The ministry keeps a secret of documents for three million illegal in the name of grants

The ministry had made a “special program” which, with everything, deserved ."The value of a grant was 500 percent higher than what was offered with the regular program; it had eliminated local competition, when it was determined what kind of specific project would be supported in each of the country's six regions; three times the administrative direction on which the grants were provided had been passed; the instruction itself was violated with the selection of three beneficiaries; and had lacked transparency required according to the regulations.

Vesel Krasniqi is deputy minister of agriculture from the ranks of the Social Democrat Initiative, a political subject formed years ago after several divisions in the PDK. He has shown that decision-making to divide these grants was focused on a few officials and there was no access.

“The procedures the Agriculture Minister has attended are irregular. We as deputy ministers, but I think as Ministry staff, we've only been informed after the grants have been split and, according to what we're now seeing, businesses or certain people have been favoured. Neither have some competent directors of this field been informed and there was no consultation with nongovernmental organisations and farmers”, Krasniqi said. The minister has a close group he co-operates with. It's Secretary Kapllan Halimi and head of AZHB chief Ekrem Gjokaj”.

The Department of Urban Development Policy, by law, has management authority status and in the mandate, and also has the preparation and implementation of the rural Development Programme, including their selection of measures and publicity, coordination, assessment, monitoring and reporting.

The particular “Masa”, through which 4m euros were earmarked, had not been passed through this dictatorship, had not been discussed in working groups, nor was civil society.

Zenel Bulnjak runs the Kosovo Agriculture Development Initiative (IADK), one of the largest non-profit organisations in the region. He has shown what distinguished this arrangement from others.

“Autority management that has prepared the Agriculture and Development Programme 2014-2020, each end prepares the measures for next year. At the end of 2017 we were called by the Ministry to discuss the measures for 2018. But then it wasn't discussed the particular range you're talking about, and with which those businesses were backed”, Bulnjak showed. “So the measure is approved without meeting this” criterion.

Based on Article 5 of the Agriculture Law, the National Agriculture Plan and rural development is drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture in co-operation with other relevant institutions, and with government proposals approved in the Kosovo Assembly. But under this law, the plan is adopted for a period of seven years.

The ministry, the plan has turned it into software. It was approved for 2014-2020, but this document was never set for approval in the Assembly and has never been published.

The Agriculture Development Agency is an institution under the Ministry's dome and is mandated to implement support programmes for agriculture and rural development.

For nearly a year, this institution operates with task officers, since Minister Nenad Ricalo has suspended Chief Elhami Hajdari, the man who had refused to submit more than 80 thousand euros to an Prizren-based business with whom there was business businessman Biljana Ricalo, wife of this agriculture minister.

The separate “Masa applies under the mandate of chief of this agency, Ekrem Gjonaj. Through some written answers, he has told the paper that drafting the programme, with which 4m euros of grants are allocated, has preceded a detailed analysis of the Ex-ante assessment and even the Ex-post assessment. He mentioned yet another number of tests, although all were done for the national program many years ago, not for the particular measure.

“Based on these analysis and information, The MBPZHR is trying to address all the links in the chain of production, processing and marketing by investing at all levels, from the minimum amounts for individual farmers and businesses to large companies. This is also the only reason for the distribution of grants in greater value, since the cost of investment is much higher”, Gjokaj said. “Program and MBPZHR priorities are in line with the Strategy for National Economic Development and Economic Reform Programme, documents drafted with the support of the European Commission”.

After those answers, the newspaper has requested additional information from the Ministry, but also copies of the Program for Agriculture and Rural Development, which refers to 2014-2020, as well as copies of the tests mentioned in response. They have not been made available to the newspaper, but Secretary Kaplan Halimi has pledged unlimited access to any information available during research.

The assessment of business applications was closed on 14 August 2018, while the names of winners of the four grants were kept secret. The newspaper has learned about them only on unofficial streets. The list of grants beneficiaries was announced by the 18th of this month.