the organization, including the election process in Movement FOL, semiannual report and financial one for the period January to June 2011, and attitudes the organization’s attitudes towards recent political developments in the country.

Executive Director of the Movement FOL Petrit Zogaj thanked the members of the Advisory Board for their willingness and commitment to help the organization. Stressing the importance of the Board on decision making process in the organization, Mr. Zogaj expressed confidence that cooperation with the Advisory Board will bring new successes to FOL Movement.

Advisory Board members welcomed the processes carried out in FOL and offered their support to the development and advancement of the organization in accomplishing its mission. Also during this meeting, Chairman of the Advisory Board was elected Mr. Genc Salihu, who will coordinate the activities of the Movement FOL Board. Advisory Board’s next meeting will be held on December 8 this year.

Statement: “The smuggling in border entries 1 and 31 is 100 percent stopped. We started for the first time to enforce law and order even in the most remote territory of the Republic of Kosovo”
Author: Hashim Thaçi ” Prime Minister
Date: August 2011
Evaluation: False
Justification: The country’s Prime Minister has said several times after the action of July 25 that with this action and deployment of KFOR smuggling in the north has been stopped. But, in the meeting on September 7 (Wednesday), Thaci denied himself by saying that we are working to stop the smuggling in the north. The prime minister also denied himself also regarding the customs officers on point 31 saying they”ve been there for awhile. At Wednesday’s meeting, Prime Minister has said that government is working to place the officers on points 1 and 31.

Statement: “Serbian officials who stay illegally in Kosovo and participating in violence can not be negotiators”
Author: Edita Tahiri, negotiator of Kosovës,
Date: August 2, 2011
Evaluation: Unstable
Justification: Deputy Prime Minister and negotiator of Kosovo, Edita Tahiri said confidently that Borislav Stefanovic is not worthy to sit at a negotiating table with. This is because he is constantly entering Kosovo illegally. But a month later, Tahiri met precisely the same man in Brussels, although publicly she was declared unvilling to meet hem. Later, Tahiri said he had requested the replacement of Stefanoviqit, but it was the Belgrade to decide. Knowing that it is not up to her, Tahiri either had to refuse negotiating with Stefanoviqin, or not comment his activities.

Statement: “The Government of Kosovo has not received any letters, or request. However, I would not allow under any circumstances, Kosovo government interfere in the affairs of the Assembly of Kosovo. Powers are separated. The Government of Kosovo carries out responsibily the decisions of the institution, the body that has elected, the Parliament of Kosovo”
Author: Hashim Thaçi ” Prime Minister
Date: July 13, 2011
Evaluation: False

Justification: The Prime Minister has changed his opinion very quickly about the issue of immunity, thus denying himself in a short time. When discussing the immunity of parliamentarians, in many appearances and interviews, as these statements show he said that this is something Kosovo government will not interfere because they respected the separation of powers. But only few days later he took the right to address to the Constitutional Court, generalizing the problem and asking clarification regarding the immunity of all bearers of public positions. In fact, the Prime Minister proved contradictory and again appeared ready to change statements and positions whenever it pleases him.

Statement: “There is an order, that if the Serb citizens of Kosovo are seen with Serbian Government number plates, they should be confiscated. That decision is valid and that order will be applied in the future”
Author: Bajram Rexhepi, Ministër i Brendshëm
Date: 26 prill 2011
Evaluation: False
Justification: Internal Minister has shown again that he is inconsistent with his attitudes. Shortly after this statement, he changed everything by saying that this issue would be solved through a dialogue. On July 13 Rexhepi said that he had asked the police chief to tolerate the possession of such Serbian documents, but only until November 1 this year. Already it is not clear, based on developments, if this will change as well, which would mean yet another change of attitude of the Minister Rexhepi.

Statement: “The operation conducted last night by the Kosovo authorities was not useful”
Author: Fernando Gentilini, EU Special Representative for Kosovo
Date: July 25, 2011
Evaluation: False
Justification: This statement of the first man of EU in Kosovo contradicts openly to what formally EULEX promotes. European mission says it has come to Kosovo to help the rule of law, while by the return of the situation before July 25, in fact requires the return of the reign of lawlessness in this part of the Republic of Kosovo.

Prishtina, September 2, 2011- According the Law on Freedom of Association in the Republic of Kosovo and the statutes of the organization, on August 27, 2011, was held the meeting of the Assembly of Members of the Movement FOL, which is the main decision making body in the organization. At this meeting was approved the semiannual report and financial report for the period January-June 2011.

During the period January to June 2011, FOL has conducted 10 different publications (Reports and Analysis), 5 press conferences, 14 round tables in the central and local level, coordinated two joint Civil Society statements, a public reaction , signed a memorandum of understanding for monitoring procurement with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Health and organized two “Karl Popper” debate tournaments with high school students, one in Peja and one in Vushtrri.

