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16 07 2009 In this edition of Life in Kosovo, the topic of discussion was the parliament of Kosovo and the key challenges it faces.
How does the parliament consider citizen’s initiatives? What is the basic wage of a deputy and how much do they receive in addition to this amount? What is the nature of parliament-government relations? How does the parliament engage with civil society?
To discuss these issues, Muhamet Hajrullahu's guests in the studio were:
Bahri Hyseni – head of the committee for legislation and judiciary
Lutfi Haziri – head of the LDK party in parliament.
Myzeiene Selmani – head of the committee for trade, industry, energy and telecommunications, from the AKR party
Ardian Gjini – head of the AAK party in parliament
Driton Selmanaj – monitor
Rrrezarta Ahmeti – monitor
Ramadan Klisurica – monitor
Isuf Zejna – monitor
The show started with a question directed to Driton Selmanaj, who has monitored parliament since October 2008. According to Selmanaj, the main objective of the process of monitoring is to encourage improvements in the organisation of plenary sessions and the general work of parliament.
“Our objective was to raise the level of transparency and accountability of the people’s representatives towards the electorate, and also to empower civil society so that it is able to [engage in advocacy] in the parliament of Kosovo,” said Selmanaj. He said that the areas of parliamentary work covered by the monitoring process were plenary sessions, meetings of parliamentary committees, project proposals and the contributions of individual deputies.
Ardian Gjini stressed that it is important that a positive attitude is taken towards the parliament and that the impression is not given that the parliament “as a group of people is irresponsible”.
“This reputation contributes to discouraging people when it comes to voting and, in general, [engenders] a lack of trust in the institution,” Gjini said.
The discussion became heated when Selmanaj, in presenting his calculations, said that the total wage of a deputy could reach 2000 euros, if the recommendation to raise MPs pay by an additional 500 euros is approved.
Here, Selmanaj was referring to a report prepared by parliament, which none of the deputies in the studio knew the details of.
Bahri Hyseni, from the PDK, said it was not possible that such sums of money are given to deputies.
“Such compensation might have been given in cases where someone travelled outside Kosovo, in order to pay the ticket, the hotel, etc. Otherwise, this is not money that is given as additional wages, such as per diems,” claimed Hyseni.
In discussing a petition, in which 10,000 Kosovars asked the parliament to discuss the issue of an eventual increase in electricity tariffs, Lutfi Haziri said that not every petition or request is automatically approved.
“This issue was not debated in the parliament because it was not proposed by these people in the way it should have been,” said Haziri, adding that it is not enough just to place “a piece of paper on the table and leave”.
Rrezarta Ahmeti stressed the importance of having the parliament of Kosovo contract different experts for various committees. According to Ahmeti, only a few of the laws passed by the legislature had been publicly discussed, “which means that the citizens cannot contribute in any way”.
An in-depth story prepared by Muhamet Hajrullahu tackled the issue of the technical preparations of the parliament.
The show concluded with Kosovo’s Son-in-Law making a tongue-in-cheek appeal for money for parliamentary deputies.
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
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