Author: birnEU

Begzat Sinani, former mayor of the municipality, was the one who initially criticized the mayor for excessive expenses in the municipality.

“Travel expenses in and out of country amount to 34,319 euros, phone expenses to 37,095 euros, official lunches 25,489 euros, all of these in one year,” Sinani said. 

Sinani said that during his time in power, these expenses were around one third of Surdulli’s. “During my mandate, these expenses reached the value of 34,000 euros”.

Ahmet Ibrahimi, from Vetevendosje, said that these enormous expenses in gas are a misuse of public money. “He uses the official car and goes with it to university. In fact, he’s misusing the budget and the work of citizens”, Ibrahimi said.

Surdolli did not deny these expenses, but  said he did not misuse public money. “Everyone knows that I am a professor at the university, with a master’s degree in, and once a week I teach at the University of Prishtina and AAB. I go there with the car of the municipality because I need to be with the driver”, Surdulli said.

According to him, this is not a big deal, because he is always on duty as mayor. Despite the criticism, he would not promise to refrain from future person expenses.

Surdolli spoke about his successes such as cleaning the river of Kamenica, building a school in the village Shibashtice, as well as constructing the municipal building.

During the debate, BIRN mentioned as success the maintenance of green areas as well as building two roundabouts in the city of Kamenica.

Although, Surdulli has been praised for working in facilitating the work of businesses in his municipality, he hasn’t been able to explain why his municipality, which is smaller than the one of Gjilan, has higher taxes. Among others, the debate discussed how the students of this municipality do not have heating in the school buildings, even though the parents have expressed their concerns on this issue, however, Sudrulli has made sure to allocate 30,000 euros for heating in two mosques in the village Koret.

The sports center also does not have the attention of the municipality, even though it has been selected as the pride of this municipality since its athletes have has received many medals. The municipality has given the club only 1,000 euros.

Suma, running as an independent in 2009, managed to win over political party candidates, by becoming this way the first mayor who was an independent candidate.

However, after being praised for not hiring political party supporters in his municipality, Suma has been criticized for hiring the son of his sister as head of procurement.

In the debate “Life in the Municipality”, Suma said that the son of his sister was head of procurement even before he was elected in the position he now holds. “It would be a conflict of interest if he would have been hired after me coming into power, however he was there before I became mayor — he was a PDK appointee”, Suma said.

Even though investigations by BIRN and GAP have deemed as successful the non-politicization of school directorates, the municipality of the Hani i Elezi has a problem with employment, especially of people with disabilities.

“The municipality of Hani i Elezit is the only municipality that hasn’t hired persons with disabilities”, says Ymer Suma, a volunteer at Handikos in Hani i Elezit .

Suma explain this by saying that this municipality is understaffed due to budget constraints, and adds that people with special needs have been hired during his mandate in several projects of a 2 to 3 months length.

The mayor was also criticized for not supporting women’s progress in the municipality.

No head of directorates in the municipality is a women. The highest position that is held by a woman is the head of personnel.

 “The mayor’s declaration of promising to create 5,000 jobs, and other promises that he has given, were only campaign related, because creating 5,000 jobs in one term is impossible, especially in Lipjan”, said Tasholli. According to him, jobs haven’t been created because the conditions for investments haven’t been created in the first place.

Arben Bahtiri from Vetevendosje, said that Buja hasn’t managed to achieve his promises even for those that support him, never mind those who don’t.

 “We have employment of customers, those from the party in power, or the opposition, however they only support the mayor for their interests”, said Bahtiri.

The mayor of Lipjan doesn’t accept that he made promises only to receive votes. Buja said that creating 5,000 jobs is a big number, however, according to him the municipality has created 1,000 construction jobs, because the municipality started giving permission for the construction of public housing units.

Bahtiri said that in this case the land has been taken from private owners, to be given to certain businesses.

However, the mayor of Lipjan had an explanation as to why this center hasn’t been built. According to him, this center, where many unemployed residents of the municipality would be hired, requires certain procedures to be followed.

Buja was reminded during the debate on the investments he’s made in his private business, including the villas that his son has built.

The mayor said that these investments have been made with the money he has earned from his businesses, as well as through a 50,000-euro bank loan.

Apart from the business, during the debate, the mayor mentioned the successes that he achieved while managing the municipality, including building the public housing units, finishing the urban plan, demolishing some constructions, and building a fountain near the railroad, investing in road infrastructure, pipe systems, and repairing and building schools.

Whereas, regarding failures in his municipality, Buja hesitated to talk about them, explaining that he has two years of his term left to achieve them all, “A few things haven’t been completed, but we have two years of my term remaining so we will get them done” said Buja.

During the debate, he was criticized for not implementing some projects. Nazim Gashi, a resident of the village Buse, complained that the municipality is not repairing the road that he takes to this village and that when residents protested, they were arrested.

Whereas, the residents of the village Magure complained that they are facing shortage of drinking water because of defects in a water pump.

The mayor, while talking about the road to village Bruse, said that 900 meters of it will be finished soon, whereas for pipe systems in Konjuj, he promised that it will be done through a project that will serve 12 villages in the municipality.

However, a problem for Buja is ensuring drinking water in the village Magure, since the water supply in the village is being managed by AKP, which has problems paying for electricity and frequent repairs.

Krasniqi, who has been mayor since 2009, last year, bought a new Hyundai car, which cost to the budget of the municipality no less than 31,000 euro.

This acquisition, according to the municipal deputy of the Movement for Unity, Ajet Berisha, equals 6.5 per cent of the taxes that the municipality has collected by its residents during 2011.

