100 scandals don't stop

The Haradinaj government is marking about 400 days of the governing mandate. For these 400 days, there are at least 100 scandals and major abuses, or one in every fourth day. Here is a summary of them:

1. The Haradinaj government increased the number of ministries from 19 to 21, creating ministries without a clear mission and creating many ministries that cover the same fields;

2. Haradinaj's first decision was illegal. At the first meeting of the Government, a decision was made to dismiss all the members of the State Commission for Marking and Maintenance of the State Border, without respecting the criteria provided by law;

3. At the end of September, the Government appointed new members of the State Commission for Marking and Maintenance of the Border, who limited their role only to evaluating the work of the preliminary Commission and not to marking the border line. In the end, the Government approved the report of the dismissed Commission and the coalition parties voted for the Agreement on the border line with Montenegro, as it had been proposed by the previous Government, but almost three years late;

4. The Haradinaj government promised that the Agreement on the border line with Montenegro will be revised after six months, which did not happen;

5. From September 2017 to September 2018, the prime minister signed over 80 decisions for the appointment of deputy ministers, or an average of four deputy ministers for one ministry;

6. When even this did not satisfy the appetites of the coalition partners, the prime minister changed the Regulation on the administrative responsibilities of the Prime Minister's Office by increasing the number of advisers to the prime minister by seven and by one additional for each ministry;

7. Haradinaj then invented new positions in the state administration, appointing five national coordinators who cover the same fields as the ministries;

8. Haradinaj appointed an advisor who was named in many international reports as a person responsible for kidnappings and other criminal acts;

9. Haradinaj appointed another councilor who was sentenced to nine months of conditional imprisonment for misuse of the fund in the amount of millions of euros;

10. From the first days of the governing mandate, Haradinaj began the confrontation with the media, considering as uneducated the journalists who posed questions that he did not like;

11. The Prime Minister ordered the Minister of MEST to illegally dismiss the entire Board of the National Quality Council, without obtaining the consent of the Assembly as required by law;

12. Political interventions in the Kosovo Accreditation Agency influenced the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) to exclude Kosovo as a member of this institution;

13. The government made a decision to forgive about 50 million euros of debts of water bottling companies without a legal basis, even though according to the Law on Water, only the Assembly has this competence through the amendment of the law;

14. When asked why he made the decision to forgive the water debts, Haradinaj replied that he made the decision "except for your whims", proving once again his arrogance towards the public and the laws in force;

15. In violation of the law, the Government took a decision to dismiss all members of the Board of the System, Transmission and Market Operator, interfering with the powers of the Assembly and violating the independence of the independent Regulator;

16. The government appointed new members of the Board of the Energy Corporation of Kosovo, illegally appointing persons who have been part of political party structures in the last three years;

17. The government allocated 290 euros to the families of people convicted of terrorism in the Kumanovo conflict in 2015, some of whom also had a criminal record in Kosovo;

18. Haradinaj's 27-year-old son-in-law was elected head of the Health Insurance Fund;

19. The Prime Minister came to the defense of Deputy Prime Minister Dardan Gashi, who shot a gun in the air from the office of Deputy Prime Minister Limaj, an action punishable by up to five years of imprisonment under the Criminal Code;

20. In the first days of taking office, in addition to appointing advisers and ministers who are in conflict with the law, Haradinaj received many convicted persons in his office. In the Prime Minister's Office, he received Agim Shahini, chairman of the Kosovar Business Alliance, whom the court found guilty of bank fraud and sentenced him to 18 months of conditional imprisonment. The same has another court case for the same reasons;

21. In addition to having officially received him at the meeting, the chairman of ABK also received financial assistance in the amount of 57 thousand euros from the Government for the organization of the "Kosovo Business Weeks";

