Prishtina, 30 May 2011 ” Today, Movement FOL expected the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway in Kosovo, his Excellency, Mr. Sverre Johan Kvale in a friendly meeting where they discussed the general situation in the country and FOL activities in the fight against corruption.

Prishtina, May 27, 2011 ” Today, Movement FOL, published the two- month report (March – April) on institutional activities in the fight against corruption.
According to this report we find out that the Government of Kosovo during these two months has approved 50 (fifty) decisions. None of these decisions has been in the fight against corruption, organized crime or informal economy. In these decisions, within these decisions are the establishment of the Unit for International Cooperation in Law Enforcement and Legislative Strategy 2011.

Kosovo Assembly during two months (March and April) held seven plenary sessions. 4 (four) were held in March and 3 (three) of them in April. In none of these sessions has been discussed the high level of corruption in public institutions of the country.

Kosovo Judicial Council during the first quarter was not very productive in solving anti-corruption cases. Within the category “abuse of official duty or authority” 81 cases are unsolved at the beginning of the reporting period, 17 cases has been filed, 98 cases ongoing, 14 cases solved and 84 cases remain unsolved . In the category of “taking bribe” 21 cases are unsolved at the beginning of the reporting period, 2 cases have been filed, 23 cases ongoing, 0 cases solved and 23 remains unsolved. In the category of “giving bribe” 9 cases are unsolved at the beginning of the reporting period, 0 cases filed, 9 cases ongoing, 0 cases solved and 9 unsolved cases.

According to statistics from the Department for Investigation of Economic Crimes and Corruption (DIECC) Kosovo Police in March-April has conducted 106 investigations: 96 for abuse of official duty and 10 for taking bribe. 2 (two) suspects have been, 16 cases are sent to the Prosecution with identified suspects, 26 cases are sent to the Prosecution with special report. Meanwhile the value of damages alleged is likely to be calculated 139355.00 Euro: 131,950.00 for abuse of official position or authority and 7,405.00 for taking of bribes.

While Kosovo Customs over the past two months (March and April) have announced five disciplinary measures. These measures have been only in April. Within them are three written warnings and two training recommendation. The Professional Standards Department dealt with eight cases: four in March and four others in April. In March, the allegations were negligence in performing official duties, and in April damage of Customs property (1), failure to show up at work (1) and two other cases of negligence in the performance of official duty.

Publication of this report was supported by USAID through the Program for Strengthening Civil Society and implemented by the Institute for Sustainable Communities.

Prishtina, 23 May 2011 – Minister of Public Administration, Mr. Mahir Yagcilar, and executive director of the Movement “FOL,” Mr.. Ramadan Ilazi, signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the MPA and the Movement “FOL” that has to do with observation and monitoring of procurement procedures.

This action is in order to promote transparency in the process of awarding public contracts, procurement procedures and tendering, in accordance with the Law on Access to Public Documents nr.03/L-215 and Article 7 of the Public Procurement Law No.03/L-241, which aims to prevent fraud, corruption and conflict of interest.

With this memorandum, MPA and Movement “FOL” will be part of monitoring the tendering procedures in all phases of the procedure, especially in the opening and evaluation of bids, providing full and direct access to all tender documents, as allowed by legal provisions. It is a step of the Government / Ministry towards transparency of institutional work, but also in fighting negative phenomena.

Project Coordinator, Fidan Kalaja, stated that this activity is a summary and analysis of Procurement Review Body (PRB) data, Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (PPRC), media and direct monitoring of the procedures by the Movement FOL.

He stressed that during this period Movement FOL has managed to sign a memorandum for monitoring of procurement procedures in the Ministry of Justice and also today we have been informed by the Ministry of Health and Public Administration for signing such a memo. He criticized the Ministry of Infrastructure and Education by rejecting our request for monitoring of procurement procedures in these ministries.

Meanwhile, policy analyst, Armend Mazreku, presented the findings of this report; he said that the institutions, public enterprises and other public agencies have continued just like before the old legal irregularities in the procurement process. During the period from January to March, 21 violations have been committed, three of them resulted in fines in amount to ” 70.000.00: 20.000.00 ” for PTK, ” 20.000.00 for the Ministry of Transport and Communications and 30,000. ” 00 for Telecommunications Regulatory Authority;

According to him, the Government of Kosovo has committed 4 violations, municipalities have also committed 4 violations, Public Enterprises (KEC and PTK) have committed 4 violations, the Constitutional Court has committed a legal violations during the procurement activity “translation services and transcript-Part 1 “.

