“SPEAK Openly” – Implementation of the Law on Courts and the Fight against Corruption

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Prishtina, 24 June 2011– Movement FOL held the next debate of the forum “SPEAK Openly”, to discuss the implementation of the Law on Courts and the fight against corruption. Invited to this discussion were the Chairman of the Judicial Council of Kosovo, Mr. Enver Peci and Director of Corruption Prevention of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Jetullah Aliu. Additionally, during this debate was published the five-month report of the institutional activities in the fight against corruption (January-May 2011).

The Chairman of the Judicial Council of Kosovo, Enver Peci, stated that the judiciary itself accepts and is not satisfied with the achievements so far. “The problem is the need for additional judges, since approximately 2000 cases are assigned only for one judge. In order to coordinate the work and increase the confidence of the citizens, we have compiled the strategy for solving cases based on the years they have been filed where the goal is that the cases are processed according their record order”.

According to him, the motivation of administrative staff is weak, thus we could not assign spokesmen in courts, where citizens could be more informed. “To have a system really trustworthy, it takes time. Only the reappointment process has taken at least two years and we think that in future we should not appoint any judge without investigating his past. “Therefore, the judicial system is being reformed, he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of Corruption Prevention of Anti-Corruption Agency, Jetullah Aliu, said that ACA has repeatedly emphasized that corruption in Kosovo exists and in worrying proportions and this is shown also in various international reports. According to him, the recent recommendation of ACA was that the Law on Public Procurement be amended. “In the last report that we have made public, regarding declaration of the property, we see that there are a lot of millionaires, and in a poor country such as Kosovo and with a salary like they are, it is hard to attain that much property,” said Aliu. According to him ACA is also working regarding the conflict of interest, which by so far are being investigated 30 cases suspecting senior officials are in conflict of interest.

Policy analyst in the Movement FOL Armend Mazreku, while presenting the five-month report on institutional activities in the fight against corruption (January-May 2011), said that the Government of Kosovo from 80 decisions that have been approved during this period, only one has been in the fight against corruption, while at the same period of last year there were more activities in the fight against corruption. According to him, public institutions marked a setback regarding the fight against corruption.