CORRUPTION - A PROBLEM IMPOSSIBLE TO SOLVE
Kosovo:Ibrahim REXHEPI (AIM Pristina)
"Corruption has become very frequent in Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, etc. and consequently in Kosovo too" claims Mr.Mustafa Ibrahimi, Vice-President of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce.
The Ombudsman's Office, a public-prosecutor like institution dealing with complaints of the citizens of Kosovo, says that there are no complaints or warnings of corruption in Kosovo. This tellingly speaks that people only care about their own problems and are disinterested in having the protagonists of corruption punished.
However, there are many arguments which show that corruption exists in the judiciary, customs services, courts, health care, and that it is especially linked with various tenders in which large sums of money change hands.
Pjeter Prapi is the Public Prosecutor of the District Court in Pristina and has "quite accidentally" made "two mistakes". The first time he "made a mistake" by violating the law because of the "pressure the previous international administration had put on him". The second time he was a victim of "intrigues" of one of his colleague's - a "judge". In the first case he acquitted two Kenyan nationals accused of stealing more than DM 200,000 from the IOM. This was not mentioned as a case of corruption, but of "pressure made by international representatives". Another person accused of rape and incest was saved by Pjeter Prapi who violated legal proceedings for the second time. The Public prosecutor tried to conclude the procedure summarily and file away the sentence on the acquittal of the accused. This two cases show that the situation in courts is not very good. Low salaries, but also people's wishes to become rich overnight open the door to corruption.
The courts are not independent because in corruption cases they are placed under the pressure of local bosses, who often hide under the guise of political parties or international staff. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the most difficult cases remain under the jurisdiction of international judges "for fear that local judges might be corrupted or exposed to threats".
Although there is constant talk about joint fight against corruption, which creates an impression that there is a consensus on that, people of "authority" in different zones of Kosovo are those who carry out and control the most important deals, such as smuggling of cigarettes, oil and other goods.
These people operate close to border areas with Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia or Albania. They have their connections, their men, their price for shipments so that goods arrive to Kosovo without any problem. How true these claims are is best shown by the data that the quantity of good that have gone through customs is much smaller than of that traded in Kosovo.
"The quantity of cigarettes that passed through customs during the entire year is equal to a monthly consumption of cigarettes in Kosovo", says Ylber Rraci, Director of the Kosovo Customs Office. After a control carried out in this service, disciplinary action was taken against 15 customs officers who made a mistake "out of ignorance". However, in this case no one dared point the finger at those who control these zones.
At the time when Kosovo did not have any fiscal policy, people were forced to pay for their business to communal officials (appointed by the then Thaqi's Provisional Government). Such payments were neither legalised, nor recorded. The money ended in the pockets of people who, with their party's blessing, controlled the entire commune and called themselves presidents of such communes. There are cases in which such "habits" continued, although these people are no longer in power, but are still influential because they come from parties or structures which date back to times of war.
Most of party leaders are not in business, at least not in any legal one, but still own luxurious houses (palaces), built in parts of the town which are not planned for private houses, drive expensive state-of-the art cars, etc.
And all this is happening now when there are no mechanisms for controlling the financing of political parties, when cash payment is the most favoured (and practically the only) way of doing business, when banks will allow you to deposit all the money you have, not asking where it came from. That means that money-laundering possibilities in Kosovo are practically limitless. "We shall be rigorous in our campaign against money laundering," said Mr.Ajra Begu, Governor of the Bank and Payment Authority in Kosovo, which actually has the role of the central bank of Kosovo, but with limited competences.
Process of privatising the state (social) property has not yet began in Kosovo, which is why this sphere is considered uncontaminated by corruption. On the other hand, the commercialisation has not attracted much interest of prospective local and foreign investors, so that former directors of some companies have become their temporary owners without offering any proof of having invested their own capital.
Tenders for the import and purchase of specific goods or reconstruction are the most corrupted segments, which is particularly evident in the reconstruction and construction of roads, where two companies have usurped the market and control all the decision-making in this field. Corruption is particularly evident in health care - a field which this year alone will get some DM 35 million for the purchase of 352 types of pharmaceutical products. The problems started cropping up when 28 submitted offers were opened. Surprisingly enough, the majority of Commission members voted for the highest offers, although differences in the quality were insignificant (according to health experts). The pharmaceutical company from which UNMIK would be buying drugs when emergency supplies are needed, has already been accused of trying to corrupt the international members of the Commission for Tenders. The Kosovo "Minister" of health openly accused international officials of mishandling tenders. "In some cases international officials take prices into consideration and in others, the quality", said Mr.Sejdiu. However, he admitted that no one could be accused without concrete evidence. "But, if things get to court, then I will say what I know", he added nervously.
There is no honest cooperation between international representatives and local staff at various levels of administration in Kosovo. The international officials do not trust the Kosovars, while, on the other hand, the Kosovars can significantly influence the extent of corruption and its control.
The best proof of this is the northern border of Kosovo with Serbia and Montenegro where corruption is extremely manifest, primarily between the Serbs and Albanians, irrespective of their mutual political hostilities. It is even claimed that influential political figures, who are also the leading men in the Kosovo structures, are involved in these dealings.