Life in Kosovo discusses about emergency situations
Tonight, Life in Kosovo will broadcast a debate on the emergency situations in our country.
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Every Thursday starting from 20:30, Radio Television Kosovo, RTK, broadcasts the TV debate show "Life in Kosovo", a joint production of BIRN and RTK.
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Life in Kosovo debates anticorruption measures and changes at the University Clinical Centre
10 June 2010 Life in Kosovo broadcast two debates, one regarding the Assembly’s anti-corruption measures, and another on the management of the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo (UCCK).
Anti-corruption debate
Questions covered included: What has the Assembly of Kosovo done in the fight against corruption? How strong are the current anti-corruption laws? Where does the problem lie according to civil society representatives? Who didn’t state their assets appropriately? Who will verify MPs’ declarations? Why have the declarations of assets for 2008 not been published?
To discuss these and other measures against corruption taken by Kosovo’s ruling institutions, host Artan Haracia was joined in the studio by:
Ramadan Avdiu, from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK)
Ibrahim Makolli, MP from New Kosovo Alliance (AKR) and a member of the judicial parliamentary committee
Naim Rustemi, independent MP
Hasan Preteni, chairman of the Anti-corruption Agency of Kosovo
Ismet Kryeziu, from the NGO Kosova Democratic Institute,
Lorik Bajrami, from the NGO ÇOHU.
Asked about the Assembly of Kosovo’s contribution to the fight against corruption, Ibrahim Makolli answered: “The Assembly has passed three anti-corruption laws. One of them is the law of declarations of assets. However, even though we have a law that requires state officials to declare their assets, many of them have done so only partially or not at all.”
Mr Makolli went on: “The Assembly of Kosovo should create investigative parliamentary commissions to investigate cases of corruption. Last year, a similar commission was formed, but due to the lack of motivation of many parliament officials, it could not succeed.”
Ramadan Avdiu disagreed that there is insufficient political will to fight corruption. “All the parliamentary groups have unanimously agreed to fight and reduce corruption,” he said. “Corruption exists, but not as massively as suggested…The Assembly cannot win this war against corruption by itself; citizens should cooperate.”
Mr Makolli interrupted, saying that “around 70 Assembly members did not declare their assets.Doesn’t this show a lack of political will?”
When asked about his opinion on this issue, Naim Rustemi answered: “The Assembly has not proved that it is a well-designed institution for fighting corruption. Such essential problems as corruption are not being tackled properly. Debate is neglected as are citizens’ rights to see what their elected officials are doing.”
Hasan Preteni argued that “laws should be implemented based on Kosovo’s needs, rather than copying laws from other countries.”
According to Ismet Kryeziu, “the Kosova Democratic Institute has a lot of evidence about various cases of corruption.”
Lorik Bajrami claimed that “37% of our state’s GDP is in the informal economy.” During the debate, a report was broadcast about the declaration of assets by senior members of the government, including the president and prime minister of Kosovo.
President Fatmir Sejdiu has completed his declaration of assets, but left a number of unanswered questions. Amongst many other false statements, he also failed to declare €98,000 held in two bank accounts. Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi declared that he took €100,000 in credit to build a house, while he had €224,000 in his bank account.
In response, Mr Kryeziu said that “[Kosovo] is in this condition because of disrespect for the institutions that the members of our government are supposed to work within.” According to Mr Avdiu, “the fact that the president did not answer some questions does not mean that he broke the law.”
Naim Rustemi replied that the Anti-corruption Agency of Kosovo is obliged to verify declarations.”
When asked about such verification, the chairman of the agency, Hasan Preteni, said: “We have the right to ask for information that is not offered to us…The results of our investigations will not be presented publicly, but will be offered to the prosecution services.”
Debate about UCCK
The second debate, hosted by Edona Musa, focused upon the problems of managing the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo (UCCK).
The questions covered included: Has decentralisation of UCCK started? How will the health system be improved in Kosovo with the allocated budget? Why have so few staff been sacked, and so few changes been made within UCCK? Was an appraisal conducted for the four managers dismissed from the centre? Has a review on essential drugs been done?
To discuss these and related issues, Edona Musa was joined in the studio by:
Rrahim Krasniqi, deputy manager of UCCK
Bajram Ajeti, member of the Independent Oversight Board of Kosovo
Islam Krasniqi, former manager of UCCK
When asked whether the planned decentralisation of UCCK has started, Rahim Krasniqi replied: “Yes, decentralisation has begun. It started with the changing of UCCK’s statutes…[However,] decentralisation is a wide topic. We will first request decentralisation from
the ministry and then organise it.”
Islam Krasniqi disagreed, saying: “What you are talking about cannot be called ‘decentralisation’. With a budget of €4 million, UCCK cannot even consider decentralisation.”
A lot of tension was aroused when the issue of employee evaluation was brought up. According to Mr Krasniqi, “I was asked to resign from my position; however, because of my integrity I could not act in such a way. Rahim Krasniqi was the one who negatively evaluated me, and it was my responsibility to prove he was wrong.”
According to Bajram Ajeti, “it is every manager’s responsibility to complete appraisals for all his or her employees in order to improve work efficiency. However, they should not affect employees’ positions or contracts.”
When asked about the four managers who were dismissed from UCCK, Mr Krasniqi replied: “We waited for the disciplinary commission’s decision, and then announced the changes…We did everything according to the law.”
On the recent review about essential drugs, Mr Krasniqi said: “a review was conducted in December. However, supply and demand are usually disproportional.”
During the debate, BIRN broadcast a report by researcher Faton Ademi, who presented the serious conditions of the prosthetic services in Mitrovica’s main Family Medical Centre.
In this report, Afrodita Buqezi-Vatovci, the manager of the prosthetic service, said: “No investment has been made in our centre since the immediate post-war period, when only the floors were renovated, and even that was to a low standard.”
According to Sanije Meholli, the president of this Family Medical Centre, “prosthetic services do not belong to
primary medical care…What will happen with this department has not been decided yet.”
In response to this report, Mr Krasniqi said: “I feel sorry for such departments. Insufficient funding is leading to these kinds of problems.”
“The Independent Oversight Board of Kosovo seeks to build a civil service that is unbiased, responsible and respects the law,” Bajram Ajeti said, when asked for a view on staffing in Kosovo’s state institutions.
Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. It is broadcast every Thursday, starting at 20:20
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The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
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