Due to such irregularities this procurement activity has been re-tendered by PRB, the Assembly of Kosovo has committed a violation of Article 32.4 of PPL upon cancellation of the procurement activity “Renovation of room 301 in the building of Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, Office of the Auditor General during the month of February, in February it has violated the procurement procedures in the tender “mobile telephony services to staff of OAG”, ART has not respected the decision of the PRB to re-evaluate the tender “Tender / Proposal for the National Centre for Radio Spectrum Monitoring” and then imposed a fine of 30.000.00 euro; Kosovo Customs has violated Article 59 and 60 of the PPL in the tender “Supply with hygienic expendable material “;
In addition to these violations, there are three other institutions that have committed violations: the Kosovo Property Agency (re-evaluation), Prishtina International Airport (re-tendering) and the Food and Veterinary Agency (re-tender).

Prishtina, May 12, 2011 – The media reported on Thursday about irregularities and misuses in procurement in the Ministry of Infrastructure, as a result Kosovo budget is supposed to be harmed millions of euro. Such a situation was created as a result of a tender for summer and winter maintenance of national and regional roads of Republic of Kosovo for the year 2011/2012.

Thus, the Ministry of Infrastructure continues to lead in regarding suspicion of mismanagement and irregularities in the conduct of procurement procedures and award of public contracts. One of the main reasons that contribute to abuse in procurement in the ministry is the lack of transparency in the tendering process. FOL movement long ago asked the Ministry of Infrastructure to open procurement office for monitoring by civil society and media, but our request was not accepted.

Movement FOL takes this opportunity to once again request the Ministry of Infrastructure to allow FOL Movement, other civil society organizations, media and other institutions to have access to the monitoring of procurement procedures in order to increase the level of transparency in this ministry, which it could prevent abuse and corruption.

Regarding suspicions published in media about the tender for the maintenance of national roads, the movement FOL requires from the Ministry of Infrastructure respectively Minister Mr. Fehmi Mujota to investigate procedures for identifying individuals who, by their actions harmed the state budget, to be transparent and accountable regarding this case to the citizens of Kosovo.

We ask the Prosecution and Kosovo Police to immediately initiate investigation proceedings regarding these suspicions, and the Agency for Competitiveness must initiate investigations on suspicion that there was a prior agreement of the winning bid.

Prishtina, 7 May 2011 – Today, FOL movement published the next five statements evaluated by the truth o-Meter. The claim of Mr. Hashim Thaci that the media in Kosovo are the freest media in the region is considered as false referring to the Freedom House reports for 2009 and 2010 which portrait Kosovo as the worst in the region. Also, in the same TV show Thaci promised the removal of the fee for the media since January 2011, but FOL considers even this promise as broken since media continue to pay fees.

Another leader evaluated by the truth o-meter is Isa Mustafa regarding his statement “I”ll never shake hands with Mr Thaçi.” Even this statement is evaluated as false based on the agreement he reached with Prime Minister (as noted) to overcome the institutional crisis, for country”s president, constitutional changes and the changes in the electoral system.

Among the statements evaluated by truth “o- meter, are two statements of Behgjet Pacolli, one as President of AKR and the other as President of Kosovo. Mr.Pacolli promised during the election campaign that he would reduce the number of ministries, initially 11 and later 6, it is considered as broken promise or contradictory to his recent actions. Because of a coalition, the government became with 18 ministers, and then to increase participation of AKR in government he demanded the addition of a new ministry becoming 19.

State would be the most beneficiary of confiscation of the property illegally acquired since the State treasure will grow. However, it is clear that in the case of Kosovo, the seizure of property can affect personal economic interests of many politicians and senior officials and this is probably why so far in Kosovo have been seized only 15 cows and 32 calves.

Public discourse has reduced the fight against corruption and organized crime by setting behind the bars the persons involved in such affairs. However, in the case of Kosovo even the first mentioned has run into difficulties, putting criminals and corrupt people behind the bars cannot be the main target, because true justice in the fight against corruption and organized crime, is when the state seizes property of those who have acquired illegally. State would be the largest beneficiary of such an action as the State treasure would grow. But, it is clear that in the case of Kosovo, the seizure of property can affect personal economic interests of many politicians and senior officials.

