Senior officials do not want to show themselves as Millionaires

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.