RTK board dismissal and formation of a Parliamentary Detective Commission required

From this union it has been said that unionists offered actual evidence that implicates the RTK Board to lawlessness, and harmful locations for the public broadcaster.

The SPRTK, in addition to the dismissal of the Board, calls on the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo “to initiate procedures for forming the Parliamentary Investigative Commission with the aim of understanding the truth about the legality of contracts without criteria and without financial cover; purchase of poor quality television products by producers who are members of political persons; employment without control and criteria, millions of debts, etc.

Representatives of the Independent Trade Union of RTK, consisting of President Fadil Hoxha, members of Prime Minister Adriana Morina and Veton Rugova, have met today at Kosovo's Parliamentary Commission for Media, Doarsa Kica, Deputy Chairman Valon Ramadani and members of the leadership, Niazi Isaac, Fitim Haziri and Besim Muzaqi.

Union leaders, based on illegal and extremely harmful decisions for the public broadcaster, its employees, as well as the general public, sought by the deputies of the commission, who urgently start procedures for the RTK Board's dismissal.

The unionists offered evidence that applies RTK's Board to lawlessness, and harmful locations for the public broadcaster you have listed below:

1. The election of the RTK general director saw the vote of 2/3 of board members as envisioned at Article 32, RTK Law 3 point: “General Director of the General RTK is named and dismissed by 2/3 of the board members' votes. ”

2. The choice in the position of RTK 2 director of the person who, being editor of the Cosovoonline portal.com, has pushed forward harmful agendas for the country, one of them is the division of RTK 2 out of RTK. The decision had also been reacted to by the former chairman, the current deputy chairman of the QLAPHRM Commission, Mergim Lushtaku, who, among other things, on November 3rd 2020, says that with the election of Zelko Trvdisfil, the director of RTK2” has been violated state security”.

3. The election to the position of the deputy director of RTK's person who in the 2019 Parliamentary elections, voters had called them pro-rus and anti-Western, thus seriously violating the professional standards and principles of journalism that are approved by the RTK Board itself. Also offered as evidence was the 28-page material of former RTK Board member Hisen Berisha, who, among other things, says: “RTK has been transformed instead of manipulation with public money, mismanagement, interest conflict, deliberate budgetary excess, non-competitive employment, contempt of general audience recommendations, rejection of co-operation with interior audiences, etc.” This material was published in 2015 and included the period when Z. Incumbent General Mentor Shala was the director general of RTK.

4. Approval of the Board of Proposal of Director Displacement Kastrati for the selection of Driton Morina to the position of Joint Services Leader, without meeting one of the main competition criteria, work experience.

5. Clientistic, nepotic and party employment. Only during October 2020 have fifteen new jobs under regular contract have been realised, despite staff overcrowding and the difficult financial situation as a result of millions of debts generated by uncontrolled spending, which are daily endangering RTK's stability. One of the employees at RTK-Radio with the competition is Valmir Klaiq's wife, former adviser to Kadri Wessel. During the years (2020-2021) dozens of contracted employment, including family members of the current board chairman Sali Basota (the groom), finance director Adelina Hyseni-Valla (sister), former President Thaci (brother's son), PDK member Migen Kelmendi (girl), etc. It is important to note that by contracting the work in many cases, there are persons who have no commitments and who do not come to work at all, such as the case of Leotrim Thaci. This person even has the entity's Special Rights Manager contract, which is also held by colleague Naser Djindovci. In addition, commitment to managerial positions by contract on work is illegal.

6. The family rewards of Management. The father of the current general director, Lorik Arifaj, has been awarded financial rewards since he retired. With additional financial means, besides regular pay has been rewarded by Mr. Director General Mentor Shala.

7. Don't pay, for five months April-September 2020 of the Trust of Employees, even though their money was taken from them at the beginning of each month. This action of Management is done without employees being aware. As a result of this responsibility, RTK employees for this period of time have been deprived of the right to profit from investment in shares, since the Pension Trust, as we know, the money raised by employees invest mainly in international markets and the benefits realised by these investments share the contributions.

8. Disputing actions against employees during the delivery of solid aid. The solidary aid employed in death cases has been selectively distributed for years.

9. discriminatory actions during the process of advancing and rewarding employees. Former board chairman Aferdita Maliqi, (Uncle's son lives Sopi and Uncle Christina Sopi's cloud). Aferdita Maliqi is signatory to the illegal decision of electing the general director, Intervention Kastrati. During February of this year, Jeton Sopi was arrested along with a group of kidnappers in Gjilan and is in custody. According to the police report, Sopi lived with a criminal record. In addition to the basic salary, this person has received additional contract wages until the day of his arrest. Within just two years, Sopi lives from a rookie has advanced to the highest position in the job catalogue, Master Voice, a position other employees in RTK cannot achieve even though they have more than 15 years of work experience in RTK. The finance director, Adelina Valla, and Administration Leader Erzen Kapuska, has also been paid double pay. Last year (2020), during reporting on relevant Assembly Commissions, the Board of RTK had claimed to have terminated all contracts (addy salaries).

10. RTK's management has prevented the Auditor General, failing to cooperate with him, from conducting an audit of the performance at RTK. This audit began at the end of 2018 and is not yet complete. And on the other hand, the RTK Management spends thousands of euros on budgets by engaging private audiences.

The SPRTK, in addition to the dismissal of the Board, calls on the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo to initiate procedures for forming the Parliamentary Detective Commission with the aim of understanding the truth about the legality of contracts without financial criteria and no financial cover; purchase of poor quality television products from producers who are members of political persons; employment without control and without criteria, millions of debts, etc.

A detailed investigation should also be submitted to the money spent on renting technical equipment.

With just one contract to digitize a small portion of old television material, in 2018, RTK has spent 289 thousand euros. According to a report by the French company “INA” financed by EBU, these materials could be digitised by staff RTK's at a much smaller cost.

Also, the property issue, the object and sustainable financing, must receive epilogue under RTK law.

We expect Kosovo Assembly deputies to react quickly and be effective in addressing these very important issues for the country's only public broadcaster.

The SPRTK mission will continue to be the protection of the interest of public broadcasters and its employees, but also the preservation of taxpayers' money and therefore we consider our obligation not only union, but citizens to denounce any illegal, public and public activities of the Kosovo Parliament, which is the overseer of the public broadcaster.