Confiscation of property means permanent seizure of the items according to a final decision by the competent court, and as assets that can be seized are considered movable and immovable property, cash and valuable pappers, which are in legal circulation , while the sequestration means provisional seizure of them in accordance with the law.

The primary problem for the confiscation of property gained illegally is the lack of a fundamental law that would oblige the authorities to confiscate the property acquired illegally, making it an integral part of the investigation, prosecution and punishment of the organized crime and corruption.

Kosovo, although has legal background for confiscation of property, the current legislation is insufficient. Using this stagnancy of legal framework and a non-functional judiciary, organized crime has created a comprehensive terrain from which certain individuals or groups have created enormous wealth.

So without a clear legal background and without an independent system with all controlling mechanisms, it is difficult to achieve concrete results in fighting organized crime, or confiscation of property illegally acquired.

Organized crime, or other illegal acts through which the illegally embezzlement of the property is achieved is not present only in Kosovo. Nowadays such criminal acts around the world are almost daily dids. Not by chance in theory of forensic crime these actions are known as the crime of “white collars” and their excellence can achieve perfection.

Regional countries such as Croatia, Serbia and Albania by now have their own laws or the so-called ?anti-mafia law package’. Currently, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are the only states in the region that have not approved this law which regulates the institutional framework for managing the confiscated property that are acquired illegally. Unlike Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina has fixed it partly through its criminal law. Meanwhile, Croatia, Albania and Serbia in their legislature have approved this package of laws, where not only involving the seizure of property law, but a series of other laws of this nature.
For example, Croatia and Serbia in the package of anti-mafia have 4 laws that are compatible among themselves, respectively the Law on fighting corruption, the conflict of interests, organized crime and trafficking, and the law for confiscation of the property. Albania also has a conflict of interest law, which clearly shows that no official, who works in public bodies, and at the same time is a private entrepreneur may not be assigned in any public position while standing in that position. Also the low on confiscation of the property clearly defines the activity area and its powers.

Without such a legislative package and without ensuring that all laws in question are in harmony with each other it is impossible to create a strong legal background. Therefore, in this context, there cannot be a good law for confiscation of the property gained illegally and other laws of this nature.

Potential law in this area in Kosovo must clearly define that the property acquired illegally is done in different illegal and legal ways. The law should specify that the origin of a property must be proved and justified by the owner and the holder of that property, and not his property be proved or justified be the state.

By asking a suspected individual or legal body to prove the origin of the property that one claim to own one is tried big deal. This is because that the state is limited to do it because of the laws and procedures that limit it. For example, many economic activities and legal entities that exist today in Kosovo operate legally, and if justice institutions investigate their activities, usually there are no required results. However, such a thing, by law obliges individuals to prove the origin of their property, even when there are many possibilities to investigate, this is pretty difficult if done only by the information offered by them.
The property often is acquired outside a specific territory, while its fruit is legally invested elsewhere. Therefore, the package of anti-Mafia laws in Kosovo should include a wide range of laws that will regulate exactly how the acquired property and its interconnections between them, because for such illegal acts it is needed a very organized, sophisticated and criminal network.

Kosovo has not yet approved the framework legislation for confiscation of the property, even though Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has claimed to have initiated such a thing since the middle of 2010.

(This article is based on the analysis published by FOL entitled “Analysis on the legal framework against property illegally acquired”)

April 29, 2011 – Movement FOL has organized the next debate in Prizren on “Public Investments in Road Infrastructure: Transparency and Accountability”. Participants in this debate were municipal officials, civil society, media and citizens of this municipality.
Petrit Zogaj declared that Movement FOL has begun to implement this project based on the high level of investments in road infrastructure and the low level of transparency that has associated the realization of the projects in this sector. He added that the purpose of the discussions with the municipalities is to consider the trend of public investments in road infrastructure by central level and local in municipalities, the current situation, future plans and the level of transparency and accountability of these investments. According to him the debate in this municipality is of a particular importance considering that the largest infrastructure project Merdare-Morine highway is taking place in this municipality.