22. On the grounds that he has a busy agenda, the prime minister canceled his participation in the "Summit 100" which was held in Skopje on October 16, 2017, in which all the prime ministers from the countries of the region, representatives of the EU and many businessmen from Southeast Europe. But the prime minister's "busy agenda" on October 16 shows a meeting in his office with someone accused by the courts of threatening a tender in KEK, Sami Lushtakun; another meeting with MP Milaim Zeka, who a few hours after the meeting with the Prime Minister was arrested by the police on charges of defrauding 920 citizens for work permits in European countries;

23. The government allocated an additional 53.1 million euros to the company "Bechtel & Enka", builder of the Pristina-Shkop highway, on the grounds of delays in making payments according to the contract. This Government payment was made at the request of the company, without having an independent assessment and without making public the assessment of the highway works supervisory company;

24. The same Government which forgave 53 million euros to the highway construction company, completely ignored the complaints of the residents of the villages of Kaçanik and Hani i Elez for the material damage caused to their properties by the highway works;

25. The Haradinaj government continues not to approve the final report on the lists of war veterans, allowing the increase of budget expenditures for this category contrary to the recommendation of the IMF that the budget for veterans should not exceed 0.7% of GDP;

26. The planned budget of 58.7 million euros for war veterans' pensions for 2018 was almost completely spent by the end of September;

27. The Prime Minister had conditioned the prosecutor Elez Blakaj, who was investigating the lists of KLA war veterans, to submit a report on the investigations he was conducting, interfering with the work of the judiciary;

28. The Prime Minister threatened and insulted the resigned prosecutor Elez Blakaj, among other things, telling him "feed the chickens";

29. The Prime Minister's threats against the prosecutor Elez Blakaj were given along with other threats from the MPs of the coalition parties. The MP accused of visa fraud Milaim Zeka threatened the prosecutor of the case with retaliation according to the law;

30. Deputy Shkumbin Demalijaj (AAK), who is one of the accused in the case of manipulation with the lists of veterans, threatened former prosecutor Elez Blakaj;

31. The threats against ex-prosecutor Blakaj were also joined by the vice president of Ramush Haradinaj in AAK and deputy Ahmet Isufi, who requested his extradition from the USA;

32. Although the prosecutor has identified about 19 thousand fake veterans who receive pensions from the state budget, the Haradinaj Government has refused to freeze the payments for them;

33. The detention of two members of the ruling coalition due to the threat to the prosecutors, left the Government without the majority of votes in the Assembly, which made it impossible to make decisions and pass legal acts. An example of this is the failure to vote on the package of laws related to public administration;

34. Despite the fact that the arrested deputies are part of the ruling parties, the coalition parties did not distance themselves from the threats of their deputies, but classified the arrests as political actions;

35. The government approved the 90s Teachers' Pension Bill, deliberately underestimating its budgetary cost and causing further conflicts with the various categories of society that were active during the 90s, as well as further endangering stability. budgetary;

36. The government decided to increase the salaries of the prime minister, deputy prime ministers, ministers, political advisers and part of the civilian staff of the Prime Minister's Office. This decision was considered a conflict of interest by the Anti-Corruption Agency;

37. In addition to illegally increasing salaries, the Government did not respect the legal opinion of the Anti-Corruption Agency;

38. The government appointed the new PTK Board, where four of the six appointees have close political and family ties to politicians in power;

39. The PTK's politicized board chose Gent Begollin, a member of Haradinaj's party, as chief executive of PTK;

40. The government chose Burim Rreci, a member of NISMA, as the secretary general of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, even though he was ranked fourth on the list of the evaluation commission and was described as incompetent by the British company that oversees the process of recruitment in high positions in the civil service of Kosovo. The candidate with the maximum number of points and the only one who met the criteria for this position was not taken into account by the Government;

41. The general secretary of MTI, who was elected contrary to the procedures, was then dismissed by the minister of MTI on the grounds that he misused his official position;

42. The minister who fired the general secretary was fired by his party, which then reinstated the secretary;

43. In place of the dismissed minister, the Haradinaj Government appointed minister Endrit Shala (NISMA), who also has an indictment for shooting;

