Are teachers falling victim to special war between PDK, AAK and Government Initiative

The bill envisions the financial compensation of educators who worked during the years of Serbia's occupation. But despite the approach of the agreement between the SBASK and the Government, the path of the Bill to approval in the Parliament has stalled in the Ministry of Finance. A response by the SBASK suggests that teachers are being held hostage by a political struggle within the government among coalition explorers, who may have electoral goals on the issue, writes Periscope.

While the bill is said to be ready, the SBASK says sending it to the Assembly is being hampered by the Ministry of Finance, which is led by its member. PDK, Bedri Hama.

On February 25th, Education Minister Shyqi Bytyqi had announced that the Bill on the status of Kosovo Albanian Education Workers for the 1990-99s was finalised.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has already finalised this Law, which we have submitted for approval, and is now being seen only budgetary impact that does not depend on us”, wrote Bytyqi on Facebook.

But sending to the Assembly took place not two weeks later, although the teachers were given a hope that the case was already over.

The SBASK reacted on March 8th and directly accused Minister Hamza of obstructing their demands, as it said in response, for no lasting reason.

The union in this response had stressed that Prime Minister Haradinaj and Minister Bytyqi had stepped up commitments for this issue to be resolved, but because demands were hampered by the Ministry of Finance, it had warned the strike for today (March 12th).

“Do stressed that Prime Minister Haradinaj and Minister Bytyqi have stepped up commitments that this issue be resolved, but according to our information is Minister Bedri Hamza and the Ministry of Finance that stands in the way of, without even a consistent reason, the realisation of this major demand, and therefore based on the Resolution of Congress 7 related to union actions, SBASK announces a one-day strike on March 12th in all educational institutions, knowingly in primary secondary schools and Universities excluding <18x>, the SBKSOK response reported.

The Ministry of Finance reacted to these charges yesterday (March 11th), saying it has met SBASK officials and assured them that their demands are addressing them with the highest priority.

But, for non-procedure of the Bill, the ministry provided a more complicated explanation.

For SBASK's demands to be met, according to the Ministry, legal procedures needed to be respected, processes that would have to be completed under pledges that union officials received from the minister of education and prime minister.

To prosecute the Bill further, the legal procedures of addressing should be respected as defined in Article 18 of the Budget Law for 2018 by No. 06/ L-020 and Article 26 of the Public Finance Management and Accounting Act. 03L-048, where it is expressedly stated that no minister or any other institution can proceed to the Government or in the Parliament any new initiative or draft approval bill if there is no prior solution to the financial implications for the fiscal year, respectively, is not envisioned under the budgetary Charter”, the MF communicate said.

It turned out that the bill has not yet been finalised, and changing action according to the MF would make the Law controversial.

The draft law is not finalised, only if it is drafted and then not forwarded to the Law requirements before being sent for approval”, it is now said in the communique. The contrary or as required today, they will make the Law incompatible from which other organs will be formed from the Parliament to the Constitutional Court, on procedural issues”, it was said away.

At the central news edition in RTK, Lulzim Rafuna, adviser to Minister Hamza, gave a simpler explanation when asked to talk about the problem his ministry has to prosecute the bill further.

He said that the bill should be passed, the way of financing should be clarified.

Minister Hamza has met with SBASK chairman, along with his staff. The minister is to pass the bill away. The only requirement is to respect legal procedures. You need to know where the budget comes from. There cannot be passed a bill that has uncertainty about the origin of the budget. This bill was not envisioned when the budget was approved. The Ministry of Finance has no budget reserve. Before we test the law, we need to know where financials come from”, he said.

Haradinaj, meanwhile AAK chairman and Minister of Education Bytyqi, a member of the Initiative, has not confirmed so far that there is political incompatibility with Finance Minister Bedri Hamza, who comes from the PDK, but that the SBASK's reaction suggests that teachers are falling victim to the dilemma among government officials coming from different parties.

It is already known that the financial benefits and salaries of public servants have been serving consistently for politicians' electoral purposes. That practice was initiated by Hashim Thaci when he came to power in 2007, which had launched a lightning campaign with promises of salary increases by public servants. Some of Thaci's promises were realized, but not all of them.

The Education Bill is an issue of electoral interest, and in the upcoming elections it can be used as the electoral cause if approved in the Assembly. It may be that efforts are under way for officials of one party to appear more deserving in public to resolve this issue, which for many educators may be a vital issue. /Periscopi/