Government, Ministry of Finance oppose 90s Teachers Law

The 90th-year Teaching Bill has already been sent to the Assembly. At the government meeting where the issue was decided, Finance Minister Bedri Hamza voted against it, while three other ministers abstained.

State wallet chief Bedri Hamza had declared that this law has additional costs for millions of euros. Stressing that it is contrary to the law on public finance management.

This law in its entirety may have several hundred million euros' additional budget costs for Kosovo, and is not being limited to just three years. This law is not in full compliance with Article 26 of the Public Finance Management Law and responsibilities. It is contrary to Article 18.5 of the Law on the budget for 2018, which states that no law or bill can be prosecuted in Government or in the Assembly for approval unless the issue of the financial implications of 2018<18x1> was resolved, the minister Hamza had declared during the government meeting.

And for this bill, the International Monetary Fund had reacted, demanding that this law be pulled back.

The Finance Ministry has said the IMF has raised concerns about this law, which Hamza has submitted to the government.

The IMF, aside from the finance ministry, has also communicated with the education ministry.
“International Monetary Fund (FMN) as if communicating with the Ministry of Finance communicates with other ministries in this case. The Ministry of Finance has analysed the law and all comments by the Ministry of Finance, the minister has presented them to the government cabinet, where the archived processes” are, said in response.

The answer implies that Minister Hamza has not changed his attitude. And at this time, there's nothing else to say.

“The IMF at regular meetings has demonstrated their concern over this law, which we have conveyed along with our comments at the Government Meeting. And now the minister's position on the matter is publicly known. This is the position of the Ministry of Finance at this time for this bill”, the Ministry of Finance's response said.

Such a statement from this minister comes after the Kosovo government days earlier told the news.net that the cost of over 16m euros could be met by Kosovo's budget.

According to the finance ministry's assessment, the budget department, the law in question has budget costs for three years together, 16.757,000 euros (then 2018-2020). This cost is not for ignored, but against a specific category, such as Albanian education workers in the 1990s, they deserve an adequate treatment and must be faced by the” budget, the Kosovo government's response was said.

So by two statements, there is a public controversy between Government and the Ministry of Finance.

Otherwise, the proceeding of the 90th-year Education Bill for the Parliament came to the final deadline before all educational institutions in Kosovo went on a general strike.