Tag: Kosovo

Dragash municipality is one of the municipalities with the lowest budget, standing at around 5.9 million euro. In the past two years a significant part of the budget has been used for road construction. Due to poor economy, a vast number of citizens of this municipality emigrated and many villages risk being empted. On the other hand, the municipality continued to construct roads to these villages despite the low number of residents.

During the 2009 election campaign, mayoral candidate for the second term, now Mayor z. Salim Jonuzi (PDK), had presented to the electorate a development program and other promises for better life in this municipality. After recording all the promises made during the election campaign, GAP Institute researchers and those from BIRN came to the municipality to see whether the promises of Mr. Jenuzi have been met. As usual, at the beginning of the program, there was a TV report with promises, which also pointed to the conclusion about them being met or not.

The report included citizens, members of civil society and opposition parties who showed their concerns about these promises not being realized.

Among the promises made by Mr. Dragash Jenuzi were: construction of a hydro plant in Zhur, despite the fact that the implementation of such project is the responsibility of respective ministry. In 2009, the municipality decided to prohibit construction of new facilities in three villages (Qollopek, Brezne and Buqe) and decided to move the local population because of the hydro plant. But, despite this, the people continue to build new houses there, Brezne also being the only village in which houses were built over the past 12 years.                                                                

The citizens of the municipality said that nothing has been done in terms of realization of these promises. Furthermore, the villagers to be relocated have not received any official information regarding the future of their assets.

Another thing which the mayor has promised was the construction of a business centre. The report revealed that the construction of this centre has begun, but has not been completed yet, due to lack of water, electricity and sewage.

Other promises had to do with the construction of school buildings and supplying the existing schools with new equipment and cabinets. Researchers of GAP Institute and BIRN have observed that up to now there was no new school built. Further, there has not been any increase in quality of education in this municipality. For example, replacing the experienced teachers with those who just graduated raises concerns about quality which the educational system of this municipality is offering.

The mayor has promised improved conditions in the health sector. More specifically, he promised to supply the FMCs with the necessary drugs. In practice, most of the FMCs continues to experience the lack of essential drugs. Citizens are forced to buy drugs in private pharmacies which are not near the health institutions.

Mr. Jenuzi has promised the improvement of infrastructure as well. Two years ago, he promised to pave all of the city’s roads. It is evident that most of the roads are finished and are functioning well, but there still are many roads in the city as well as the villages, which have not been paved yet.

After seeing the report, Mr. Jenuzi said: “We, nevertheless tried to improve the lives of citizens as much as we could…I can say that all the local roads have been asphalted, except for three, which we have not managed to finish,” he concluded.

Monitors of the GAP institute and BIRN went to there in order to monitor to what extent has mayor fulfilled his promises.

The monitors found that, the construction of the wastewater collector has not started yet and confirmed the claims by Malisheva opposition of Malisheva which say that no investments for this project have been planned.

“Even though this is considered municipality’s great achievement and despite that 90 per cent of the work is done, the promise is not close to realization, because this is a very expensive project,” said Besnik Hoti, assembly member from the Democratic Party of Kosovo.

The same evaluation of this project was given by the representatives of “Vetevendosje” movement, who said that this promise has not been fulfilled at all. According to them, the implementations of different projects were focused only on some villages where the sewage system was built, but not to an extent which would make the project functional and successful. 

A resident of Bubel village, concerned about this project’s failure, as this would further decrease the quality of living of the locals.

In addition, the investments to increase the tourist capacities of this municipality are missing. The most beautiful tourist attractions, particularly the “Mirusha” waterfall, were not subjected to any mayor investment. There were, however some investments, such as the expansion of the road which leads to the waterfall and the construction of several parks, an investment which still awaits completion.

On the other hand, Mr. Kilaj said that all the criticism with which he was faced during the debate had a political background. As far as the construction of the wastewater collector is concerned, he said that this part of the project will be finished within two or three months.

At the end of the debate a woman considered to be a role model and the “Pride of the Municipality”, was presented to audience. Mrs. Mazeku is a teacher who dedicates all her time to working with children with special needs.  

During the campaign of 2009, Sokol Bashota – the candidate of the PDK (Democratic Party of Kosovo) committed himself to continuing the projects he started working on during his first mandate. Two and a half years later, the city’s Culture House has not been completed, the bus station has not even entered the construction phase and drinking water is still a big problem for citizens of this municipality. But the local government led by Mr. Bashota took pride in completing the “White House” – municipal buildingmade for their needs.

During the debate mayor Bashota spoke of municipality’s achievements which, in his opinion included asphalting 70 kilometres of roads and pavements and also repairing some parts of the the riverside pavement?).  As was the case with Prishtina debate, representatives from opposition parties and Klina citizens criticized mayor for delays with the construction of the bus station. They said that 13 years after the war, this bus station has not started functioning.

