an hour agoConstitutional judges received wages without increase, despite their decision
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)Although a month has passed since the Constitutional Court's ruling was made public, which gave the green light to the Haradinaj Government's decision to raise salaries, the judges of the Constitutional Court themselves have not received the growing salary as determined by the verdict. 7 Kosovo Constitutional Court judges who [...]
The 7 judges of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, which assessed that the Government's decision does not conflict with the Constitution of Kosovo, however, have rejected their salaries with the increase that prompted the government's decision.
The news was confirmed by Office for Communication and Information Director at the Constitutional Court Veton Dula.
The court's “Court judges do not take wages with increases”, spokesman Dula's response to Kalxo says. com
Last December 21st of last year, it was reported that Prime Minister Haradinaj will have a salary totalling twice the current one. All of this after a decision was voted at the Kosovo Government meeting, under which Haradinaj's salary would be nothing less than 2 thousand and 950 euros. The prime minister's salary before the increase was 1,000 and 443 euros.
In addition to the prime minister's salary, the Government's decision also affected the salaries of ministers, deputy ministers, political advisers, cabinet chiefs and other officials within the Government of Kosovo that benefited significant increases in their salaries.
The Government's decision to raise salaries echoed heavily in public and was strongly rejected and ironic in public opinion, while about a month later, the Kosovo Anti-Corruption Agency issued an opinion where it found there has been conflict of interest in the case of salary hikes.
The government's decision of the date 20.12.2017 cannot be described as a conflict of interest to all who benefit from making this decision. The conflict of interest has been presented to senior officials who, by their vote, have influenced the decision to be of interest to personal benefit”, state AKK in its opinion.
Furthermore, the AKK had recommended cancelling the decision to raise salaries.
Therefore, through this opinion, The AKK recommends that the decision be returned to review, exploiting other legal ways that do not conflict with the Law for Conflict of Interest and other relevant legislation in power”, the AKK recommended.
Although the AKK through opinion was very clear that there has been conflict of interest, the Kosovo government ignored that opinion initially, but after several days, Prime Minister Haradinaj announced the suspension of that decision even though he called it politically influenced.
“After the request of 30 Kosovo Assembly deputies to assess the constitutionality of the decision on wage leveling, taken on December 20th by the Government of Kosovo, I have decided that, by provision, until a Constitutional Court decision, to ask for the suspension of this” decision, Haradinaj wrote.
Exactly on June 11th of this year, the Constitutional Court published its ruling under which the Haradinaj Government's decision had not violated the country's Constitution.
In the meantime, although the Anti-Corruption Agency continues to stress that the decision to raise salaries constitutes conflict of interest, the Kosovo government renewed the decision on wage raising and wages was taken on the rise by influential officials, including judges and prosecutors.
The Constitutional Court has not addressed the Kosovo Government's decision in the face of conflict of interest at all, citing the AKK's decision in this direction.
Finance Minister of Haradinaj himself, Bedri Hamza, was reportedly refusing to accept the raise pay.
The reason the judges of the Constitutional Court are not known is not known.