At this meeting was elected the new Director of the Movement FOL and also the new Board of the organization. With 17 votes pro and 3 abstentions, Petrit Zogaj was elected new director of the Movement FOL. By unanimous votes the new member of the Advisory Board are elected Mrs. Valdete Idrizi, Mr. Genc Salihu, Mr. Gezim Visoka and Mr. Halil Matoshi.
Petrit Zogaj is co-founder of Movement FOL and so far has been assigned as Program Manager. Petrit graduated in Political Science at the University of Pristina.
Movement FOL Thanks: Assembly of the Members, Advisory Board, Staff, especially thanks the former director of the Movement FOL, Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, who made an extraordinary contribution to achieving the objectives of the Movement FOL, contributing to the strengthening of civil society in Kosovo.

Prishtina, 26 August 2011- Movement FOL within its commitment to fight corruption is focused on the procurement sector, considered the most corrupt sector in Kosovo. As a result of monitoring of procurement, there are regular reports “Corruption Monitor”, published by FOL where the key findings are reflected in the award of public contracts. Such a report is published today, the second since FOL begun monitoring procurement in March 2011.

During a press conference today publishing “Procurement Monitor” for the period April-June 2011, Project Coordinator for Procurement Monitoring at Movement FOL, Fidan Kalaja, said that “since March of this year when Movement FOL made a request to monitor the procurement offices of the five ministries, with three of these ministries, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Health has managed to sign understanding memorandums whereas with two other ministries, ministry of education and infrastructure we did not managed to sign the memorandum. “He further added that “since the beginning of the monitoring of Procurement in the Ministry of Justice, FOL has monitored 16 procurement procedures (not including re-tendering) of which were cancelled or re-tendered 5 tenders, in the Ministry of Public Administration we have monitored 7 tenders where one of them has been re-published two other times. For the first time, thanks to the initiative of FOL, several papers have been invited to monitor the million bid evaluation procedures for construction of MKSF building. Minwhile the Ministry of Health, although there is a memorandum signed by the Minister Agani, the procurement office has not been cooperating by refusing participation of FOL in evaluation of bids meetings. FOL has prepared a report on abuses in this ministry and we are expecting to discuss this report with the Minister next week, the report will be public after the meeting. “

Researcher of Movement FOL Armend Mazreku presented the data of the report “Procurement Monitor”, stating that “during this reporting period we find out that it is just like before the old legal violations committed by the ministries and other public institutions regarding procurement procedures “. He stated that “the Government of Kosovo during the period April – June has committed 5 violations, these violations have occurred in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Public Administration, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports”. Also according to him “public enterprises respectively Kosovo Energy Corporation has violated two procurement activities, while municipalities have committed 9 violations during this period

Prishtina August 19, 2011 – Movement FOL held the next day debate of the Forum FOL Openly, discussing the procurement in the Ministry of Justice, including the tender for the supply of meat and meat products in this Ministry.

Panellists in this debate were the chancellor of the Minister of Justice Mrs. Laura Zherka, Besnik Tahiri acting procurement officer in the Ministry of Justice and Admir Salihu from Movement FOL.
Laura Zherka, chancellor of the Minister said “the Ministry of Justice has invited all political parties, media and NGOs to participate in the monitoring of procurement procedures in this ministry, the ministry also during this term has made some changes in terms of procurement procedures, starting with the selection of admissions committee members, who are selected 3 hours before the bids are opened, which leaves no room for misuse, as well as website of the Ministry of Justice is completed with all the details about tenders and expenses of this ministry, “she concluded.

Besnik Tahiri, also repeated that the Ministry of Justice from this term is opened to all NGOs, and the concerns of NGOs are taken into account by the Ministry. Regarding the tender for the supply of meat products, he said that “the procurement process has been opened.” “After the procurement procedure has been closed there was a complaint by an economic operator, thus the PRB, return the tender for re-evaluation”. According to him, “the decision of the PRB is respected, but there was a request to the PPRC for interpretation of the law, which is the basis of the tender process.” After a meeting with PPRC and ACA organized by Minister Kuçi, a decision was taken that this tender will be cancelled and re-tendered.

Admir Salihu, monitoring officer at FOL Movement said “monitoring at the Ministry of Justice is being done in conformity with the memorandum of understanding with this ministry”. Regarding this tender “Our suspicion from the beginning had to do with the existence of the possibility of cooperation between economic operators and the requesting unit, and the possibility that the economic operator had knowledge about the availability of funds for this tender of this ministry.” movement FOL actively participated in the proceedings of tenders opening and evaluation. Movement FOL has monitored 16 tender at this Ministry so far, not including re-tendering. According to Mr. Salihu “during this period we have written 5 reports, where we have addressed the problems identified during the bidding process, and the recommendations of these reports have been implemented by this Ministry.”
The debate continued with discussions between panellists and participants present at the debate.