“The truth is that the construction of the bus station is not even being discussed. The issue has been neglected by this government,” said Enver Berisha from the Alliance for the Kosovo Future.

Bashota, who is serving a second term as mayor of Klina, blamed the previous government for not giving enough construction space in the vicinity of the train station, where the new bus station is supposed to be built. He promised again that the bus station will be completed during this mandate.

According to Mr. Bashota the urban plan for the municipality is being changed. “This project is in progress,” he said. On the other hand, the Vetëvendosje representative Skender Murturi said: “First they construct the buildings, and then they change the urban plan according to their interests.”

Mayor Bashota said: “The apartments, according to previous legislation were given  to members of one political entity. Now, those flats are shared equally by all entities.”

Other criticism aimed at the mayor was concerning the excessive public expenses during this year (which are up to 80 percent higher than last year). Bashota argued that the expenses were necessary in order to do a job as good as he argues his team did.

The idea behind this format of debate is to speak to mayors of municipalities, and to ask them to what extent they have fulfilled the promises given during the election campaign at the end of 2009.

The first in the series was the municipality of Prishtina – which is also the capital of the Republic of Kosovo. The viewers could watch the debate with the mayor of this municipality, Isa Mustafa.

The debate also included representatives from the opposition, civil society as well as the citizens of Prishtina. Two key questions were: To what extent has the mayor of Prishtina fulfilled his promises and why are the opposition and civil society criticizing the mayor for failing to fulfil the promises?

Alongside Mayor Mustafa were the representatives of political parties which are active in Prishtina, such as PDK, AAK, AKR and Vetëvendosje (self-determination), as well as civil society representatives and journalists.

Before the mayor confronted opposite opinions in the debate there was a brief TV report from 2009 election campaign reminding viewers of promises given then by Isa Mustafa.

Also broadcasted was a report prepared by the researchers of GAP Institute and BIRN, which showed how the promises regarding Prishtina were put to practice. Based on this research the capital continues to be in a state of urban chaos with just a few buildings having construction permission. In addition, this report also uncovered stagnation in terms of economics development, with special emphasis on stagnation of the development of small and medium-size enterprises in this municipality.

Transparency of officials was another reason for discontent of civil society representatives and the journalists taking part in the debate.

Avni Bytyqi from INPO NGO said: “The municipality of Prishtina is transparent only in cases where work resulted in success. On the other hand, if we want to have access to any document or information which the officials hold, we face many obstacles, since the information within the municipality is centralized  and it is very difficult to reach the competent officials who deal with access to information.

Mayor Mustafa did not accept criticism saying that it was both unfounded and unreasonable.

The debate left space for success stories presented by the mayor. According to the municipality of Prishtina the construction of underpass located in the centre of the city has been considered the key success. “This underpass enables free movement for citizens especially for children and elderly people,” said Mr. Mustafa.

He continued by mentioning another success of his municipality, saying they have repaired 58 elevators in some residential buildings in Prishtina. Also mentioned was the construction of new library in “Dardania” neighbourhood as well as construction of green spaces in  some streets of Prishtina.

On the other hand “Life in Kosovo” shed a light on other shortcomings Prishtina municipality is facing. Citizens cited the lack of parking spaces as well as problems with drinking water as main problems. Most of Prishtina citizens face issues with drinking water, despite Mr. Mustafa’s promise that this problem will be solved during his mandate.

The audience that also participated in the debate expressed their dissatisfactions with the achievements of the municipality in the past two and half years.

The report mentions also that reports by the General Auditor do not clearly present the management of public money in the Municipality of Novobrdo.

Meanwhile, in the work report of 2011, the directorate of education in the municipality of has considered mentioned the lack of staff, not only in schools, but also in the Directorate of Education itself.

Around 244 employees are working in education in Novobrdo, in preschool, elementary, and high school. Their salaries total more than 775, 341 per year.

In the municipal administration, according to the same report, even the appointment of municipal employees in departments is not correct. The municipality has a director of inspection, the director of the Cadaster, Geology, and the director of Health, however, they do not have any staff in these “departments”.

 “In 2011, the municipality of Novobrdo invested more than 102,000 euro in renovating the water supply system. However the problems with the water supply remain almost the same”, says the monitoring report of GAP.

As a consequence, the residents of the neighborhoods Kolonia e Vjeter, Kolonia e Re, Pllavoca, and Mehmetaj face a lack of drinking water for the majority of time.

Then, the report says, the greatest part of the territory of the municipality of Novobrdo is far from the Prishtina-Gjilan road intersection, where there is a frequent circulation of buses and taxis- so the residents face problems of public transport.

Also, the road that connects the village Llabjan in Novobrdo with the municipality of Kamenica is not suitable for buses, whereas the private companies that transport travellers do not have any economic incentive by operating in this road.

According to the monitoring report, all that the municipality has done in two years and a half, is repairing bus stops. The municipality hasn’t even been able to manage waste.

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.