Tag: Kosovo

Monitors from BIRN and the GAP Institute have found that some tenders have indeed been won by party supporters and family members. Among others, a contract for supplying water and food to kindergartens and the tender for an ambulance, valued at 35,000 euros, were won by the company Shpetimi, whose owners include municipal advisor Besim Halimi, a member of the PDK.

Automobile insurance is provided by Siguria, which is owned by the deputy head of the municipality. According to Mayor Arifi, the company was chosen because it “offered the lowest prices in the tender.” Meanwhile, the company that supplies fuel for municipal cars, IziPetro, has a representative who is the brother of the municipal director of agriculture.  Arifi said that the contract was signed before the director got his job. “He does not hold this contract anymore.”

During the debate, Arifi boasted that he had built a cemetery for veterans just outside of the municipality of Viti and had overseen construction of the city’s square, parking spaces and road signals. He also touted the completion of a municipal legal structure.

“Together with the opposition we managed to create the commission on a municipal level and by complying with all procedures, the status of the municipality was approved,” he said.

But Hasan Alia from the opposition party LDK said the legal initiative came from his party. Alia also criticised the mayor’s administration. “The administration cannot be considered efficient when it has four or five directors on its board who are working for the first time; it is not an efficient administration when the mayor continually pursues his own interest,” he said.

Vetevendosje members criticized all the parties that are part of the municipal assembly for violating legal provisions. Arton Muslia said that the opposition cannot be freed from responsibility since it has been part of the decisions.

“For two years in a row the (municipal) status hasn’t been approved and the mayor is not the only one responsible for this,” said Muslia, adding: “the opposition does not exist in Viti”.

He proceeded with accusations of budget mismanagement, mentioning that 208,000 euros were expended for maintaining roads; 10,000 euros for paint; 60,000 for the tender to build the dam for irrigation, and others. Apart from expenditures, according to him, the results of these projects are nowhere to be seen.

“The political scene of Viti is depoliticized. In general, politics here is reduced to salaries, per diems, and services, whereas the residents are not able to enjoy the goods that they should have,” Muslia said.

Of the electoral promises of 2009, few have been implemented in practice. Among others, the construction of the bridge at Viti’s outskirts started two years ago, but it hasn’t been completed. The municipality says that works have been suspended because of the objections of one resident.

In addition, the lack of a municipal building has caused the municipal administration to continue to work in seven different facilities.

 

Two and a half years after his election, one of the main electoral promises, the steady supply of drinking water, seems to be making good progress. Suhareka now has 200 liters more water per second.  With the help of international donors, wells have been dug, and work is being done to extend the water supply system to villages.

Kuci, who is from the AAK, said that the city, which had been ruled by LDK since the war, now has water 24 hours a day. “Before my mandate there was never water … we have paid special attention to water,” he said.

Opposition parties, meanwhile, say that the problem hasn’t been solved but there has been some progress with the help of USAID.

Florim Kryeziu from PDK said that in some villages of Suhareka, the lack of drinking water continues to be a problem.
“Another five million euros are needed to supply all the villages of Theranda with water,” Kuci said. He would not promise that during his mandate all villages would have drinking water.

During the electoral campaign Kuci also promised to provide subsidies for farmers. Speaking on “Life in the Municipality”, he said that 2 million euros have been distributed, but the opposition says that subsidies have gone mainly to Kuci’s political party supporters.

Kuci said that a municipal agency has now been established that is tasked with supporting the farmers by drafting projects and raising funds to develop agriculture. Through this agency, according to Kuci, 2 million euros in subsidies have been given to farmers.

However, Shefket Kolgeci from the LDK said that subsidies for farmers haven’t reached the “right addresses”.
“Farmers subsidies have gone to those who favor members of his party, and those who gave their ballots during the campaign,” Kolgeci said.

The opposition also accused the mayor of mismanaging the budget.  Kolgeci said that the peak of mismanagement was the construction of the bridge over river Theranda.

“This project started in August of 2011, while the money was given in 2010. But work still hasn’t started,” he said.

The team of observers from BIRN and GAP have found that the electoral promises kept include the construction of protective barriers on the road from Qafa e Duhles to Suhareka; the elimination of a requirement that parents must pay their property tax before receiving a birth certificate for their newborn child, and Mayor Kuci’s meetings with residents, which occur every Tuesday. But Kuci’s promise to cut unemployment has not been realized.

