Kosovo reserve fund without a cent

Initially, 4.8m euros was the value shared by Kosovo's budget for state reserves, but the Finance Ministry, late November, decided to carry another 500,000 euros to the Reserve Fund. These tools later, according to a Kosovo Government decision, were divided into a framework of aid for Albania following the earthquake that left more than 50 human casualties, about 1,000 injured and huge material damage.

Meanwhile, another 800 thousand euros, budget tools, in this fund were kept last week, thus reaching spending over 6m euros.

Lulzim Rafuna, adviser to incumbent Finance Minister in the Government of Kosovo, told Radio Free Europe, that the Reserve Fund account is already zero.

If we receive the report from the beginning of the year until now, 6 thousand euros of 130 euros have been in the Reserve Fund. And at the last meeting of the government, the remainder has been transferred to the prime minister's office, and now if we look at it as the Fund, as a category, it is zero/”, Rafuna said.

In the latest meeting held on December 17th, Kosovo's acting government, from the reserve Fund, has earmarked 390 thousand euros for associations derived from the KLA war, 70 thousand euros for the needs of the National Co-ordinator for Youth and Culture, while the remaining 350,000-euro Reserve Fund, the government has made a decision to move it to the prime minister's office budget.

But outgoing Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has indicated there is no information about the value and which categories they are divided about.

Come in and find the government's decisions, they're all transparent, you get the sums separated because you don't know the details. The chairman of the government does not know the details, they know where the demand has come from, but in the finalisation there are other mechanisms they know details”, Haradinaj said at a conference after the government meeting.

But, the Kosovo prime minister's office has not provided any answers to the separation of these vehicles, namely, regarding the carrying of 350 thousand euros from the reserve Fund to the Kosovo prime minister's office.

On the other hand, connoisseurs of the issue consider that spending resources on budgetary reserves for unnecessary purposes is abuse of public money.

The former director of the Kosovo Anti-Corruption Agency, Hasan Preteni, tells Radio Free Europe that spending these means is illegal.

The Fund's “The appointment itself shows that this money should not be affected, should remain as reserve, like the black Fund, which the state can use only in extraordinary cases, in unplanned cases. Kosovo has the planned budget for planned activities and as a part that needs to stay in reserve and be spent on things that are not planned, but can happen. So any touch of that budget is illegal, nonhuman and not fair”, Preten said.

Of the 6.1m euros in state reserves, the Government of Kosovo has earmarked 500,000 euros for realising the 11th anniversary of Kosovo's declaration of independence, 300 thousand euros for the Kosovo State Delegation for the dialogue process with Serbia, 143 thousand euros in support for the Judo Olympic team “Ippon” in Peja and 112 thousand euros for fixing the children's angle and Peace Park in Presevo.

Also, 115 thousand euros have been earmarked for the state Commission's work on marking and maintaining the state border, then 171 thousand euros for compensation for additionals and financial incentives for 2019 special prosecutors, while for the establishment of the Memorial Centre in Blace, the government has allocated 100,000 euros.

And values below 100,000 euros have been earmarked for various associations or organisations.

Under the relevant law, relevant budget organisations can apply to the ministry for additional funding, but which on the app should explain why these funds could not be predicted.