Professors ' Family Searches

The Faculty of Jurydical of the University of Pristina '%san Pristina has opened competitions for accepting the new academic staff on April 27th this year. But some of the competitions have stalled due to the continued resignations of members of the Receny Commissions, which is the first phase of the assessment of candidates seeking to join or advance as academic staff at public universities.

The newspaper Life in Kosovo has found that in at least five cases of this competition, children and family members of this faculty competed, making it difficult to establish resonant commissions that should be made up of academic faculty staff.

Having found itself in this middle, the Dean of this faculty wrote a letter to the Pristina University Rector requesting clarification and assistance in further action, as there is fear of conflict of interest.

There have been many candidates running in this competition with different family ties and other social co-workers at the faculty. The competition is public and we cannot prevent any candidate from competing. At the Jurydical faculty we've had and still have the resignation of members of the Commissions due to the possibilities of influence and conflict of interest in various forms.”, the letter says.

In the letter sent on May 29th, he considers that the regulations so far regarding the prevention of conflict of interest do not clearly represent in which cases this conflict is considered.

The regulation has some confusion in whether this regulation prohibits the selection of family members only within the Department given faculty specifications or included the entire faculty... Procedure of the competition for new positions with these confusions will be impossible, or competition in any variant” is questioned, said in other parts of the letter.

The newspaper Life in Kosovo has contacted Pristina University Rector Marjan Dema, who said the completion of the Resensive Commissions is required after the members' resignations.
“We are aware of the problems with evaluation commissions at the Law Faculty. In terms of these problems, the faculty is required to fulfil all evaluation commissions with new members in the event of conflict of interest. All cases will be dealt with as a convert to Statut and regulations in effect”, Dema said.

The newspaper Life in Kosovo has secured the list of candidates for all positions in this faculty and learns that among the candidates in the competition for academic staff, for professors- assistants, respectively, have been competing family members of Enver Hasani-Professor at the Juryd Faculty, former director of UP and former Kosovo Constitutional Court Chairman.

Also, family members of Becir Sadiki (Professor at the Jury Faculty), Skender Ahmeti (Professor of the Economic Faculty), Azem Hajdari (Professor at the Jury Faculty) and Arsim Bajrami (Professsor of the Jury Faculty and ex-Deputes from the PDK ranks).

Edsim Bajrami proposes advancing his family

Shukrije Stublla-Shabani, was nominated to become an assistant at the Faculty of Jurydical at Pristina University éhasan Pristina, by the appreciative Commission with chairman Arsim Bajrami.

Life in Kosovo newspaper has found Stublla- Shaban had been working as the executive assistant of former education minister, Arsim Bajrami, named political staff, respectively. In addition, Stublla-Shaban is familiar with Arsim Bajrami.

Shukrije Stublla-Shabani, Fortuna Hadzikadrija and Progress Gruda were contenders for the teaching position of classes at the Constitutional Administrative Cathedral, declared on April 27th of this year.
The process of selection by the commission has lasted more than four months. In the bulletin published for this post, on September 14th of this year, the commission consisting of Edsim Bajrami, Juliteta Mushkolaj and Mirlinda Batalli proposed advancing the candidate, Shukrije Stublla-Shabani.

The “Commission has estimated that candidate No.1 (Srukreje Stublla-Shabani) best meets the terms set out with the Pristina University statute ♫Hasan Pristina) for the position of assistant”, the commission's assessment said.

Asked by KALLXO.com on October 15th, the Dean of the Jury Faculty, Haxhi Gashi, said several times there were resignations of commission members to the position.

“Now is the time to review complaints. Remember, for this case the Commission has been fulfilled three times due to the lifting of members of the Commission, some for conflict of interest and some for other objective causes”, Gashi had said.

On the other hand, questioned by the newspaper Life in Kosovo via telephone, Arsim Bajrami initially denied family connection to the candidate and then said she is very distant.

He also commented on the fact that this candidate had worked as an official at the Ministry of Education at the time that Arsim Bajrami had been minister.

I don't have family ties, but you have to ask me at the faculty, no, I don't have a conflict of interest in this case... but it has been an administrative official, as have many other faculty assistants who worked at different ministries. I have no conflict with the person in question because my family bond with him is beyond the 6th degree. The Jurydical faculty has cancelled this competition and its” re-opening is expected, Bajrami said.
Candidate Stublla-Shabani, after canceling the contest, says she has been wronged for a conflict of interest that she does not think exists.

“Arsim Bajrami is a cousin of the subject, is related to the V degree family. My mother has something of the chimneys, it's beyond the V's scale, and the same thing that's been declared to the faculty council, and the commission is made up of two other members who have estimated that I fulfilled all the conditions. I've been working as an administrative assistant at MAST but nowhere is it specified that the working relationship” is a conflict, Stublla-Shabani said.

Asked by the newspaper Life in Kosovo concerning the annulment of this competition, the deanate of the Jurydical Faculty has not responded until the release of this article.
The Council of the Jurydical Faculty had refused the recession for this position, while eventually in the Senate it was decided to re-launch the competition for it.

On October 26th, the Pristina University Senate decided to turn this position into contestal resupves after a year, while it was decided that candidate Furtuna Hadzikadria as interior assistant would continue contracts for a year.

Candidate Stublla- Saban added that they are called into an interest conflict that does not exist under law or regulation because the link is beyond the V's scale and that it will complain in all instances, including courts.

Enver Hasani, Azem Hajdari Family in pending competition
Another problematic competition at this faculty was two open positions for assistants at Civil Cathedral, where they competed with two professors in this faculty.

