GAP: If we had less ministries, the state budget would be spared

The GAP Institute has released the report “Budget 2018 and the European Commission's recommendations”, which analyses the European Commission's recommendations for Kosovo compared budgetary divisions to 2018.

According to GAP the report's findings show there has been a budget increase for several institutions/fields for which it recommended The EC, but this increase remains insufficient. The increase in the number of ministries and the fragmentation of independent institutions has affected growth and budgetary spending, while at the same time hindering timing in decision-making.

The GAP Institute estimates that, in order for the Government of Kosovo to function objectively and avoid the problem of distributing competencies through various ministries, it would have to reduce the number of ministries from 21 to 13.

“After our estimates, from this lowering the number of ministries, only from wage spending, mobile phone and lunches, Kosovo's budget would save about 3.2m euros annually, or 12.9m euros for a government mandate of four years”, the GAP report said.

The budget for order and public security has increased compared to last year, but it needs an increased budget for training prosecutors and judges, financing of the anti-corruption strategy, and generally increasing capacities for fighting corruption.

As for market development and education, spending in education and research remains among the lowest in the region.

There has been a budget increase in market development institutions under the MTI, but the budget for some of these institutions remains insufficient. On the other hand, disturbing remains the functioning of Z. RRE's due to insufficient budget.

Also, despite the increased budget of the Kosovo Energy Efficiency Agency, the energy efficiency fund has not yet been established.

Despite the increased budget for the Ministry of Health, budget sharing for the sector is insufficient.

About 40% of health spending is paid by citizens' pockets, and this is about twice the percentage of citizens' spending in the EU. Even in social issues, due to poor legal regulation, financing social services from municipalities is low. As far as environmental issues are concerned, there has been a budget hike, but the MMPH has not responded to the GAP Institute if this budget is sufficient.

Funding problems also exist in the field of media and statistics. Just as in the past years, a steady form of funding has not yet been provided for RTK, while lack of budget has been named as having KPM and AK.