Tag: Kosovo

BIRN Hosts Kosovo Prime Ministerial Debates

BIRN Kosovo hosted a series of debates ahead of Kosovo’s upcoming parliamentary elections, with the candidates for prime minister invited to present their plans for governing to a team of civil society experts.

Over four consecutive nights, from September 26-29, in the buildup to Kosovo’s parliamentary elections on October 6, BIRN Kosovo invited all the candidates for prime minister to appear in a televised debate anchored by the organisation’s director, Jeta Xharra.

Flanked by a team of ten MP candidates from their respective parties and coalitions, each prime ministerial hopeful unveiled their plans for governing in front of a team of 24 experts invited by BIRN, who provided further questions and scrutiny.

The candidates were probed about their plans for domestic issues in particular, especially on economic development, education, the environment, social welfare and the rule of law.

Albin Kurti of Vetevendosje, Ramush Haradinaj from the coalition between the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Vjosa Osmani of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), and Fatmir Limaj from the coalition between NISMA, the New Kosovo Alliance (AKR) and the Justice Party (PD) all appeared in the debates. Kadri Veseli, the prime ministerial candidate for the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, also agreed to present his plans but later cancelled his appearance.

The debates were broadcast on RTV21 and streamed through the Facebook page for BIRN Kosovo’s anti-corruption platform, Kallxo.com. Online streams reached close to one million people. 

BIRN Kosovo’s election coverage will now continue with debates featuring specialists from each party on specific fields, including health, education and sustainable development.

The first was held on September 30 and focused on economic development and featured representatives from all five of the major political forces seeking representation in the Kosovo Assembly.

Court Monitoring Report 2018

A new report by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network monitored courts and prosecutors in Kosovo and found they are still failing to get adequate results in the fight against corruption.

The report, based on BIRN Kosovo’s monitoring of 520 court hearings, found that there was a fall last year in the number of resolved cases, in verdicts that imposed effective prison sentences, and in verdicts that imposed fines or parole sentences. On the other hand, there was a drastic increase in acquittals and cases that were dropped.

All the result show that there is a deterioration in the fight against corruption in terms of the number of accused persons as well as in the number of punishable verdicts.

Download full report.

BIRN Kosovo Holds Debate on Audit Report in Rahovec

The first in a series of debates discussing the findings of BIRN Kosovo’s audit report monitoring project, which analyses reports from Kosovo’s National Audit Office on the progress of auditing processes by Kosovo municipalities, was held on Friday, September 20, in the Municipality of Rahovec.

Results from BIRN’s monitoring and analysis were published and discussed in an open debate with more than thirty participants from the municipality, the National Audit Office and civil society representatives, which was streamed live on BIRN’s anti-corruption platform KALLXO.com.

The debate was organized within the framework of the project ‘Support civil society to increase public oversight and accountability of Kosovo public institutions,’ funded by the British Embassy in Prishtina. This activity is organized  to monitor the compliance of targeted public institutions with recommendations of the Auditor General Reports published by the National Audit Office.

Visar Prebreza, BIRN Kosovo’s Managing Director, gave a brief presentation on the project and the findings. According to Prebreza, out of the thirteen recommendations given to municipality officials by the National Audit Office during BIRN’s continuous monitoring process, only four have been implemented by the Municipality of Rahovec.

“In the area of procurement, there have been continuous findings, either at the beginning of procurement procedures or in the implementation of contracts. These problems are not only in Rahovec, we have trouble everywhere,” said Prebreza.

During the debate, the mayor of the Municipality of Rahovec, Smajl Latifi, said that he is aware of several procedural problems and omissions in the implementation of public procurement projects, but praised the execution of the paperless online procurement system that has been put in place.

“I think the electronic platform has contributed to increased transparency. Procedures and the evaluation of bids are both a goal and a challenge, but we believe there has been an improvement in terms of procedural omissions,” said Latifi. “We are also striving to improve the quality of our cooperation with the Public Procurement Regulatory Committee, and we are trying to be fair in our implementation of the Public Procurement Law.”

The representative from the National Audit Office, Ilir  Salihu, discussed the achievements of and barriers to the auditing process in the Municipality of Rahovec, explaining that his office is charged with providing recommendations and support to Kosovo municipalities in the auditing process. “We are an institution assisting the management of public institutions, we should not be seen as controllers and inspectors, because we do not have that role, but we are here to identify the issues,” said Salihu.

Through these debates, BIRN journalists intend to record and disseminate the promises made by officials of both the National Audit Office and the Municipality of Rahovec, to be followed up and fact-checked in the future on Kallxo.com’s online fact-checking platform, Kryptometer.

Similar debates will be held in other municipalities across Kosovo, with the aim of presenting BIRN Kosovo’s analysis of the implementation of audit recommendations made to each municipality. Each debate will be held in the municipal assemblies of the municipalities in question, and will be live streamed by BIRN Kosovo.

Visar Prebreza

Visar started his career as a journalist at the “Kosova Sot” newspaper in 2007.

In 2010 he joined the team of the newspaper “Koha Ditore” and worked there until July 2016. Throughout his career, he has been noted for research in the field of economics. He has written in particular about the energy and procurement sectors. He also studied Political Science and Public Administration at Fama College. He is completing his Master’s degree at the University of Business, and Technology, UBT, in Management, Business, and Economics. During his career in journalism, Prebreza has been awarded by the UNDP, the Association of Journalists, the European Union, the Union of Albanian Journalists, the Riinvest Institute and the EU Energy Efficiency Project.

Naser Sertolli

Naser joined BIRN in January 2016, after 16 years of experience as a journalist, translator, and editor at the daily newspaper Zeri.

Naser graduated from the Department of French Literature and Language at the Faculty of Philology within the University of Pristina. His fields of expertise are social and justice issues.

Mimoza Feraj

She graduated from the Faculty of Economy in the Banking, Finance and Accounting department at the University of Pristina, and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree.

Her previous experience is in the field of auditing and financial advising.

Dorentina Kastrati

Dorentina is a journalist who joined KALLXO.com initially as an intern at the end of 2016.

She graduated from the Journalism Department at the University of Pristina and is now pursuing a Master’s degree in European Integration and Public Administration at the public university in Pristina. The topics she addresses in her articles span across various fields, ranging from citizen reporting and daily news to investigations into public procurement.