The residents of the municipality of Theranda that participated in the debate asked Kuci about a range of issues- from unemployment to the general infrastructure of the municipality.

Rifat Bilalli of the Democratic League of Dardania said during a debate broadcast on Radio Television of Kosovo that “the roads, pipe systems, and water supply systems that have been built are of extremely low quality.”

“The pipes have only been ‘buried,’ while they barely function,” Bilall said.

According to the opposition, the most grandiose promise made by Drenas Mayor Nexhat Demaku- to build an industrial center- has remained simply a pre-election promise.

“The Industrial Business Center in front of the Business Park has not yet been started… the deadlines which mayor Demaku talked about have failed; they passed long ago,” said Petrit Bajraktari from Vetevendosje.

Bekim Dobra, a Koha Ditore journalist who is from Drenas, said that this major project hasn’t started yet, even though the mayor promised that it would be built within the two years following the election.

Mayor Demaku, meanwhile, said the municipality has done a lot to repair infrastructure, such as roads, sewage systems and water supply systems.

During the show, Demaku was praised for building the central square in Drenas, the Ali Bajraktari school and public housing.
The team of observers from BIRN and the GAP Institute also found that Demaku fulfilled some campaign promises, including the construction of the Fehmi Lladrovci high school, the renovation of the local emergency room and the establishment of subsidies for farmers.

But others haven’t been fulfilled, including repairing the Drenas riverbed, improving the safety conditions at the aging Arllati school, and minimal repair done to the roads of the Shtutice and Cikatove villages.

Another problem that was raised during the debate was the transportation of students in vans to schools in the Arllat and Llapushnik villages. The transport was arranged by the municipality, however a commission has determined that student safety is threatened because the vans are overloaded with students, and have at times been driven by individuals under the age of 18.

Mayor Demaku was not able to justify the decision to again award the tender to a company owned by the brothers Thaci and managed by the municipal advisor, Elmi Thaci, despite the complaints.

Another promise of Mayor Demaku during the 2009 campaign was the repair of the sewage treatment plant. The opposition and civil society groups said the project hasn’t been fully implemented, despite some progress.

Demaku said work has started on the plant in Korretice, in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce. “But it hasn’t been fully implemented because of opposition by some residents,” he explained.

Drenas residents that participated in the debate asked the mayor about issues including road infrastructure, sewage systems and the water supply system in their villages. Demaku said the budget of the municipality is around 9.4 million euros, which is smaller than some other municipalities with less territory and fewer residents.

It was one part of 10 BIRN presentations on electoral procedures in the municipalities of Obiliq, Mitrovica, Drenas, Fushe Kosove, Suhareka, Kamenica, Prizren, Ferizaj, Hani i Elezit and in Gjilan that were held during October and November 2012.

These presentations gathered 200 first-time voters. They were trained on the electoral process focusing on election frauds, complaint procedures, available penalties, and competent institutions to deal with complaints.

The presentations focused on electoral complaint procedures and institutions. First, the BIRN team offered a comprehensive presentation on these procedures, followed with concrete examples of how BIRN has monitored elections.

The presentations lasted about an hour and were followed with an exercise, in which high school students were presented with an imaginary case.

The BIRN team worked closely with students in order to explain to them how to fill the complaint, what evidence is acceptable for ECAP, how to present evidence in ECAP and other legal elements of the complaints.

After students competed in finding electorial violations, trainers engaged them in discussion.

Questions included: How a witness of a violation during the election should report the case to the relevant institutions? How should a person react, in cases when he or she has been present at the time and place where the violation has occurred? Will there be ask risk to them for reporting the violations?

The United Nations Development Program, in collaboration with Kosovo’s Anti-Corruption Agency and the Association of Professional Journalists in Kosovo, awarded the prizes for the seventh year.

Parim Olluri, a journalist for BIRN’s Gazeta Jeta ne Kosovo, received the award for the best article on issues of corruption in online media.

He was recognized for a series of articles about Kosovo’s prime minister and several well-known businessmen who are close to him.

The jury said Olluri was honoured for the quality of his articles, the impact they had, and his persistence in following up on the stories.  

Kreshnik Gashi and Alban Selimi received the award for best anti-corruption TV investigation. The two BIRN journalists produced a story on bribery within the ranks of the police, which was part of BIRN’s “Justice in Kosovo” program.