44. In the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which is managed by NISMA, the grandson of the chairman of the National Council of NISMA was chosen as an inspector of the oil market;

45. Before he was dismissed from the position of minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Bajram Hasani took care to declare the area in the village of Baje of Malisheva, the birthplace of the chairman of his party, an economic zone;

46. ​​After that, Hasani also declared the Municipality of Vitia, where he comes from, as an economic zone;

47. The government sent to the Assembly the names of six candidates for members of the Board of the Energy Regulatory Office, but only two of them met the professional criteria to be board members. In the end, the governing coalition in the Assembly did not even elect these two, appointing incompetent persons to the most important Regulatory Board in the country. Two of the appointed candidates had a political past within the ruling parties;

48. The non-professional and political board of ERO made a decision to increase the level of energy losses for KEDS, losses which will be covered by citizens through energy bills;

49. The government allocated one million euros from the budget to cover the energy spent by citizens in the north of the country, thus doubly discriminating against those who pay their energy bills regularly and contribute to the budget through taxes and duties;

50. Although there is a memorandum signed between the Government and the British Embassy to supervise the recruitment process in high decision-making positions, the Government asked the Embassy not to engage in the process of selecting members of the Board of the company "Trepça". Contrary to the law, the Government appointed the members of the Board of "Trepça", appointing party persons.

51. The government appoints the general secretary of MEST in accordance with the recommendations of the professional company engaged by the British Embassy. The person chosen by the Government is unprofessional and political;

52. The Government selects the names of the members of the Commission for the Jurisprudence Exam without notifying the supervising professional company, as provided by the memorandum signed between the Government and the British Embassy;

53. The Government sends to the Assembly the names of candidates for members of the Pension Savings Trust Board without notifying the British company, thus violating the memorandum of cooperation with the British Government;

54. The Government and the Assembly acted in the same way with the selection of the governor of the Central Bank of Kosovo;

55. The same was done with the members of the Board of the Kosovo Privatization Agency;

56. A few days after taking the post of prime minister and increasing his salary, Haradinaj and his family went on vacation to St. Moritz in Switzerland, one of the most expensive tourist destinations. Although he stated in KTV's "Rubikon" that the expenses were covered by the family budget, he never published proof of this;

57. Canceling the decision of the Mustafa Government on the expropriations in the new mining areas for the needs of the Kosovo Energy Corporation, the Haradinaj Government took a new decision on the compensation of the owners, ignoring the facts that many of the owners had manipulated the real value of the properties theirs, thus increasing the expenses for expropriation;

58. The government made a decision asking the KEK to give priority in employment to residents who live in mining areas, a decision which contradicts the Labor Law on non-discrimination in employment and interferes with the management of an enterprise public;

59. Several times the prime minister has received in his office Milan Radojciq, vice president of the Serbian List, whose power is greater than that of the party leader. Radojčić has been rumored as one of the bosses of the underground in the north of Kosovo;

60. Returning to the role he once had as a bodyguard, Prime Minister Haradinaj forcibly removed an uninvited lady from the pulpit at the official ceremony for the 140th anniversary of the League of Prizren;

61. Although Prime Minister of the country, Haradinaj said that he was not informed of the arrest of the Serbian politician in the north of Kosovo, Marko Gjuriq;

62. To further show the absurdity of the ruling coalition, while some ministers gave orders for the arrest of a politician from Serbia who entered Kosovo without permission, other ministers of the Haradinaj Government accompanied Marko Djuric to rallies and defended him from police intervention;

63. After this arrest, Lista Serbe, which is part of the governing coalition, declared that it will freeze positions in the Government by not going to work;

64. Although a deputy prime minister, four ministers, eight deputy ministers and dozens of political advisers appointed by the Serbian List have officially frozen their positions in the Government, they continue to receive salaries and use state assets, thus causing multiple damage to the budget Kosovo;

