Law on Protection of Informers is unknown for municipal officials in Prizren

Prizren, August, 06 – Today, FOL Movement, within a series of debates in municipalities regarding the “Law on Protection of Informers’ held the next meeting in Prizren on the topic” Anti-Corruption Legal Package: Law on Protection of Informers “. In this debate was discussed about the level of implementation of anti-corruption laws, respectively, the Law on Protection of Informers and on how public officials denounce irregularities or illegal acts of corruption cases within their respective institutions.

At the beginning of the debate, Elbasan Racaj from FOL Movement, presented the findings and legal gaps of the law in question, both, in terms of provisions and sanctions as well as the perspective of experiences of public officials about the existence and content of the law. Among other things, he said that “about 73.6% of the officials are aware of the existence of the Law on Protection of Informers, while 23.4% are not aware of the existence of the law in question.” Furthermore, Elbasan Racaj added that public officials are even little informed when it comes to the content of the law “where only 15.3% of these officials seemed to have deeper knowledge, about 60% about average, 21% have too little, while 4% stated that they do not have any idea at all.
On the other hand, under-Ruzhdi Rexha, the Mayor of Prizren said that, “He was notified from FOL Movement regarding the law in question when he received the invitation for meeting. He further said that this law is in contradiction with law on civil servants, namely Article 56 of this law, which obliges public officials to maintain confidentiality within the workplace. He also said that the law was confused with Kosovo Intelligence Agency. Rexha further said, “The Municipality of Prizren on 16 July of this year, with a legal action has appointed responsible individuals, where one of them is thought to be an official for receiving information on irregularities within the municipality, based on this law.”

The Chief Prosecutor of the Basic Prosecution in Prizren sees it as necessary the implementation of this law in practice, recommending at the same time changing the name of the law. He further added that, “There are officials who denounce irregularities”, but he didn’t give any concrete figure.
The business community was represented by, Liman Asllani, who said that the law itself is confusing and is often confused with the law on Witness Protection. He also added that the law has many deficiencies, it doesn’t protect the identity of the informers, and according to this law the rights of the informers are protected by his superior.
On the other hand Arber Rexhaj from Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (Self-determination), said, “Whistleblowers should be encouraged when giving information.” He further added that, “justice in Prizren is politicized and selective”. Rexhaj stated that, “there are people, in Prizren, who were fired because of reporting corruption affairs.”

Munir Basha from Conservative Party said that “the law has many deficiencies and does not provide sufficient protection for informers.” He further added that, “there should be political will to fight corruption in the municipality of Prizren.”It is exactly the lack of political will that made this law have many disadvantages.
The participant, Afrim Tejeci from Business Association in Prizren, stressed that the implementation of this law should have an impact on the country’s businesses. Lack of safety of informants when reporting and the lack of their protection by municipal structures, according to Tejeci, will have implications on foreign investments in Kosovo.

Elmedina Baxhaku, a representatives from civil society, respectively the NGO “Ec më Ndryshe”, showed her practical experience when monitoring the Municipality of Prizren, mentioning that officials are afraid to issue a document which is public and let alone to denounce any irregularities within their municipality. Further she added that, “there should be a greater promotion of law and that the officials who are responsible for receiving the information must be appointed as soon as possible by decision makers in the municipality of Prizren.

Bariu Zenelaj from organization “ATTA” stated that the mistakes were done during the drafting of the law, since in many cases the competent personnel in the drafting of this law were not invited. He further said that there was no public debate on this law and the same law should be amended.