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Airport Corruption Row Inflames Kosovo

20 04 2006  Airport Corruption Row Inflames Kosovo UNMIK accused of turning blind eye to an explosive probe that lifts lid on fraud and bribery at Pristina Airport.

By Krenar Gashi in Pristina (Balkan Insight, 20 Apr 06)

Opposition parties and civil society groups here have accused the head of the entity's UN authority and the Kosovo government of downplaying a damning report on Pristina Airport, which alleges that corruption has flourished in the public company. A government statement on April 14 supported the stance of Soren Jessen-Petersen, head of the UN authority, known as UNMIK, in saying the report's explosive claims were out of date and referred "to a period of time when the actual head of UN mission was not present in Kosovo".
Petersen has been accused of dismissing the significance of the report, released early in April by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, OIOS. The opposition claims any tolerance of corruption will inflict severe damage on Kosovo's drive for independence and on its attempt to build up transparent institutional frameworks.
The OIOS investigation said that "fraud and mismanagement were rife" and that "there was systematic corruption" at the airport.
A UN department, the OIOS has gained a reputation for probing the dark side of Kosovo after launching a successful investigation in 2002 into the entity's mismanaged electric corporation, KEK.
The OIOS helped to track down and ensure the return of 4.3 million US dollars stolen by Jo Trutschler, KEK's former German head. Trutschler is now serving a prison sentence.
Pristina Airport was designated a Publicly Owned Enterprise after the UN mission in Kosovo was established in 1999.
Since July 1, 2002, it has come under the responsibility of the Kosovo Trust Agency, which handles the privatisation and sell-off of the territory's assets, among other things, and under the so-called Pillar IV of UNMIK, which deals with economic affairs.
The OIOS investigators said they found "a general disregard of and disrespect for procurement rules by persons employed at Pristina Airport".
More damningly, they complained of "a complete failure of UNMIK to address this problem".
The task force said it was "surprised to find that even after the transmittal of the individual investigation reports, substantial reluctance remained on the part of UNMIK senior management to take appropriate disciplinary action against those responsible for the lack of oversight and control of airport funds".
Investigators said this inaction on the part of UNMIK towards fraud and corruption in publicly owned enterprises dated from the start of the mission in 1999.
The report concluded that this same "reluctance by senior Mission management to address fraud and corruption will have a devastating impact on public perception inside and outside of Kosovo, as the United Nations will be seen as escaping from the problems rather than solving them".
However, on April 10, UNMIK flatly refuted the report's conclusions and rated the report itself as flawed.
"The allegations made are not supported by the facts and are not substantiated by the evidence," said a press release.
When Balkan Insight contacted UNMIK's spokesperson, Gyorgy Kakuk, with regard to this, he referred back to the press release of April 10.
"The current head of UNMIK has nothing to do with these accusations from this report and we consider they are unfounded," he said.
UNMIK's defensive response has only fuelled charges that Petersen failed to take the harsh measures that were needed against corruption after he took over in June 2004.
There has been widespread concern about the running of the airport for years. The media have long bracketed it alongside other such troubled public firms as KEK and the Post and Telecommunications company of Kosovo, PTK.
Until now only the abuses in KEK have been resolved in court, while legal procedures relating to the running of the PTK are ongoing.
Pristina Airport hit the headlines - for all the wrong reasons - when a young man named Kastriot Zogiani was killed in November 2004.
According to the initial police statement, his murder was connected to a bribe he had given for a coveted job in airport.
Jobs at Pristina Airport are highly prized by Kosovars, not only because they are well paid, but also because airport is seen as a gateway for small and medium illegal benefits.
Three men, whom police said were running a scam, obtaining employment for staff at the airport in return for bribes, were then arrested over the murder. However, Zogiani's death was not resolved and the murder charges were dropped for lack of evidence.
Then, in September 2005, four members of the airport management, including the chief of security, were suspended and charged with mismanagement and corruption.
Again, the result was inconclusive. The men were all released for lack of evidence and reinstated in their positions.
While these cases have left many members of the public uneasy over the airport's management, UNMIK has praised it as a well-run local asset.
"The airport is a success story for Kosovo," said the UNMIK statement on April 10.
"It manages almost one million passengers per year and internally it has been developed into a transparent and modern company."
That has not convinced Hashim Thaci, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the largest opposition party, who says the OIOS charge sheet is too serious and comprehensive to ignore.
Thaci said attempts to bypass the accusations would only fuel public suspicions that elements within UNMIK were themselves involved in goings-on at the airport.
"From those who are involved in corruption you can always expect such a gesture as ... silence," he said.
Gyorgy Kakuk, UNMIK spokesperson, said Thaci's allegations were groundless, maintaining it was unfair to say UNMIK downplayed the report.
"It's not true ... that OIOS allegation have not been taken seriously," he said.
Thaci said the authorities' seemingly casual attitude towards the report's contents might have an undesirable impact on talks on Kosovo's final status, which are expected to conclude this year.
It might also affect the territory's economic development and its hopes of European integration, he opined.
"Kosovo cannot be an independent state and at the same time led by a mafia," said Thaci. "Investors are also likely to run away from an insecure place with structural corruption at the heart of its institutions."
Avni Zogiani, leader of Cohu, a new non-governmental organisation set up specifically to expose and combat corruption, said the affair had damaged Petersen's personal standing.
"Since the airport affair, Petersen is viewed as person who is indifferent to corruption and organised crime," Zogiani told Balkan Insight.
Mufail Limani, an analyst in Pristina, said the scandal had highlighted the mistaken priorities of the international community in Kosovo, in giving first consideration to "maintaining inter-ethnic peace in the region, while issues of fighting corruption, fraud and organised crime are left behind".
Burim Ejupi, from the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development, KIPRED, said UNMIK had decided to file away the report's claims in order to ensure that its mission in Kosovo ended on a calm note.
"Ignoring the accusations from the airport affair is clearly convenient to Petersen and UNMIK," Ejupi told Balkan Insight.
"As soon as UN mission is over, corruption and fraud will appear again, allowing the UN to say that such negative phenomena never happened while they were in charge."


Krenar Gashi is a contributor to Balkan Insight. Balkan Insight is BIRN's online publication