The debate continued with the Head of the Municipal Assembly of Prizren, Mr. Njiazi Kryeziu, who declared that the transparency and accountability in the municipality of Prizren is satisfactory regarding public investments realized in this municipality. According to him “, the design of the projects in this municipality is done in accordance with an eleven years tradition of local governance.” He added that “as the construction of Merdare-Morine highway is concerned, Prizren Municipality has formed a committee whose main task was informing citizens about the process of expropriation in the municipality”. He, on behalf of the Municipal Assembly and the Mayor expressed his disappointment regarding the non-involvement of the Municipality of Prizren directly in construction of Merdare-Morine highway. The process of accountability in the Municipality of Prizren, according to him, is conditioned by the nature of the governing coalition “because a party cannot take a decision itself without a consensus within the coalition, said Mr. Kryeziu.

The director of Public Services Department in the Municipality of Prizren, Mr. Hasan Hasani presented the municipal investments in road infrastructure in the Municipality of Prizren, among others he said “in 2010 were invested 6 million euros and in 2011 were planned to be invested around 7 million euro in road infrastructure projects in this municipality”. He added that all the decisions to invest in this sector were taken according to the importance and necessity of the investment in a certain area. The MTC allocated funds for two projects, to be implemented in 2010, one of them is not finished yet. He expressed disappointment regarding the central investment in this municipality, he said that “although the Municipality of Prizren is the second largest municipality by the number of inhabitants, the level of investments in road construction by the MTC has been little.”

The debate continued with Mr. Haziz Hodaj, chairman of the LDK parliamentary group in the municipality, who expressed his disappointment with the low level of transparency and accountability of the municipality regarding the investments in this sector. He said “we are not against construction of the highway, but we ask that this process be fair and transparent to the citizens of Kosovo”. He added that “in our community projects are facing delays and lots of irregularities, during the election campaign the municipality has invested in various projects disregarding tender procedures and there were no budgetary positions for these projects.”
After the presentation by officials, the discussion was opened to the participants and there were questions and answers about some projects, a special focus was paid to the expropriation process in the municipality. During this discussion there was a little change in the mood and minimalism of their concerns about the process of expropriation of their properties compared with the period when Movement FOL visited the residents of this municipality in July 2010.
This activity was supported from USAID through the Program for Strengthening Civil Society implemented by ISC – Institute for Sustainable Communities

Prishtina, 28 April 2011 ” On the regular Assembly meeting of Movement FOL it has been discussed and approved the narrative and financial report for 2010, which was presented by executive director Ramadan Ilazi and financial manager Fidan Cerkini. The Assembly was informed also about the external assessments regarding the work of the Movement FOL by foreign experts.

The new statute of the organization, Work Regulation and the Code of Conduct, were approved after few changes done in accordance with the Law Labour and new Law on Freedom of Association in Kosovo.

-Seventeen citizens joined Movement FOL as member of the assembly of the movement, they are from various professions and municipalities of Kosovo and will be part of the activities and decision-making process.

Two new members of the Advisory Board of the organization, Mr. Taulant Hoxha and Mr. Dardan Velija have been approved during this meeting , while we appreciated the so far contribution of Mrs. Engjëllushe Morina, Mr. Enver Robelli and Mr. Hajrullah Ceku who have contributed to the Advisory Board since the founding of the Movement FOL.

Next meeting of the Assembly of Members will be held on August 27, 2011 when there will be elections for the Executive Director of the organization.

Prishtina, April 22, 2011- Movement FOL today published “The Analysis on the legal framework against property acquired illegally,” which addresses the lack of appropriate legislation for the confiscation of property gained illegally in Kosovo and which is very important in the fight against organized crime and corruption. The justice against those who misuse money of Kosovo citizens is done only when they are imprisoned and the property acquired illegally is confiscated.

Venera Ramaj, research in Movement FOL stressed that the institutions neglect to enforce the existing legislation in the field of confiscation of the property. It”s been more than a year since the law has become applicable and we haven”t noticed a serious commitment to implementing the Law on Administration of Confiscated and Seized Property, said Mrs. Ramaj. In addition, the primary problem for implementation of the law is the lack of a fundamental law that would oblige the authorities to confiscate the property acquired illegally, making it an integral part of the investigation, prosecution and punishment of corruption and organized crime “.

