With new law, Government Will Have No More than 15 Ministers

This law, which is expected to be approved this year, envisions reducing the number of ministers, deputy ministers and deputy prime ministers.

National Coordinator for State Reform, Besnik Tahiri, has suggested the newspaper “The new age” that the Law for Government is ready and currently is in domestic consultations.

He has voiced optimism that this year this law will be adopted. We are currently dealing with lawyers and professionals sanctioning the number of government dictatorships under this law. Then the law will be put into public discussion and soon I believe it will be adopted in the government, then processed in the Assembly. The law on the government conveys the logic of the international models of key ministries”, Tahiri has said.

He has indicated that with the Law for Government there should be no more than 15 ministries and there will be no more than 30 deputy ministers.

According to Tahiri, there will be no deputy prime minister with the portfolio.

The “means, we have done a comparison analysis of European countries that are similar to Kosovo and nine key ministries have emerged and are organising dictatorships so that the Government of the Republic of Kosovo does not have more than 15 ministries. With this law, the government will have no more than two deputy ministers, and each deputy minister will have his own sanctioned duty as well as have deputy prime ministers with portfolios, so there will be no deputy prime minister without portfolio. In addition, in the Law for Government we have identified shortcomings over the years that we have sanctioned with articles, potentially preventing the misuse of official duty that could occur in the absence of an exact law. Over the years, we have had a large number of movements in terms of the number of ministries, and we have seen that in the absence of a law regulations have gradually changed”, Tahiri said.

Political analysts welcome the adoption of this law, but are sceptical that it can be implemented in practice.

Politologist Belul Beqaj has told the newspaper “The new age” that a rationalisation of government is necessary.

“Of course, a rationalization of government has been necessary. I cannot facilitate the epilogue, but I believe a general awareness of what is happening to Haradinaj government is the gross misuse of public money”, Beqaj has expressed.

However, based on his current experience, he has estimated that the possibility of the Law not being approved at all is not ruled out.

If that only happens, he has said that this shows where our political and national consciousness is.

I don't rule this out either, because we're people who are able to repeat the same mistakes dozens of times, but this just shows where the political and national consciousness is at”, Beqaj has declared.

But the large number of government dictatorships, except that it has been criticised by opposition parties in the country and civil society, has also been criticised by the international factor.

Representatives of civil society and opposition in the course of these nearly two years of governance have estimated that the large number of deputy prime ministers, ministers, deputy ministers and political advisers has been made to accommodate political party militants and not increase the efficiency of governance in the service of citizens.