Serbian leaders receive salaries in Kosovo, Serbia for 11 years

Gracanica is the majority Serb municipality, which is formed through the decentralisation process in Kosovo. But, about 200m from this municipality's building, which works according to the Kosovo system, is located the Pristina municipality's interim <x0-organi with headquarters in Gracanica, which works according to Serbia's system.

It is similar in other municipalities. Serbian interim “Organi” for the town of Peja is located in Gorazjdevc, for the town of Vushtrza, for Obilic in Plemetin, for Fush Kosovo in Uglara. Similar “Organ” is for Gjakova, Gjilan, Rahovecin, Kamenica, etc. All personnel of these <x4organs” are paid by Serbia.

The situation is similar in northern Kosovo. In northern Mitrovica, the municipality functions according to Kosovo's system and Kosovo's interim “organi, Mitrovica”. The same situation is in Leposaviq, Zvecan and others, while in some cases the same personnel work for the municipality according to the Kosovo system, but in organs that work according to Serbia's system.

For example, Bratislav Nikolic is chairman of the Shrpca municipality, according to the Kosovo system, but also under Serbia's system.

The same case is true of Svetislav Ivanoviqi in the Novoberda municipality and with Zoran Toric in Leposavic.

Aleksandar Shrikh is chairman of Kosovo's interim “organ,”, but also deputy chairman of the Northern Mitrovica municipality, in which position he has been appointed mayor of the municipality, Goran Rakiq.

Along with the chairman and four members of the interim éorgani”serb, under the municipal directorate are the entities for general directorship, social activity, property-juridic affairs, labour inspectorate, agriculture, urbanism, finance and others.

The head of the Serb municipality of Pristina, in Gracanica, Ljubinko Karadzic, had earlier exercised the post of deputy head of the Gracanica municipality, according to the Kosovo system.

The chairman of Serbia's interim “organ” in Zvecan, Ivan Todosijevic, is also the minister in the resignation of the Local Government Management in Kosovo Government.

All of these are members of the Serbian List.

On the basis of the Law for Local Self-government of the Republic of Serbia, the provisional body of the local self-government unit carries the competence of the local self-government unit “to the assembly's framework and the selection of executive organs”.

In a brief conversation with Radio Free Europe, Svetislav Ivanovic, the head of the Novoberda municipality, has said that Serbia's interim “organi” in Novoberde mostly deals with those coming through the Office for Kosovo of the Government of Serbia.

The former Kosovo Assembly delegation from the ranks of the Serb community, Randel Nojik, the best connoisseur of the situation in Kosovo, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says double financing of individuals in nearly all municipalities is quite problematic.

There's still plenty of room for manipulation, fraud, and all. This is nothing new, because it existed before. In this situation, no one speaks today, everyone is silent. Simply, it is taboo and you know that Serbia's Assembly, with the formation of certain commissions, has verified the financing and misuse of financial resources on the part of Serbs who are in Kosovo institutions and have come to the devastating results. The epilogue has never been seen, nor have those who have been prosecuted have been prosecuted, so only has it been continued this way”, Nokjic said.

He has added that Kosovo institutions and Serb local self-government institutions are completely divided but that they agree on specific projects, which sometimes go parallel even through Kosovo institutions, but also through Serbian ones, which lead to fraud.

Nojjic himself, a few years ago, had ended up in a Belgrade court just because he had put up with the abuse problems. As he noted, in two processes he had to argue everything he had spoken about, because they had tried to sue him for the fraud of opinion. He has argued his statements, but then nothing had happened.

“Today no one talks about these and the possibilities of those frauds, I think they're bigger today than they were before”, He said.

He stressed that Serbian local bodies even further provide certain services about additions for children, pensions and others, but that, according to him, their main goal is “the extension of financial means coming from Belgrade”.

Kosovo considers Serbian organs in the country as parallel and illegal organs. In this regard, there has been discussion during dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels, where the agreement on the integration of Serbian organs has been reached in Kosovo institutions. This has happened with police and judiciary, but not with local self-government as well.

Former Kosovo Minister for Dialogue Edita Tahiri has said that during the talks in Brussels, not only has it been discussed eliminating Serbia's remaining parallel structures in Kosovo, but also the agreement has been reached showing that in the process of drafting the Association statute of Serb majority municipalities, even to the extinction of all Serbian institutions and bodies in Kosovo, including the provisional municipal bodies.

The “Such Agreement has been reached in Brussels, but, as we are seeing, this process is now blocked. Otherwise, the moment the draft of the statute began, in Brussels it had to form the group for the removal of these organs, which I have not heard happened”, Tahiri stressed.

From the Ministry of Management of Local Power and even the Government of Kosovo, the ReL has failed to receive any statements concerning the functioning of the Serbian provisional organs in Kosovo.

But former Deputy Minister of Local Power Management Bajram Gecaj has said that one of the goals of Brussels' dialogue has been precisely the extinction of Serb parallel structures, which, according to him, has, in a certain measure also been achieved, especially after the formation of municipalities in the country's north, according to the Kosovo system.

He stresses that the past government of Isa Mustafa has been committed to implementing the 2013 Brussels Agreement, which envisions the formation of the Serb majority municipalities' association based on the Kosovo Constitutional Court's decision, which the Serbian side had refused. He has stressed that there has been no progress in dialogue since.

“I believe that the longer this situation lasts, the more the Serb parallel structures in the Republic of Kosovo will start to reinstall. When I say parallel structures, I think about those instructed by Serbia. This will be harmful, because we've reached a degree and now it looks like this will mark a backlog of”, Gecaj stressed.

He has added that Kosovo and Serbia should find a way to continue dialogue as soon as possible so that this issue can be resolved, precisely because parallel institutions enable criminalisation of those institutions.

Sadri Ferati, former Minister of Local Power Management after Kosovo's declaration of independence, says that the fact that Kosovo tolerates the existence of Serb parallel structures gives it greater chances for co-operation in order to have no tensions.

I don't think they should work anymore, because it costs and instead of citizens being offered more development choices, money only goes for salaries. This mostly damages budgets that would be most useful for citizens”, Ferati stressed.

The 2013 Brussels Agreement envisions the formation of the Association of Serb-run municipalities. But, so far this has not happened because the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has found that the principles for Association are not in line with the Constitution, but that they can be harmonised with the legal act of the Government of Kosovo, which the part of Serbia has refused.

The agreement is precisely employee status, concern about respecting the variety of communities of residents in municipalities, competencies in the field of local economy, education, primary and secondary health protection, social care, and urban and rural development.