The year 2015 was a continuation of previous years in regards to the shortage of anti-corruption efforts and results in Kosovo. Lack of prioritisation of corruption offenses, failure to convict senior public officials for corruption, lack of political will, political interference and lack of cooperation between institutions, have created a climate of impunity of the corruptive phenomena in Kosovo.
Public procurement remains a critical point where public funds unlawfully move on to private hands, and ultimately to senior officials closely linked with leading institutions in Kosovo. Weak judiciary has not helped this situation.
Corruption continuously and directly affects the lives of citizens. The high rate of unemployment is due to a lack of investments, which in 2015 remained away from the doors of Kosovo due to corruption and the ineffectiveness of the judiciary to guarantee the rule of law. Visa liberalization is also a hostage of processes closely connected with the rule of law and fighting corruption in Kosovo.
From the beginning of the political blockade at the start of this year, until the escalation to violence at the end of this year, politics failed to address the problem of corruption properly. In fact, there are attempts to intervene in areas that are considered to be well regulated by legislation such as the initiative for amending the Law on the Auditor General and the Law on Access to Public Documents. The governing coalition has been deaf in relation to civil society efforts to improve the situation on preventing conflicts of interest. Examples like the latter are to be found in the area of public consultation as well.
Kosova Democratic Institute (KDI) in 2015 provided numerous studies and recommendations such as the assessment of the National Integrity System that can be a powerful roadmap to address the most serious problems. Today, on the day against corruption, some of these recommendations were distributed to the most relevant institutions in the form of postcards, which we wish to have their determination and willingness to address these issues.
KDI has also the centre for providing free legal advice to all those who want to report corruption cases. Services in this centre mean free assistance in preparing of the reported the case by providing legal advice, as well as finding adequate address to solve the issue. The natures of reported cases which mainly have been reported by citizens during 2015 included but are not limited to:
• Cases of the bid winners in various ministries, through quotation by framing the requirements in favour of the winner
• Cases of nepotism in staff engagement through various government positions
• Cases of failure to implement the rights of workers by private companies
Actions taken by KDI within the sphere of activity of the office, resulted in the cancellation of the tenders, the cancellation of the selection of staff and changing the system of selection, etc.
We invite citizens to become part of our efforts to combat corruption, by denounce corruption at any time in the number 0800 77 777 or e-mail [email protected]