Kosovo: EC Progress Report disregarded by institutions
No progress in the fight against corruption
In a press conference, the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) expressed its concerns with the findings for Kosovo in the Progress Report of the European Commission for the year 2009 and calls for institutions to increase the responsibility for improving the situation. Our major concern is related with the field of corruption and the aspects related to it.
Merita Mustafa, manager of the programme "Transparency and Anti-corruption" said in the press conference that despite some improvements in the functioning of democratic institutions the report states similar dissatisfaction as last year on issues such as the lack of rule of law, spread of corruption, weak efforts for reforming the judicial system, lack of cooperation between the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Prosecutor, insufficient efforts in combating organized crime and money laundering.
“It has become a practice that progress reports only interpret the more the positive developments and leave the major issues without being counted", said Mustafa, adding that according to the Progress Report there is no appropriate commitment in fighting corruption, being one of key priorities for European Partnership.
Despite several Memorandum of Understandings signed between the Anti-Corruption Agency and institutions such as relevant courts and the Prosecutor's Commission, the report states that there is no appropriate cooperation to exchange the information on corruption cases.
"The report calls for urgent improvement of the legal framework for fighting corruption. The lack of legislation to disclose assets of senior officials, a law on the funding of political parties, an amendment of the law against corruption, and an amendment of the law on conflict of interest, are lacking legislation that make it impossible to complete the legal framework against corruption", has been said during the conference.
The press conference highlighted that the report mentions a serious concern in lack of oversight mechanisms and lack of transparency for the funding of political parties.
Mustafa also mentioned other concerns that rose in relation to the report. "The progress report mentions the recently adopted anti-corruption strategy and assesses that the power for it to translate into concrete action is limited. Therefore, we call for our concerns which have been raised before to be considered", she said. Upon approval of the strategy by the Assembly, Mustafa said that the concerns raised by civil society have not been taken into account. "We requested a comprehensive analysis of the current situation which would include, but not be limited to the following areas: legal and institutional infrastructure against corruption; documents such as an Action Plan for the Prevention of the informal economy, a Strategy and Action Plan for Reforming the Judicial System, a functional review process of the administration and other laws and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the fight against corruption", said Mustafa.
A special highlight has been given to the section of the report which mentions public procurement. According to Mustafa, the situation in public procurement has worsened compared with last year. This sector does not have a law which is implemented and is based on European standards.
"If this report specifically emphasises concerns of the management of public procurement and if every quarter of a Euro from our country goes in public procurement, which is tax payer's money, then the question arises, whether public procurement has improved the life of the citizens. We know that, they are still facing many difficulties in almost every area of life", has been said during the conference.
"This has been confirmed by the chairman of the Assembly itself, Jakup Krasniqi, who accused in the last session the political parties that have been in power for building an administration on family relations", said Mustafa.
In this case, the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) assesses that the challenges identified in the Progress Report 2008 for the rule of law, the fight against corruption and organized crime, remain in this year's report, and in some cases the situation has worsened, as it is the case of political influence in candidate nominations. "This lets us know that the Government of Kosovo, as the main carrier of tasks deriving from the Progress Report has not fulfilled its duties, despite continuous statements that meeting the requirements of the European integration process, as summarized in this Report, will be the focus of its commitments", declared Mustafa.
KDI calls the Government of Kosovo and other relevant institutions to take the Progress Report of 2009 seriously and to accept the problems identified as their duty, and not only as challenges. "Only a sincere commitment and dedication in implementing deep reforms, that may be painful, can make the process of the European integration of Kosovo a successful story", assessed Merita Mustafa.
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