Waiting for new Task-Force against corruption

Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti said Friday at a media conference that the new police body will be prepared in co-operation with international partners. However, he has not indicated when work will begin in this regard.

Our “Plan is clear about this Task-Forca. Without any interference of the task-force will continue its work with all cases under consideration of”, Hoti has stated, adding that police co-operation with the Special Prosecutor is continuing on to all issues related to Task-Forca.

Special Anti-Corruption Department, or so-called Task-Forca Anti-Corruption” was part of the police, aimed at preventing, investigating and discovering criminal acts against the economy, finance and corruption, but also investigating and fighting high-level corruption in Kosovo.

Albana Rexha, senior policy analyst in the Democracy Plus organisation, which, in addition, aims to increase accountability and influence on decision-making processes, says the disappearance of Task-Forca has been done adhok.

There is currently no precise plan in time, human and financial terms of what mechanism and how long this will be replaced by Task-Forca or this department. I appreciate that we have certain levels of losers, if I can call it that, first I appreciate that this extinct decision of Task-Forca goes to the expense of rule of the law and at the expense of all of us as citizens, who actively combat this phenomenon at every level and at any rate, by avoting different policies”, Rex told Radio Free Europe.

Rexha says the disappearance of Task-Forca will go to the expense of Kosovo's image, as far as political commitment to fighting corruption.

This extinction will be negatively assessed in future international reports. The removal of this force could cause fear in other mechanisms that exist in Kosovo, which make fighting corruption in various forms. Since the same may think that if they do investigate high-profile corruption cases, their work could be made by”, she said.

Florent Spahija, legal expert at the Kosovo Democratic Institute, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says that with the disappearance of Task-Forca, there may be losses in some ways. One of those losses, he says, is that the Kosovo Special Prosecutor may no longer have police trained to investigate alleged cases of high-level corruption.

Our <x0] governments have known to be clumsy in this regard and have been able to continue for years not to create something that is easy to create. If we remember in the first Code of Criminal Procedure we had the judicial police, while later it was removed with the new code and that police has never been created, Spahija said.

Medjide Demolli-Nimani, director of the FOL Movement, in a campaign for Radio Free Europe, says that for ten years of functioning of Task-Forca, the international community has invested a lot in training of officials in this department, therefore its extinction, she says, without any consultation, leaves much to suspect.

The “those most lost with the extinction of the Anti-Corruption Task Force are Kosovo citizens. I think that the elimination of this department will also be used by the EU in terms of meeting the criteria for visa liberalisation. It is known, however, that the only beneficiaries will be those corrupt politicians who, as reported in the media, have been part of this Task-Force investigation for various abuses”, Demolli said.

The Kosovo government on October 19th had decided to close this department, praising that this issue must now be adjusted to the functioning legislation of the Prosecutorial Council and that EULEX's mandate has already been changed.

Prime Minister Hoti has also said that one of the other reasons why the decision is made to eliminate the Special Anti-Corruption Department under the Kosovo Police is that illegal structures have been established within the Kosovo Police.

The EUELX mission says the Kosovo Government's decision to abolish the Anti-corruption Department raises serious concerns about Kosovo's pledge to fight corruption.

Otherwise, corruption in Kosovo for years has been identified as one of the main problems in the area of rule of law in Kosovo.