Government Kurti launches review of former government decisions Haradinaj

Haradinaj had resigned on 19 July, after receiving an invitation for an interview by the Special Court in The Hague in the quality of the suspect.

The first Deputy Prime Minister in the Government of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, in a proposal for Radio Free Europe, said all decisions made during that period would be reviewed and analysed by competent persons within the prime minister's office, to be praised if they were in line with the laws in force.

Our “Plan, our joint agreement, is that we analyse the government's decisions at the moment of Prime Minister Haradinaj's resignation. So, from July 19th, 2019 down here, to see if those decisions were in accordance with the laws in force, with the necessary procedures that should be followed for those appointments, but also because of the legitimacy of making such decisions because a government that is in resignation, should take care only of the work of institutions. So the success of jobs that are necessary to function and to make basic services for citizens and for businesses”, Hoti told Radio Free Europe.

During the recent cabinet meeting, led by former Prime Minister Haradinaj on January 22, 2020, the mandate for three years has been extended to two directors -- one at the Information Society Agency and the other at the Kosovo Geological Service.

Representatives of nongovernmental organisations also consider that it is the untenable right of Kurti Government to assess the legality of any decision made by the government in resignations.

Ehat Miftaraj of the Kosovo Institute for Justice tells Radio Free Europe that along with many decisions made by the outgoing government, it is also the appointment of Kosovo Intelligence Agency General Director (AKI) and the general inspector of this agency.

According to Miftaw, the Kurti Government must review the positions in which persons have been appointed in the government's period of departure as to whether they are legitimate, but, as he says, it does not have the right to remove people from work because of political beliefs.

“Flasing for decisions for which procedures and regulations have not been respected, which have been able to bring about high appointments, which contradict the spirit of the Constitution and the constitution”, he said.

On 25 November last year, as outgoing Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj had named Kreshnik Gashi, director of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, meanwhile Burim Ramadanin, in the position of Kosovo Agency for Intelligence Chief Inspector (AKI).

And in January of this year, from the position of outgoing prime minister, Haradinaj continued his mandate for three years to Kosovo Customs General Director Bahri Berisha.

During this period, according to civil society, there have also been appointments to diplomatic missions, then new swimmers. Meanwhile, most central and local institutions had announced competitions for new jobs. At the time of opening many contests, even the European Union Office in Kosovo had reacted by urging the government in office not to continue with the opening of the contests, as they could be considered illegal.

Even Florent Spahija, legal expert at the Kosovo Democratic Institute, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says the government must analyse decisions and if it proves there are illegal grounds to be changed.

“The government has a legal office and I believe that everything has gone according to the law, but if it is found to lack competence in the appointment of persons in certain positions or mandate has not allowed either approval or appointment of these people, then I consider that these decisions can be revised by the executive and changed, as these decisions bear consequences for society in general”, Spahija said.

Following his resignation from the prime minister's post, Ramush Haradinaj was addressed on 29 July to the Constitutional Court with a request to define the government's competencies and office under circumstances created after his resignation.

But, on September 4th, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has singled out Haradinaj's request unacceptable, and “consuldo that cases raised by the motion for the forger do not enter the scope of the Constitutional Court jurisdiction”.

The Vetevendosje movement, even before it came to power, had called on the government in office, not to be misused, as it was said, the governing transition, warning that the “s that become part of these manipulations will be held accountable”. Their decisions and appointments, even then, were said to be reversed.