Its goal and scope is reduced by establishment of an Executive Agency within the framework of a government ministry, which will be responsible for the enforcement of court sentences and subsequent measures which are supposed to enforce the retributive justice (‘retaliatory punishment “) to almost all citizens of the state (taxpayers). It would also punish the abuse of public funds by returning them indirectly for the benefit of taxpayers.

This law, except that it fails to establish rules on the prevention and sanctioning of illegal enrichment, basically it is more of the secondary character. Its major part is focused on mostly technical aspects of the functioning of this executive agency and which must be solved through the terms of reference.

According to experts and lawyers, said Mrs. Ramaj, it is clear that the courts cannot deliver judgment and impose final judgments on confiscation of the property in cases other than those dealing with serious crimes, provided by the Criminal Code (Article 82 and 83). According to CCK, the illegal property can be confiscated only those persons who have committed a serious offenses.

Property nowadays can be appropriated by organized crime in a sophisticated manner. This method is often applied by people with ‘white collars’, who are not ordinary people, but can be part of high political, economic, diplomatic structures, etc, making it difficult for Criminal Code to be taken as legal basis for prosecution and effective punishment.

Prishtina, April 22, 2011 – We, the civil society organizations through this statement express our full support to the work of the judiciary in handling sensitive cases involving senior state officials. Such a case we consider is the case of Mr. Xhabir Zharku, Mayor of Kacanik and Bajrush Xhemaili, Mayor of Ferizaj, both convicted for criminal offenses by the Courts of the Republic of Kosovo.

According to Article 56 paragraph (h) of the Law on Local Government, the Mayor’s mandate ends if convicted of a criminal offense with a warrant for imprisonment for six (6) months or more. According to this article, there is no need to wait until a final decision of the Judiciary as claimed, but there is sufficient legal basis for dismissal of the mayorsf Xhemaili and Zharku if they do not resign.

While the judiciary has done its own work in these two cases, Mr. Zharku and Mr. Xhemaili did not let us know that they will respect the decision of the Court. Our organizations consider unacceptable the attempts to ignore or disregard the Court’s decision by senior officials of the Republic of Kosovo.

We consider such behaviour as blackmail against the justice authorities and mining of the efforts to establish the rule of law in Kosovo. Placement of individual interest above laws and decisions of the Judiciary should be unacceptable for a democratic society.

We appeal to the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, that in accordance to Article 64.1 and 64.3 of the Law on Local Government, to immediately suspend and then dismiss the Mayor of Kacanik Mr. Xhabir Zharku and the mayor of Ferizaj Mr. Bajrush Xhemaili if the latter refuse to resign.

Center for Policy and Advocacy (QPA), Foreign Policy Club, Initiative for Progress (INPO), Syri i Vizionit (SIV), Prishtina Institute for Political Studies (PIPS), Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR ), Movement FOL, Kosovo Centre for International Cooperation (KCIC)

Peja, April 19, 2011 – FOL Movement has organized the next debate with municipalities of Peja and Gjakova, on the topic “Public Investment in Road Infrastructure: Transparency and Accountability”. Participants in this debate were municipal officials, civil society, media and citizens of these municipalities.

Initially Mr. Petrit Zogaj from Movement FOL, expressed regret for not participating in this debate the municipal officials from the municipality of Decan, Klina and Istog, considering this as a lack of willingness to publicly discuss the topic of this debate. According to him, Movement FOL has begun to implement this project based on the high level of investment in road infrastructure and the low level of transparency that has associated the projects in this sector. He added that the purpose of discussions with the municipalities is to address the trend of public investment in road infrastructure from central and local level, the current status, future plans and the level of transparency and accountability of these investments.

The debate continued with the Director of Public Services Department in the Municipality of Gjakova, Mr. Bernard Frrokaj, who stated that the transparency and accountability in the municipality of Gjakova is satisfactory in terms of public investments realized in this municipality. According to him, ‘Information Office in the municipality is available to citizens for any claim that they have, every meeting is open to the media, citizens, civil society and international organizations and, most importantly is that in this municipality, according to the laws, each citizen can have access to contracts for each project that the municipality carries out “. As a negative phenomenon, according to him was “the tendency that municipal investments be planned and directed from the central level, which is the exclusive competence of the mayor.” Regarding investment in road infrastructure by the Government of Kosovo in the municipality, he said that “this municipality is ignored and the 7 projects that the municipality has submitted for funding from the central level has not yet received any response regarding them “.

