Government presidency hide lobbi contracts, investigation required

The report that Koha.net provided has presented written views of the Commission members, Action Plan and witness lists, the letter of attorney Geoffrey Nice, and the Foreign Agents Registration Acts (FARA).

The commission has come to a conclusion that the two state institutions -- the Presidency and the Government -- should be investigated by competent state bodies because of the instructions in which they have faced during the investigation into the lobbiing contracts.

The Parliamentary Investigative Commission considers that there are serious grounds for doubt on both actions and invites competent state bodies to initiate relevant investigations in two directions: a) in terms of the implementation of the work of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission; and b) in terms of providing documentation related to contracts in question, including all job reports by lobbies”, the final report of the Parliamentary Health Commission says.

The Commission report details the investigation process.

Among the witnesses invited by the Commission were Driton Gashi, secretary of the President's Office, Hilmi Gashi, director of the Procuration Department in this office, Fehmi Selimi, director of the Administration and Budget Department, as well as Ardian Arifaj, political adviser to President Hashim Thaci.

Also on the list of witnesses were officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such as Minister Behgjet Pacolli, Hashim Thaci, Enver Hoxhaj of Petrit Selimi as former ministers, Fitim Sadiku, Secretary General Arben Loshi, Procuy Director Blerim Xhemajli, director of the Finance and Services Department, Vlora Citaku, ambassador and Heroina Telaku, minister of the council.

The current minister, Bedri Hamza and former minister Avdullah Hoti, were invited by the Finance Ministry. Meanwhile, as the commission says, interviews with Hamza and Hoti have been cancelled since, reportedly, both have expressed readiness to testify and have accepted the parliamentary Investigative Commission's invitations.

Only Joffrey Nice was invited by foreign witnesses.

The commission, in the report provided by Koha.net, shows that it has requested from the office of the president of Kosovo the contract for services connected between this office and “Ballard Partners, Inc.” in Washington, for December 22nd 2017 to December 21, 2019, with obligations for $52 thousand a month.

In an interview by the Commission, its manager, Ardian Arifaj, who, according to the report, has expressed itself reserved to answer the questions of members of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission concerning details about providing services, saying it undermines its privacy, even though he has not presented any evidence for the qualifications of these information as confidential”.

For the implementation of this contract, the Commission has also interviewed Driton Gashi, Hilmi Gashi, Fehmi Selimin, meanwhile, as the Commission says, “the commission's call has not been answered by the country's president, Mr. Hashim Thaci”

These “have been declared to have fulfilled the commitments which have been dealing with the issue of the realisation of financial payments and procurement under the Law's rules of procurement in the Republic of Kosovo, but have not provided details about labour reports on the part of officials, who were missing on material and were never submitted by the presidency, despite repeated requests from the”, the report said.

On the other hand, the report also shows that reports made by MPJ officials about contracts and the expenses related to the Kosovo Republic of 2010 lobe related between MPJ and “Alston & Bird LLP”, then to “Squire Patton Boggs”, and “Cambridge Academy of Global Affairs”, while the contract connection period is different and financial obligations are different in terms of performing services.

From the MPJ, Petrit Selimi's Enver Hoxhaj reportedly appeared in the quality of former foreign ministers, then Vlora Citaku, Kosovo's ambassador to Washington, Heroina Telaku, minister-in-chief, Fitim Sadiku, Secretary General and Arben Loshi, director of Procument. The invitation for the report, submitted five times, according to the report provided by Koha.net, has not been responded to by current Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli, nor by the country's president, Hashim Thaci, to whom invitations have been sent three times.

The Commission's focus has been on misuse of the Republic of Kosovo's budget in the case of linked lobbi contracts from 2010 to 2018.

After six months of work, interviewing witnesses and weighing available materials and evidence, the Parliamentary Investigative Commission has issued several conclusions and recommendations.

The Commission says that in accepting contracts from MPJ (tri) and the Presidency (one), documents have been noted as not complete.