65. Haradinaj was also surprised by the arrest of six Turks and their extradition to Turkey, without a court decision. After that he dismissed the Minister of the Interior and the head of the Kosovar Intelligence Agency, but did not take responsibility for the fact that one of his ministers had issued permission for the landing of the plane which was to carry the arrested Turkish citizens;

66. Contrary to the opinion of the Kosovo Competition Agency, the Ministry of Infrastructure has drawn up the administrative instruction which further ensures the continuation of the monopoly in the homologation of imported vehicles. Until now, the Ministry has not even respected the opinion of the Kosovo Competition Agency;

67. Despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against the former Deputy Prime Minister Dardan Gashi for shooting, he continues to hold two positions in the Government, including that of the Minister of Diaspora and Strategic Investments;

68. Despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Minister Besim Beqaj for his involvement in the "Pronto" affair, he continues to hold the position of Minister;

69. Despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against KSF Minister Rrustem Berisha for his role in manipulating the lists of war veterans, he continues to exercise the role of minister;

70. Despite the fact that there is an indictment for abuse of office against the Minister of Infrastructure, Pal Lekaj continues to hold his position as Minister;

71. Despite the fact that there was an indictment filed, the Haradinaj Government appointed Valdrin Lluka as Minister of Economic Development;

72. Immediately after the appointment of Nenad Rikalos as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, citizens began to report that he had tortured Albanian citizens during the 90s. The Prime Minister ignored these complaints, even though in 2015 it was Haradinaj himself who organized mass protests for the removal of former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Jablanović due to his statements about the bloody mothers who demanded justice for missing family members;

73. The Minister of Agriculture, Nenad Rikalo, suspended the head of the Agriculture Development Agency from his job, as the latter had not respected the minister's order regarding a grant of 165 euros to non-governmental organizations, one of which is led by the wife of the minister;

74. Even after the Independent Civil Service Council found that the dismissal of the head of the Agriculture Development Agency was illegal and he should return to his place of work, Minister Rikalo ignored the Council's opinion;

75. There are many scandals of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a debate in Washington, invited the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic to engage in Kosovo for the creation of an economic zone in the north;

76. Likewise, Behgjet Pacolli declared in front of the Serbian media that he is at the UN with the permission of Serbia, after the Serbian Prime Minister asked him whose permission he was there;

77. In the framework of the work at the UN in September 2018, Pacolli declared for Serbian media that Albanians and Serbs have not had a conflict and that there should not be a border between the two peoples;

78. It was Pacolli, who, in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs, irritated the Prime Minister of Morocco, after he had published on his "Twitter" account photos from the informal meeting with the Moroccan delegation. For the same reasons there was a reaction from the Government of Tunisia;

79. The declarations of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the UN, especially those about the removal of borders between Albanians and Serbs, forced one of his deputies in the MFA to react against his boss;

80. That the MFA does not speak with one voice and is disorganized is also proven by the fact that while the MFA minister was committed to Kosovo's membership in the Islamic Organization, his deputy, Gjergj Dedaj, openly opposed such a policy;

81. Gjergj Dedaj was appointed ambassador to Macedonia, against the fact that he was dismissed from the position of deputy minister years ago due to misuse of official duties;

82. At the Ambassadors' Conference held in Pristina, Prime Minister Haradinaj described the ambassadors as "crooks", and continued to advise them not to wait for instructions from the Government, but to be informed through the media. This prompted Kosovo's ambassador to Australia, Sabri Kicmari, to react publicly and call the prime minister ignorant;

83. A few weeks after taking office, the Haradinaj Government signed the contract for the construction of the "Kosova e Re" thermal power plant, the construction of which will increase energy prices by 60.4%, as well as guaranteeing the investor the purchase of energy from the state for 20 years. first operation. This agreement makes Kosovo the highest energy prices of all countries in the region, which will negatively affect economic development and employment.