The director for Public Services and Infrastructure in the Municipality of Peja, Mr. Naim Sahiti said that “our municipality is dissatisfied with the level of central investment in our community, and in 2008 in road infrastructure are invested 5.3 million euro, in 2009 around 2 million euro, no investments in 2010 and in 2011 about 500 thousand euro “. According to him Kosovo government does not allocate the budget based on the criteria and priorities. He proves this by the fact that “this municipality did not get any response regarding 11 projects submitted for funding ti the Government of Kosovo”. He further added that “in 2011, Municipality of Peja f has allocated about 1.7 million euro or investment in road infrastructure and this allocation is made according to certain criteria needs and debates conducted with citizens of this municipality.”

After a presentation by officials, the discussion was opened to the participants and there were questions about some projects which for some years are not realized yet and expressed dissatisfaction regarding the lack of transparency for such projects.
This activity was made possible with support from USAID through the Program for Strengthening Civil Society implemented by ISC – Institute for Sustainable Communities

Vushtrri, 15 – 17 April 2011-Movement FOL along with BIRN, and in cooperation with organizations: Syri Vizion from Peja, Initiative for Progress (INPO) in Ferizaj, Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) in Prishtina, Youth Center in Malisheva, Youth Centre in Suhareka and CBM Mitrovica held the National Tournament debate “Karl Popper” format ” Kosovo Open 2011 ” from 15 to 17 April 2011, on the topic” Kosovo must implement a visa regime “. The format ‘Karl Popper’ of the debate aims to touch and handle the essential elements of a controversial issue. He stresses above all the development of critical thinking, tolerance and assessment of different views. This format was developed in high schools.

Movement FOL and BIRN with the support of the Soros Foundation / KFOS since January 2010 have been working with partner organizations INPO, SIV and YIHR to create debate clubs in town and to train club members in Karl Popper debate format. However, since January this year the program was extended to three new centres in Mitrovica, Malisheva and Suhareka.

Currently in Kosovo we have 6 debating clubs in 6 municipalities, and the number of the debaters is constantly growing. Meanwhile, the debate club Ferizaj city already formed teams of RAE community.

A major contribution to the organization of the Tournament “Kosovo Open 2011” was given by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Education, and Kosovo Center for Public Safety, Education and Development.

During the day Saturday (15 April) during the three rounds of debate were faced 20 teams from six municipalities of Kosovo: Prishtina, Peja ,Ferizaj, Mitrovica, Malisheva and Suhareka. Meanwhile, semi-finals and final were held on Sunday. In the semi-finals debated four teams that have collected the most points based on the number of the victories and points that have collected the speakers of the teams individually. Semi-finals of this debate were: My Initiative from Prishtina, Sokratet from Ferizaj, The Young Europeans from Peja and Epigonet from Malisheva. Meanwhile, in the final debated Sokratet and My Initiative.

Judges in this tournament were former debaters who have previously taken part in the debate “Karl Popper” format. The team of judges who judged the finals of this tournament, announced the winner of this tournament Sokratet from Ferizaj. The Four resolutions debated in this tournament were topics about international migration, where two of these resolutions were limited preparation time while on the two other resolutions the debaters had the opportunity to prepare in advance.

The first resolution was: “”Kosovo must apply the visa regime””,
The second resolution was: “All member states must ratify the UN Convention on the rights of migrant workers and their families”
The third resolution was “open society requires open borders”
The fourth resolution was “Countries of the world should enhance the protection of social and economic rights of immigrants”

The tournament was held over three days at the Kosovo Center for Public Safety, Education and Development (former Police School in Vushtrri “.

This is the second national tournament being organized in Kosovo, and two other tournaments were organized, one in Ferizaj and one in Peja.

The winning team and three best speakers of this tournament will represent Kosovo in the international contest of the debate ‘IDEA Youth Forum 2011, which this year takes place in Istanbul, Turkey in July / August 2011.

Prishtina, April 9, 2011- Recent developments in Kosovo have tested the commitment of political leaders towards the democratic character of the state as well as their dedication to facilitate and allow the democratic functioning of institutions of Kosovo.FOL Movement considers a good news election of a consensus candidate for the post of the President as required by the Constitution, although this was not a full consensus.