The Parliamentary Investigative Commission has accepted a total of four contracts; 3 from MPJ and 1 from the Presidency. The accepted contracts are: (from MPJ) Alston & Bird LP) worth $780,000; A total of $1.331,407.8; ʹCambridge Academy of Global Affairsʹ worth 40,000 euros and the presidency )Ballard & Partners worth $1,248,000. All four contracts together are the only contracts submitted to the commission, as part of the 2010-2018 investigation. The documents accepted by the Government, by the MPJ, and the Presidency respectively, have been packaged to most of them. Furthermore, there is evidence that certain contracts have been kept secret, because, as evidenced by reports in the FARH in the U.S. Department of Justice, there was contract for lobbiing purposes even with the Partet Group”, says the Commission, Koha.net.

The report says that the contract with “Alston & Bird”, which has lasted 12 months, the Commission has accepted work reports for only 8 months, while in the last four months of the contract, reports have not surrendered at all.

For the “Patton Boggs” contract, with the duration of 34 months, the issue is more serious. The Commission says it has accepted work reports for only 7 months of this contract, while for the next 27 months, reports have not been submitted at all despite the commission's insistence on access to them, even despite, according to the report, “witness confirmation in some cases that reports in question exist”.

The contract with “Ballard and Partners” has lasted 24 months, while the Parliamentary Investigative Commission has not accepted any report. The only “File the Commission has accepted on this contract is the contract between the Presidency and the company in question (two-page volume contract) and a confirmation of the Presidency ( date 11,7,2018) on the financial sum paid so far. Work reports concerning the contract in question have never been submitted because, either, the intention of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission is concealed or there is no such thing as”, said the report.

Use the “contract format Cambridge Academy of Global Affairs”, at four months' length, only two reports have been submitted.

Against [the Commission's] continued insistence on approaching full reports, MPJ and Presidency have refused to follow them. The secrecy and failure to hand over relevant documents constitutes violations of the Parliamentary Investigation Law (Nini 18.4) and constitutes at the same time serious instruction in carrying out the legal obligations of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission. The Commission, during witness interviews, has managed to prove that some of the documents in question existed in the relevant institutions of the current non-submission of them despite the Commission's repeated insistence on access to them, constitutes deliberate violations and obstruction in the investigative work. For example, the contract manager with Mrs. Alston & Bird, Mrs. Vlora Citaku, and contract manager with Mrs. Patton Boggs. Heroina Telaku, during their interview they have testified that contract reports existed and should exist today in MPJ archives. The existence of reports has also been confirmed by the testimony of former Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Enver Hoxhaj” points out the report of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission.

Meanwhile, for the contract between the Presidency and “Ballard and Partners”, the manager of this contract, the Arab Arifaj, according to the Commission, “has given contradictory evidence”.

In the first interview, the same has proved that contracts in question cannot be made public for the commission because they are considered secretive. The same has required additional consultancy time with the legal office to provide documents in question or not. In the insistence of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission on obtaining testimony on document classification or not, the same has never been given. In the second interview, the same has changed the testimony, proving that job reports have become an oral form and that the President's office has shared with the commission all the materials it possesses for the contract with Ballard Partners”, says the Commission, Koha.net.

Meanwhile, adds that in the event of reports on the above-mentioned contract, their failure to surrender to the Parliamentary Investigative Commission, “we are dealing with a serious violation of the investigative procedures”, while “in the case of non-existence reports in question, then we are dealing with serious violations of the procurement law”.

In the end, “The Parliamentary Investigative Commission considers that there are serious grounds for doubt on both actions and invites competent state bodies to launch relevant investigations in two directions: a) in terms of the implementation of the work of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission; and b) in terms of providing documentation related to contracts in question, including all working reports by lobbies”.

The Commission says there has been construction in its work, not only through the presentation of packaged documents and the concealing of relevant documents, but also through non-responding witnesses at interviewing sessions. He says he has sent three successive invitations to former Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, simultaneously, but has failed to interview him. It even says that the Commission has received no answers from the presidency for confirmation or nonconfirmation of participation.

Refused to interview has shown current Foreign Affairs Minister Behgjet Pacolli, who, according to the Commission's report, has accepted 5 continued invitations that “have been consistently ignored”.

The Commission considers also the unreasonable delay in testifying to the president's adviser, Mr. Ardian Arifaj. The invitations submitted to the 22.10.2018, 29.10,2018 and 02.11.2018 have not received positive answers, resulting in serious delays in the work of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission”, the Commission's report noted.

Tomorrow, Koha.net publishes other parts of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission's report on lobbie spending on the presidency and Government of the Republic of Kosovo.