Fushe-Kosovo municipality near 16 thousand euros in education debt

Kosovo's Fushe municipality has not paid for teachers who committed them to keep extra hours. The commitments for them are 15,537 euros. Also, not paid are retired municipal officials who are entitled to the retirement backing salaries. Obligations for these pensioners amount to 10,211 euros.

These are just some of the findings of the Kosovo National Audition Office, where, in addition to other cases, there are cases where the fattened are not paid within the pre-priced deadline, poor budget management, poor control of projects and others.

According to the audience's report, the municipality had executed payment from the capital investment code, worth a total of 425,135 euros, which belong to the category of subsidies and transfers, as well as the value of 114,507 euros belonging to the category of services.

These expenditures were budgeted and approved as capital investments, yet they do not meet the conditions to be treated as such.

The budget management process from the municipality has been quite challenging. Considering the fiscal period, a large percentage of expenditures have been realised at the end of the year. On the other hand, there is a deadlock in the realisation of capital projects, which reflects the realisation of the budget, to only 52%. The reasons for a low execution were mainly delays by research directorates to prepare technical documentation of individual projects. According to municipal officials, because of increasing the number of residents in Kosovo's Fushe municipality, the volume of jobs in all directors has been added, which has negatively affected the effectiveness of municipal affairs. Also important is the execution of the budget from direct treasury fees under court decisions worth 184,720 euros. The municipality had failed to complete the verification of a 1/3th survey of real estate as required by the Law for Taxation on Real Property. According to the property tax register, the municipality has 15,750 registered municipal properties, while during 2017 there is no report on the number of property verifications. By testing lists of 58 public property users (the return of collective rented residences in the village of Up Top village) only 15 families were equipped with contracts. Of the six tested samples, we found that contracts are not valid in terms of time period. However, property is still exploited without any official or renewed contract decision”, the report says.

The audience also came to a halt in two regular job positions; a physician and educator, who had no specific jobs; the municipality had covered them through arrangements for special services.

“Communa, for these employees, had applied simplified recruiting procedures as envisioned in defined legal acts, following the recommendation given in the intermediate phase. In the “Firing tender contract, Dru”, worth 49,530 euros, two of the three members of the bidding assessment commission were also appointed as a working/manager body. While, according to the operational public procurement guide, the principles of division of tasks, officials who have been members of the evaluation commission cannot be appointed project managers. This had happened as a result of inadequate checks on procurement processes and conveying instructions from the operating procurement guide. Three payments worth a total of 1,648 euros, which are not put into the municipality's internal arrangement for subsidies sharing, have been made by the wage category and additions. For the contract “The Assalmation of roads in the village of Slatina Minor, Graboc, Henc and the Upper Miradi”, worth 104,262 euros, was formed the commission for monitoring the implementation of the three-member project. The same commission had made technical admission to jobs. During the physical examination of two projects, we have found that the situation on the field does not generally coincide with project specifications and the commission's technical report. It has been found that during jobs there have been deviations from the pre-provision positions. In one project the changes from technical specifications were worth $1.440, while the next project changed positions was worth 600. These changes were neither presented nor reasoned in the commission's technical report. Furthermore, there was no approval from responsible persons” for changes in positions, the report said.

The report says the municipality has not compensated educators for working hours on the rate and remaining obligations have not been disclosed at the PFV. According to officials, the number of students in the Fushe Kosovo municipality has increased in recent years. Unable to increase the number of educators, the municipality had hired existing educators to hold extra hours (holory). The remaining obligations for paying the remaining hours were worth 15,537 euros.

Furthermore, seven workers had retired from the education directorate, but the pension benefits were not paid. Obligations for these pensioners amount to 10,211 euros.

In addition, in five cases bills / duties were not paid within the 30-day legal deadline.