FOL considers a positive step the initiative for constitutional amendments but demands that the agenda of constitutional changes be articulated in a debate with citizens of Kosovo as required by the democratic character of our state.
The citizens of Kosovo should be at the centre of attention in the process of constitutional amendments and thus the process of 2008 of the Constitution cannot and should not be repeated. Such process did not allow qualitative participation of citizens in the process of writing the constitution.

The President of Kosovo should institute a group that will take over the organization of extensive consultations with citizens and civil society organization on identifying the needs for change of the country’s Constitution and this group then should develop concrete recommendations for constitutional amendments. This process must have full ownership by Kosovo nationals. The Constitutional challenges today are results of the lack of ownership by kosovars in the Constitution of the country.

Also, recent developments have drawn attention from the fight against organized crime and corruption. State Department Report on Human Rights highlights the wide extent of corruption in government, judicial and other public institutions. Rhetoric against corruption must be translated into concrete actions in this regard Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office, courts and other authorities are failing to provide necessary Kosovo outcome in the fight against corruption and organized crime.

Prishtina, April 5, 2011– Representatives of the Movement “FOL” have met the Minister of Public Administration Mr. Mahir Yagcilar, last Tuesday, April 5 regarding the permission of Movement FOL to monitor the procurement at this ministry. Movement FOL informed Mr. Yagcilar with the Memorandum signed with the Ministry of Justice which enables FOL to monitor the procurement at this ministry proposing that a similar memorandum could be signed with the MPA.
Minister Yagcilar has agreed in principle with the signing of the memorandum in the days ahead.

Prishtina, 05 April 2011 – Movement FOL publishes the monitoring report of procurement process. This is the first report dealing with public procurement. The findings of this report show that institutions and public enterprises in Kosovo are harming the state budget in millions of Euros due to violations of the law and regulations on procurement. This is happening because of different interests, corruption affairs and irresponsibility of officials. Even different departments risk of paying hundred thousands of euro due to the disregard of procedures and laws.

PTK is likely to pay 16 million euro due to irresponsibility – PTK, in April last year, had signed a contract for the separation of the two billing platforms for Telecom and mobile telephony VALA, worth 20 million euro to the Israeli company “Amodcs”. After signing this contract, the Government of Kosovo through the Ministry of Economy and Finance made a decision to terminate the contract. This ministry did not responded earlier, although there were eight days after the announcement of the winner of this project from PTK. Israeli company then decided to take the case to the Court of Arbitration in London seeking damages exceeding the amount of 16 million euro;

Violations of the Municipality of Prishtina – In a bid to construct a school in Hajvali, the value of which was over 900 thousand euro, had violated procurement law, respectively Article 50 which obliges the contracting authorities to specify in the tender dossier that the contract will be given to the operator with the cheapest offer or most favourable economically. Municipality of Prishtina in April 2010 had left open both possibilities. Procurement Review Body had cancelled this tender asking Procurement Office to re-evaluate and specify the criteria according the Procurement Law. The other case is constructing a school in the village Tenezhdoll. Even though two months ago they started work, Prishtina Municipality had paid the company “Plan Ing” from Prishtina in the amount of 10 thousand euro to design the constructing project of this school. Work had begun on August 4 by the company, “Rexha”, and the ceremony was presented by the Mayor of Prishtina, Isa Mustafa, while the tender was announced long after;

Ministry of Justice must pay 80 thousand euro compensation – MJ last year had signed a contract with the company “Kaqandolli” which was declared the winner in the tender for the supply of vehicles announced by this authority. The offer of this company to supply 20 vehicles had been over 200 thousand euro. Officials of this Ministry had terminated the contract justifying that this economic operator had ignored the tender specifications. This company in September last year sued the MJ in Commercial Court. The reviewing Expert of this court, in its report had concluded that the company should be paid 80 thousand euro compensation due to the unilateral termination of the contract.

Ministry of Public Administration: five-time contract – On August 13 last year the Ministry of Public Administration had awarded the tender of managing the costs of government vehicles with GPS system to the company “PBC” in consortium with “Navirec” from Estonia. This consortium was awarded one lot (part) of this tender that had to do with assembling the equipment for 2,500 of governmental vehicles, budget agencies and municipalities. The offer of this company was 187,500 euro, but according to the Anti-Corruption Agency, this value was increased five times from the moment of signing the contract, which is a violation of the procurement.

