Public officials' property statements suspected of irregularities

And civil society representatives estimate that there are no verifiable mechanisms if an official has declared his property to real value or not.

Valmir Ismaili from the organisation “Democracy Plus” voiced doubts that the country's Anti-Corruption Agency and Prosecutorship are not taking appropriate measures, and are turning this process into a formal obligation rather than in accurate identification of public officials' property.

In principle, publishing the wealth of senior officials is a positive element in the establishment of transparency and accountability of senior public officials. However, because the country's Anti-Corruption Agency and Prosecutor's Office are not taking adequate measures to verify the authenticity of declared property, they are turning this process into a formal obligation rather than in the exact identity of public officials. In the absence of a literal verification and punishment measures, the current system of property declaration is promoting non-real reporting of property. So, as nearly all officials fulfill the official obligation to declare wealth, its authenticity remains hostage to the free interpretations of citizens, the media, but not even the institutions that would have to be made in case of false statements”, he told Arbres.info.

Tutje Ismaili said that, it is evident that in a large number of officials themselves, even their families, wealth has been made within a short period of time, and through businesses that have been established recently.

According to him, it is the responsibility of the AKK and justice institutions to deal with this.

There are no necessitys in declaring the wealth of all their officials and family, because there are such that wealth is legally and fairly acquired. However, it is evident that in large numbers of officials themselves, even in their own families, wealth has been made within a short period of time and through business that has been established recently. I'm still saying it's the responsibility of the AKK and the institutions of justice to deal with verifying the declaration of property by senior officials, including those of their relatives”, he has said.

Artan Demhay from the organisation “Arise” explains to Arbush.info that the Anti-Corruption Agency has no legal mechanisms to verify the assets declared.

And according to him, he has lost the value of declaring riches.

The “Taking into account under the law of the current law, where senior public officials pre-deem the value of assets and there are no legal mechanisms and institutional mechanisms, on the part of the Corruption Agency to verify the rich who are then declared in a way that has lost value to the declaration of assets. This shows that it is not a real value of the property market that public officials declare, and this is due to the legal problems existing”, he says.

He says that some of the officials' families work in different public institutions, and for this reason they have numerous family assets.

We've seen that in many cases more wealth possess the wives of officials, than some officials themselves, but that's also because part of the family members of our public officials also work in different public institutions. And for that they have abundant wealth. The majority of officials have assets that achieve the value of millions and that is unacceptable, as with the salaries they receive, they are reaching a 10% share of assets”, Demhasaj said.

By contrast, since the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Agency, state officials in Kosovo are obliged to declare their property. /