Meanwhile, during the debate, the mayor of the municipality boasted about his new car. “It’s true that I have a new Hyundai, and that it’s a very good and comfortable car. It can’t get any better”, said Krasniqi, in the debate on “Life in the Municipality”.

Regarding the price of the car, Krasniqi said that it’s one of the cheapest cars that the mayors in the country drive.

This money spent in buying the car could have been used in different projects of this municipality, which for the moment does not have a House of Culture, has major problems in collecting garbage and lacks two schools.

The mayor of the municipality agreed that a house of culture hasn’t been built. And that in the village of Lajthishte, the school is in a very bad condition. However, Krasniqi said that he will implement these projects during this mandate.

The mayor of the most polluted municipality in Kosovo was also criticized for not paying enough attention to waste. “Regarding treating garbage, those responsible for collecting garbage do not do it in 60 percent of the territory”, said Ajet Berisha, the deputy of Movement for Unity.

Regarding the environment, Krasniqi has been criticized especially for the illegal landfills that are on the road Obilic-Pal.

The mayor said that the waste will be removed during this year, since the municipality is about to reach an agreement with the Ministry of the Environment, an agreement which will ensure funding of 300,000 euro to remove the landfills and improve the environment in this area. Krasniqi has warned that he will take measures against those that deposit garbage.

During the debate, it was discussed how the four brothers of the mayor receive salaries from the budget of Kosovo, whereas the fifth brother receives money from the municipality’s budget, not as an employee, but by offering services for the municipality through his business.

However, according to Mayor Rasim Selmanaj, his family members being involved in the municipality is not a result of his position.

Selmanaj explained why his brothers work in the municipality, and also why his brother won the tender of supplying the municipality with office supplies.

“There is no nepotism in my municipality”, Selmanaj said.

He even tried to explain the job positions of his brothers. According to him, they had these positions even before he became mayor.

Selmanaj couldn’t deny that during this mandate, the municipality awarded the tender to the business of his brother Fahri Selmanaj, who now supplies the municipality with office, supplies.

 “It is the procurement office that awarded the tender, not me”, Selmanaj said.

He said that he wasn’t aware of this tender until a journalist called him on the phone and asked.

Selmanaj did not deny that the contract of the municipality with the company “Agimi D” has been signed on August 2, 2010, when he was mayor.

According to Salih Lajci from PDK, the mayor has not kept his promise of cleaning the river. “Today, Lumbardh is not in a better condition and sewage is deposited into this river”, he says.

According to Vesel Nikci from LDK, repairing the riverbed requires a multimillion-euro investment, money that the municipality doesn’t have. “Ali Berisha, when promising the project, should have been careful on what he was promising, as these promises cannot be kept”, Nikci said.

Berisha, who promised in his campaign to build a sewage-treatment plant, said most municipalities face problems of sewage pipes going into rivers. “Building the plants requires great investments”, says Berisha, almost three years after the election campaign.

According to Berisha, until now, no municipality has replaced its sewage plant, with the exception of Prizren, which is still in the process of replacing its plant. Berisha says that foreign donors are needed and expected, since this project is very difficult to implement with the budget of the municipality.

 “We are waiting for a project we have submitted at the Swiss Office; we think that the municipality of Peja is one of the municipalities that should have one of these plants”.

Berisha said other factors were to blame for the failure to prevent illegal deforestation, which he promised to do in his campaign. He has blamed the Agency of Forests in Kosovo for being slow to carry out its responsibilities to municipalities.  

“The responsibilities are being slowly executed; the municipality has its responsibilities in preserving, and not in determining what is to be cut”, says Berisha. The municipality has hired four forest guards for an area of 20,000 hectares of forests.

Another electoral promise of Berisha to develop tourism, was building a cable car, which would take visitors from Peja to the Rugova Gorge “I said the cable car is a dream, and we cannot do it without support. It requires a great investment, of over 20 million euros, “ Berisha said.

He said that a feasibility study has been conducted on this project and officials waiting for foreign investors to help in building it. While going with a cable car to Rugova is a dream, for visitors it’s difficult to get there even with cars, since the 8-kilometer long road to the Boge village continues to not be repaired. Multiple tenders to fix the road have failed.

Berisha said he expects roadwork to start this year and finish next year.

The companies which have contracts with the municipality of Podujevo are likely to receive the payments owed in months or even years.

Agim Veliu, the mayor of Podujevo, did not deny the fact that a substantial part of the budget of the municipality has been spent to pay damages, but he called this a mere fulfillment of obligations.

“Sometimes there are debts; it can happen that a project is projected to cost a specific amount, however unplanned things come up during implementation and as a result of this there are more demands. This is not damage, but a mere fulfillment of obligations,” Veliu said during the debate.

Members of the opposition, however, have their own explanations for why the municipality of Podujevo is short on cash and is unable to fulfill its obligations toward contractors.

According to Blerim Maqastena from Vetevendosje, the municipality spends around 360,000 euros per year on oil. “You have spent around 360,000 euros on oil- around 1,000 euros per day. I do not know how they are spending this or what they do with 1,000 euros of oil products in a day,” Maqastena said.

But Veliu denied these figures. He said that the sum is much smaller, without giving specific figures. Meanwhile he argued that Maqastena was misleading the public. “This is malicious misinformation that Vetevendosje knows how to do.

The truth is very different, the expenses for oil are much smaller, even though not much smaller, but we use the oil for heating in schools, ambulances, fire engines, and so on,” Veliu said.