MPB minister has surpassed legal competencies for cancelling the competition for inspector

The ombudsman has forwarded on Monday to Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, Minister of Internal Affairs Flamur Sefaj, and chief executive chief of the Kosovo Police Inspectorate (IPK), Hilmi Mehmeti, with recommendations due to IPK's decision, dated December 29, 2017, to cancel the process of recruiting for inspectors, announced on July 24th 2017.

According to the Ombudsman's report, the case has been opened under the official duty of the ombudsman, with the aim of assessing the MPB minister's decision to suspend the signing of contracts with successful candidates in the Kosovo Police Inspectorate's competition for inspectors/investigators and the demand for a comprehensive annulment of the recruiting procedure.

“In the reasoning given by the MPB minister for suspending contract signing, the decision is said to have been made due to the numerous complaints he and the prime minister have accepted, by candidates not selected in the contest in question and is based on Article 10 of Law No. 03 L-128 for internal auditing, as well as Article 9 paragraph 1, sub-paragraphers 1.4, 1.5, and Article 16 of Rule No. 02/2011 for the areas of administrative responsibility of the prime minister's office and ministries. The MPB minister has not provided any clarification regarding the implementation or non-compliance of the USA No.1/2017 procedures regarding employment and work conditions for IPK employees, under which the” competition has been announced, the Ombudsman's report has been said.

In his report, the ombudsman has analysed the legal support in which MPB's minister is called in the reasoning given and has deemed it unrealistic in the concrete case.

The IKP's “IKP action is based on the Law on Police Inspectorate, which defines it as the executive institution of MPB, independent of the Kosovo Police, which operates under the authority of the minister and under the control and supervision of the IPK chief executive chief”, is said in this report.

Furthermore, the Ombudsman in his report has estimated that the Law on IPK has made a clear division between the minister's competencies and the executive chief of the IPK and that, therefore, this one is the responsible subject, which should make the employment of personnel organisation possible.

The ombudsman has estimated that the MPB minister's request for annulment of the finalised procedure constitutes overcoming his legal competencies, just as the executive chief's decision to annul the procedure, according to the minister's request, constitutes overcoming legal competencies on the part of the executive chief and raising a set of constitutional and legal issues from the standpoint of human rights and rule of law.

“The People's Authentication considers that with the annulment of the recruiting procedure being violated: The principle of legitimacy, Article 4 (paragraph 1 and 2); The principle of objectivity and impartiality, articles 7; The principle of legitimate and reasonable expectations, articles 8; The principle of law in legal means, Article 13 set out with the Law on General Administrative Procedure, which constitutes the primary elements of a regular” process, is said in the Ombudsman's report.

In his report, the ombudsman has found that the decision to annul the recruiting procedure demonstrates the authorities' failure to be objective and impartial during the exercise of their functions, with the agreement that there has been interference in the rights of successful candidates to establish labour relations, guaranteed with Article 49 of the Constitution.