The jury commended Gashi and Selimi for the content of their story as well as the manner in which they carried out their investigation

The award for print media went to journalists Vehbi Kajtazi and Besnik Krasniqi from Koha Ditore daily. Jeton Llapashtica of Zeri newspaper was also recognized.

Imer Mushkolaj, executive director of the Association of Professional Journalists of Kosovo, told the journalists that their work is crucial to Kosovo’s development.

“The media cannot win the war against corruption, yet without the media, the war against corruption is impossible,” he told those gathered.

The campaign aims to foster basic democratic values, including participation, individual voting, voter registration, and action against electoral fraud. It is being implemented from October through November 2012, and covers all the municipalities in Kosovo. As part of the campaign, BIRN Kosovo is also organising community meetings in schools with first time voters to inform them of forms of electoral fraud and penalties that follow.

At the project’s opening conference, Kaltrina Hoxha, BIRN Kosovo Project Coordinator, presented the activities that BIRN Kosovo is carrying out as part of the campaign.
“The main focus of these interactive meetings is to raise awareness on violations during electoral processes, ways to report fraud, responsible institutions and their roles and responsibilities, in order to prevent fraud in future electoral processes,” Hoxha said.

BIRN Kosovo has extensive experience in election monitoring and has carried out follow-up activities on violations during electoral processes held in Kosovo. BIRN Kosovo has also filed 20 complaints which have resulted in the annulment of problematic polling stations around the country. At the same time, the organisation has produced lengthy televised reports covering the findings of its monitors in the field.

The South East Europe Media Organisation, SEEMO, an affiliate of the International Press Institute, IPI, has named Jeta Xharra as winner of the 2012 Dr Erhard Busek – SEEMO Award for Better Understanding in South East Europe.

A 10-member international jury chose Xharra for the award based on her outstanding contribution to the process of democratization and better understanding in South East Europe.

“This is recognition of BIRN’s contribution to raising journalistic standards in our region. I feel exceptionally privileged that it has been recognized that debates and investigative reporting that the BIRN team and myself have produced over the years have contributed to more rule of law, more accountability and more freedom of speech in our region and particularly in my young country,” Xharra said.

The award, which carries a cash prize of €3,000, will be presented on November 16 in Vienna by Dr Erhard Busek, president of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, and by Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO’s secretary general.

Since 2005, Xharra has been Kosovo director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, as well as a presenter and the editor-in-chief of  Life in Kosovo, a TV programme that combines investigative journalism and discussions.

Kosovo’s most-watched television current affairs show is shown weekly on Radio Television Kosovo, RTK, and is credited with pushing the boundaries of debate, holding the authorities to account and opening up discussion on taboo subjects.

BIRN Kosovo has 70 staff members and contributors, producing English-language publications, such as Balkan Insight and Prishtina Insight, as well as broadcasting radio and TV programmes and printing publications in local languages, including the newsletter  Justice in Kosovo  and reports from BIRN’s Courts Monitoring Project.

Xharra started her journalistic career as a local producer for BBC News and Channel 4 in 1998, and rose to become manager of the BBC’s Kosovo Bureau. In 1999, she worked for BBC News in Albania and Macedonia. In 2003 she opened the Kosovo office of the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting, IWPR.

Xharra has lived most of her life in Pristina, where she attended school and university. She studied drama at the Academy of Arts in Kosovo. She also lived in London, where she obtained a Master’s in War Studies at King’s College in 2000 and a Master’s with distinction in Screenwriting from the London College of Printing in 2002.

In London, she wrote the play  Warless, which was presented as a reading at London’s Royal Court Theatre during the Young Writer’s Festival in 2004.
She has contributed to various different publications in the United Kingdom, including theIndependent, the  Economist, the  Sunday Telegraph  and  Jane’s Intelligence Review. In Britain, Xharra worked for the Foreign News Planning Desk at the BBC World Service and for IWPR.

The Dr Erhard Busek – SEEMO Award honours journalists, editors, media executives, media experts, writers and journalism trainers in South East Europe who have contributed to promoting better understanding in the region and who have worked towards solving minority-related problems, ethnic divisions, racism, xenophobia, gender discrimination and homophobia among other issues.

Busek, a former Vice-Chancellor of Austria, is Jean Monet Professor ad personam, president of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, coordinator of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, SECI, and former special coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.