84. The government ignored the remarks of the European Energy Community that the contract for "New Kosovo" represents a violation of the rules of the Energy Treaty and constitutes state aid, which could lead to the exclusion of Kosovo from the Energy Community;

85. Fearing that they do not have enough votes in the Assembly, the Government of Kosovo did not revise the 2018 budget, even though the Law on the 2018 budget has undergone radical changes, including the 53 million euros that must be paid to "Bechtel & Enkas ” until the end of the year, spending the budget reserve until September, spending the budget for pensions of war veterans until September, etc.;

86. Prime Minister Haradinaj expressed his satisfaction with the work of the deputy ministers after 100 days of work since the appointment, even though 10 deputy ministers did not report to him at all;

87. Some of the deputy ministers in the Haradinaj Government have never even met their bosses, but continue to serve as deputy ministers. Such was the case with Deputy Minister Gjergj Dedaj, who complained that he had never met Minister Pacolli;

88. Even the Deputy Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Bashkim Musliu, had no communication with Minister Reshitaj;

89. Just as he did not communicate with the Minister of Justice, neither did Deputy Minister Nail Qelaj;

90. Before resigning from the position of minister in the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Albena Reshitaj went to Canada to attend a family party, but she officially presented it as a meeting at NATO headquarters, a visit from which stated that it received support for the transformation of the KSF, even though its task had nothing to do with defense;

91. On the morning of August 6, 2018, the prime minister met with the resigned minister Mrs. Reshitaj and wished her luck in her future engagements, in the afternoon he announced that he has engaged her as a political advisor, without giving any explanation as to how someone willingly resigns from the position of minister to be appointed an advisor;

92. Misuse of public money has continued, and here the Haradinaj Government is no different from the previous governments. Days ago, the media published pictures of how household shopping is carried out with official cars;

93. A few months ago, it was reported that an official car had been shot at, but it was never made known who was using that official car, even though the media published the signs proving that that car belonged to MTI- of;

94. Senior government officials continue to find the slightest reason to travel abroad, thus taking advantage of per diems and other benefits that come from official travel. The visits abroad are so frequent that even the Prime Minister has complained that he is not able to hold Government meetings. But his complaints have not changed anything, because he leads a government that no one is accountable to;

95. Two months after taking office, the Haradinaj Government spent 9.560 euros on the purchase of pellets for the heating of the "Ibrahim Rugova" residence, even though this object is not on the list of cultural heritage objects. This expenditure was considered irregular by the National Audit Office;

96. There are many news about the politicization of the civil service. After the politicization of the position of the general secretary of MEST, the politicization of high positions in the civil service of this ministry also began. According to media reports, 30 directors left and were replaced by acting directors;

97. The Haradinaj Government did not cancel the contract signed by the Mustafa Government, which also provides 34 million euros for the expansion of the runway of the International Airport of Pristina. Because there is no budgetary possibility to allocate these funds, according to a BIRN research, the Haradinaj Government is planning to waive the concessionary tax for the coming years, which will increase the damage to the state budget for 84 million euros;

98. Misuses with tenders worth millions of euros have continued even in the Haradinaj Government. The Public Procurement Review Body found a multitude of violations in the tender of the Ministry of Infrastructure for the signaling of regional roads. Despite these findings of the PRB, the Ministry of Infrastructure continued with awarding the tender to the same companies;

99. Ministers of the Haradinaj Government continuously ignored the sessions of the Assembly of Kosovo, not participating in them, not defending the legislation that they proposed, as well as not answering the questions of the deputies; 

100. Like previous governments, the Haradinaj Government has continued the practice of non-transparency. Many important decisions and contracts of high public value still remain secret. 

The hundred scandals and abuses above are acts that have been widely reported in the media. But I am convinced that for one misuse that becomes public, there are three others that we have no knowledge of. In a country with rule of law, democratic culture and responsible officials, just one of these 100 scandals and abuses would cause the Government to fall, or someone to go to prison.

But Kosovo is far from a country where law rules, where citizens hold elected officials accountable, and where elected officials have little dignity to resign for their failures.