The newspaper Life in Kosovo has secured the list of candidates for all positions in this faculty and learns that among the candidates in the competition for academic staff, for assistants, Enver Hasani-Professor at the UN Faculty, former director of the university, has competed for assistants, respectively. UP and former Kosovo Constitutional Court Chairman.

In the same competition, and for the same competitive position, there was the son of Azem Hajdari, professor of law school.

KA LLXO.com has contacted Professor Hasani to get a comment on this competition in which his nephew, Jeton Hasani, has competed. He didn't deny that you lived his nephew, but he didn't want to comment on his candidacy.
“I can't comment on people who have more than 18, nor on my children, let alone other family”, Hasani said.

The paper was unable to contact Jeton Hasani on the issue.
On the other hand, Professor Azem Hajdari's son, Egzonis Hajdari, who has been competing for the same position, said that being a professor's child should not discriminate against him in the race.

He wrote several letters to Pristina University Rector Marjan Dema, demanding that measures be taken on the resignations of the recencing commissions and demanding that the selections become meritocracy.

My father is a professor at the Criminal Cathedral, and I have applied to Civil Cathedral and the conflict of interest does not affect that. I just want everything to go according to principle and meritocracy. I have applied and I have better conditions than all of them, I have jobs with impact factors, etc.”, Hajdari said.

Egzonis Hajdari considered him the most worthy candidate for the position.

Since April of this year, when the competition for this position was opened, it has not been possible for the commission to become an assessment and write the recession due to cases of conflict of interest.

“Tri times the commissions have been met and changed, but members of the Commission have again withdrawn, with rationalities of change; conflicts of interest and pressures they have had from their candidates and relatives”, Decan said, Haxhi Gashi.

Dekan added that in this situation “there is unable to process the competition according to the rule because the completions of the commissions on the border are not presented whenever a member gives up even after the completion. That's why we informed the Rectorate”.

The paper has sent official email questions to professors who have resigned from the position of members of the review commission for this position in June of this year, but most of them have not returned.

Professor Bedri Tahiri was the one who proved he has resigned because of the conflict of interest.

My “My resignation comes as a result of the competition of a candidate with whom I am in a family-friendly relationship, so I have also referred to provisions for declaring any conflict of interest based on the particular law for preventing the conflict of interest”, Tahiri said.

The Pristina University Senate on November 26th decided that these contests would turn into resurface because of the circumstances of the conflict of interest.

Contests with members of Skender Ahmeti and Becir Sadij

The second competition to be put on hold due to commission resignations is the position for an assistant in some economic subjects at the Jurydic Faculty.
Yllka Ahmeti, the professor's daughter at the Faculty of Economics, Skender Ahmeti, also competed in this competition.

On this issue, gJnK has sought answers from Professor Skender Ahmeti. The same has not answered questions sent to Ahmeti's official email on June 25th. The questions were also sent through the message on the phone, as he later contacted them that “this is a personal matter”, when asked about his daughter's candidacy for law school assistants. Meanwhile, it has been impossible to contact Yllka Ahmeti.

Regarding this competition, dean Hadzi Gashi said it is the same situation as at the Civil Cathedral assistant competition.

On the other hand, the only competition that has managed to proceed until the Senate, although there were family competitions of professors, are the two assistants at the Penal Cathedral.
Triumf Sadiki, the son of Becir Sadiki, professor at the Jurydic Faculty and member of the UP's Steering Council competed in this position.

In these two positions, according to the recession commission, until the Senate vote, Furtuna Sheremeti and Nita Shala were elected.

However, Sadija considers that she has been wronged in this race and filed complaints at various stages of recruiting.

Continuous Laws Against Nepotism

The Ethics Council of the University of Pristina éhasan Pristina (May 2nd) had adopted a guide for standards in an effort to avoid nepotism and conflict of interest in academic staff selection procedures.

The decision came after recommendations issued by the Ombudsman's Institute regarding the establishment of a legislation against nepotism and conflict of interest in the selection of academic staff.

The standards set out with this roadmap also envision the expansion of the network of people considered family in order to determine cases where university personnel have conflicted with applicants to be academic staff.

Family relations and proximity are considered the people who with academic staff regular or engaged are in relationships such as parents, children, brothers, sisters, spouses, stepmothers, stepparents, stepparents, grandparents, nieces, brother-in-laws, step-daughters, step-parents, co-life relationships, ex-husbands outside marriage partners, ex-husbands [dime/maternal aunts], [sisters/uncle], cousins and close friends' relationship, say 11x>, the point at 11th.

However, the prevention of nepotism is not limited to this list, since it has been given to the academic staff according to the logical link to establish for prevention even if the relationship has not been submitted to the above list.

Afet Morina, chairman of the Ethics Council, was unable to give an assessment regarding the breadth of its implementation.

“The guide remains in force. Therefore, in terms of cases initiated on the basis of this Guide and other relevant rules, the Council decides and will consistently decide meritably by relying on the norm framework and on defined procedure. In this context, it would be inappropriate and at once useless to offer a general assessment, since the implementation of the Guide is a continuous process and its application remains subject to the demands of the parties, the requirements we address in their immediate and individual context”, he said.

He also commented on the discretion of the academic staff to determine cases of conflict of interest if the same are not presented in the articles of this guide.

“Sic we have said in other cases, for practical and institutional purposes, our operational approach is based on the rational decision-making of cases, which is then forwarded to the parties involved in the specific case or relevant bodies of the university, depending on the case”, Morina said.