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INVESTIGATION: Kosovo Airport Sackings Spark Cover-Up Row

22 May 2006  Two low-ranking officials recently fired from their posts at Pristina Airport claim they were sacked by the airport's international managers in order to protect senior management from allegations of fraud and mismanagement.

By Arbana Xharra in Pristina (Balkan Insight, 22 May 06)

Pristina Airport hit the headlines in November 2004, when a young man named Kastriot Zogiani was murdered. Police linked his murder to a bribe he had allegedly given to obtain a coveted job in the airport. Jobs at the terminal are highly prized by Kosovars, not only because they are well paid, but because they are seen as gateway to a variety of illegal benefits.

The recent dismissals followed an investigation into practices at the airport by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, OIOS, culminating in the publication of a report on March 14 which described "systematic corruption" at the airport, where fraud and mismanagement were "rife".

For almost two months, no action was taken and the OIOS task force said that even after individual investigation reports had been submitted, it was surprised to find "substantial reluctance remained on the part of [UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK] senior management to take appropriate disciplinary action against those responsible for the lack of oversight and control of airport funds".

But on May 5 the manager of the cargo section, Orhan Turbedari, and a junior official there, Jusuf Seferi, were dismissed for allegedly forging a receipt. In a press release issued on May 8, airport authorities claimed the two men had been "implicated" by the OIOS report and were sacked to "improve corporate discipline". Five other employees had been issued with written warnings, continued the statement.

The dismissal of such low-ranking employees has raised questions over how ready the airport management is to fight corruption. Senior management figures named in the OISO report have not so far come under scrutiny and still hold their positions, Balkan Insight has found.

Another official, close to senior management, agreed that the two men had been used as part of a smokescreen.

"Turbedari and [Jusuf] Seferi are not responsible for human trafficking, taking bribes for employment and other more serious frauds that are still going on and which are being covered up at the airport," he told Balkan Insight, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Since July 2002, Pristina Airport has been the responsibility of the Kosovo Trust Agency, KTA, which handles the privatisation and sale of the territory's public assets, under the so-called Pillar IV of UNMIK, which deals with economic affairs.

Ilir Salihu, head of both the airport's board of directors and public enterprises at KTA, defended the decision to fire only Turbedari and Jusuf Seferi.

“The board of Pristina Airport formed an independent advisory commission to look into abuses at the airport and they concluded that only Turbedari and Jusuf Seferi were involved in bribery,” he said.

The OIOS report specifically named the positions of Adem Gashi, the divisional manager of airport services and terminal operations, and Shaip Seferi, the chief of maintenance services, as having committed "several fraudulent acts and significantly abused tendering processes in connection with the construction of the DM 1.2 billion [airport] building”.

Shaip Seferi was fired in September 2005 and tried in connection with abuse of airport property for personal profit, but the Pristina district court released him due to lack of evidence in February 2006, after which he was reinstated in his post. Seferi told Balkan Insight at the time that his reinstatement represented "proof that I am not guilty of the allegations made in the report".

Gashi told Balkan Insight that he had never seen the OIOS report and only found out about the allegations against him in the media. “I have never been accused of any of these fraudulent acts within the airport, but I have heard about them in the media,” he said, adding that
”the media have often falsely accused me so I do not trust them”.

Another senior management position named in the OIOS report is that of Afrim Aziri, currently air traffic control service manager, who was the airport's deputy general manager when the investigation was conducted. The report found that “the Deputy General Manager of Pristina Airport failed to disclose in his personal history form the required information that in 1995 he had been convicted of a criminal offence involving the trafficking of persons across borders”.


When contacted by Balkan Insight, Aziri commented, “If there were real facts to support the claims made about me in the report, I would probably be fired by now.” Balkan Insight has been unable to check these allegations, as the courts were under Yugoslav jurisdiction in 1995 and the files are not available.

Turbedari's letter of dismissal, signed on May 5 by James Johnson, the airport's general director, said he was guilty of "issuing a false receipt “which has caused damages of at least 24,000 euro". Turbedari was first accused of issuing the receipt in September 2004, when both he and Jusuf Seferi were arrested and brought to trial. Charges against Turbedari were dropped in March 2005, for lack of evidence. Jusuf Seferi's trial is ongoing.

After the charges against Turbedari were dropped, the former director of the airport Ioan IAN Woollet reinstated him, then promoted him to cargo manager. "How can I be suspended for something for which I have already been tried and proven not guilty?" asked Turbedari. "I believe I was promoted to manager in order to be fired later in a cover up for other much more senior managers."

Johnson refused to answer questions about the OIOS report, referring all enquiries to the airport spokesman Skender Bucolli. "The OIOS report does not provide us [the management and the board of the airport] with enough evidence to fire senior management," Bucolli told Balkan Insight.


The furore over the airport may not be over yet. Many believe the removal of two relatively junior staff will do little or nothing to root out the culture of systematic corruption that they believe is still flourishing at the airport.


Arbana Xharra is a regular Balkan Insight contributor and a journalist for the Kosovan daily Koha Ditore. Balkan Insight is BIRN's online publication.