Illegal Contract of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority ” The Chairman of the Board of Directors of TRA, Ekrem Hoxha, on February 23, 2011 had taken the decision to dismiss senior procurement official, Avdi Feri , grounded that he had committed serious violations of work. This was because the procurement officer had cancelled the notice of contract award which declared winner the consortium R&T and TBS from Albania, which was declared the winner in the tender with an amount of 830 thousand euro. The tender was about the construction of the national monitoring centre the radio spectrum. This was requested by the Procurement Review Body.

PRB in 2010 has received 331 cases, in 62 cases the procurement activity has been cancelled (Re-tender), as a result of violations of the provisions of the PPL, for irregularities in the bidding dossiers or development with poor procurement procedures, in 84 cases, the PRB decided that the Contracting Authority make re-evaluation of the bids after they had made mistakes due to incorrect evaluations by the evaluation committees.

RECOMMANDATIONS

1. Movement FOL recommends that the Government of Kosovo take into account the recommendations of the European Commission that The new Public Procurement is in line with EU criteria, where the Kosovo aspires to be a member;
2. Movement FOL recommends the Agency Against Corruption that cases like those identified by FOL move forward with caution, even when there are no complaints from any party of interest for the purpose of reporting on time and avoid unnecessary losses;
3. Movement FOL recommends the State Prosecutor to initiate investigations on these cases where there are deliberate serious violations of the law;
4. Movement FOL recommend the PPO that companies listed on the blacklist, and those who have cheated during the application process for various tenders be disqualified from the opportunity to obtain any relevant tender.

Prishtina, March 29, 2011– Representatives of the Movement FOL met today the Minister of Health of the Republic of Kosovo, dr. Ferid Agani, to discuss about the possibility of increasing transparency in the procurement area in this institution.

Minister Agani has supported the project of Movement FOL to strengthen transparency of public institutions towards the citizens, the project was presented by the head of this movement, Ramadan Ilazi.

Minister Agani has offered full cooperation with civil society, considering this as an indicator of the democratization of institutions and ensured the leaders of “FOL” that MoH will provide maximum cooperation as the law allows.

During the following days, the MoH will sign a Memorandum of Cooperation with Movement “FOL”, so that the movement is allowed to monitor various processes taking place in this ministry.

Prishtina, March 25, 2011-Movement FOL today organized training for legal and information officials from 13 municipalities of Kosovo on the Law on Access to Public Documents and laws related to its implementation such as: Law on Classification of Information, law on Protection of Personal data and Law on the Ombudsman.

Law on Access to Public Documents, which has replaced the law of 2003, the Law on access to official documents, became applicable in November 1 last year. Movement FOL was a member of the working group to draft the new law that advances the right of citizens to access official information.

This training was organized within the project “Increasing the transparency of public institutions of Kosovo ‘which is supported by BTD – Balkan Trust of Democracy.

Prishtina, March 25, 2011– Today, Movement FOL, through a letter addressed to the relevant ministers, has proposed the Ministry of Public Administration, Infrastructure and the Ministry of Education and Health to signed a memorandum that would enable FOL to have access in the procurement procedures in the role of the monitor, similar memorandum as it was signed with the Ministry of Justice.

The proposed Memorandum of FOL Movement aims to enhance and develop transparency in the process of awarding public contracts, procurement and tendering procedures, aiming to prevent fraud, corruption and conflict of interest, declared Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, executive director of the Movement FOL.

FOL expects that respective ministries respond positively to its proposal because such a practice is accepted by the deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Mr. Kuçi.

Prishtina, 24 March 2011 ” Today, Movement FOL met the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice Mr. Hajredin Kuqi. At the meeting was discussed about the situation in the justice sector in our country. In this case FOL Movement signed the Memorandum of Understanding which allows FOL to have access in the Monitoring Procurement in the Ministry of Justice.

This memorandum is intended to promote and develop transparency in the process of awarding public contracts, procurement and tendering procedures in accordance with country”s legislation, aiming the prevention of fraud, corruption and conflict of interest.

Ministry of Justice will create favorable conditions for monitoring and observing the entire bidding process and will inform in time for meetings, while the Movement FOL, after monitoring and observing procedures, shall compile a written report on the flow of the process in realizing procurement, quality, regularity and legality procedures