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KOSOVO BROADENS FIGHT AGAINST ORGANISED CRIME AND CORRUPTION
In an effort to continue the fight against corruption, Kosovo's Anti-organised Crime Council was inaugurated on Wednesday (February 15th) by President Atifete Jahjaga. The council aims to bring together Kosovo's stakeholders, institutions, independent agencies and civil society representatives to co-ordinate activities in the anti-corruption agenda, contribute to anti-corruption strategy and the implementation of anti-corruption laws. "The president is uniquely positioned to lead the council due to her consensual and non-partisan role, supported by her constitutional power to guarantee the constitutional functioning of Kosovo institutions," Arjana Qosaj-Mustafa, legal adviser to the president, told SETimes. Jahjaga underlined that the council is not an executive body, but it co-ordinates and suggests changes to laws and other legal acts. "So we organise and work better than those who [practice] corruption," she said. "This council intends [to foster] regular inter-institutional information, harmonisation and co-ordination of periodic reports through which our results in the fight against corruption are measured," Jahjaga said. Qosaj-Mustafa said that the council will suggest changes to laws regarding corruption, and will issue its opinions on the implementation of laws, legislative agenda and strategic planning for anti-corruption activities. Kosovo analyst Ramadan Ilazi says forming the council is an important achievement. "While Kosovo has a solid legislative framework against corruption and all the institutions it needs to fight corruption, the co-ordination and communication between them is limited. This has been one of the serious obstacles in the fight against corruption," Ilazi told SETimes. Ilazi said that it is essential that the council meets regularly to share information and talk through the challenges and difficulties that they have in dealing with each other. However, he suggests that the president does not extend the mandate of the council beyond the role of a facilitator. "Although the establishment of a council for facilitation against corruption is important, the true challenge ... remains the lack of sufficient political will to truly clean public institutions and decision-making processes of corruption," Ilazi says. Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci welcomed the council, saying telling his cabinet "By being all-inclusive, we will have success in the battle for rule of law." Kosovo joins several other countries in the region by establishing the council. Romania established its National Anti-Corruption Prosecution in 2002. It reports to the minister of justice. Serbia established its Anti-Corruption Council in 2001, and its main task is to provide expert assistance to the government in the fight against corruption. Serbia has also an Anti-Corruption Commission, which comprises the prime minister, cabinet ministers and heads of other central departments and is responsible for the overall co-ordination of the fight against corruption. Macedonia established a State Anti-Corruption Commission in 2002. The commission has no investigating powers and it could only forward the information collected to the competent authorities and make recommendations. In Albania, the government decided in 2005 to establish an anti-corruption Task Force led by the prime minister. Livia Saplacan, spokeswoman of Romania's National Anti-corruption Department (DNA), told SETimes that the department has run into several obstacles over the past ten years. "Attacks against high-level corruption involve some risks that have to be assumed from the very beginning. Those investigated for acts of corruption feel threatened and, consequently, will not shrink from using their political, economic or media related influence to react. The department has been accused of being politically instrumented, that its prosecutors commit abuses, that they destroy careers, that they put on media shows -- accusations that were groundless." Saplacan added that not having executive powers is sometimes difficult. "The prosecutors' obligation to ask for parliament's go-ahead on inquiries that concern ministers or former ministers has stalled some of these investigations. In the so-called 'big fish files', the trials trailed for years which left the impression the defendants benefit from impunity." Southeast European Times 16/02/2012 |
