Parliament votes to establish investigative commission for KPM license investigation

This has been the main recommendation of the Commission for Public Finance Supervisor over the performance auditing Report “The process of licensing users of construction and industrial minerals and protecting the environment from this” event, which has received 61 votes from Kosovo Assembly deputies.

Opposition parties have voiced opposition to these recommendations, saying procedures for the initiative of the investigative commission have been ignored.

Vetevendosje Movement MP Arta Bayralija has submitted the commission's recommendations, where the main recommendation said it is for the Parliament to establish the investigative commission for licenses and permission for research and permission for use provided by the KPM.

Kosovo's “Assembly to establish the investigative commission to investigate all licenses and permission for research and permission for use provided by the KPM. The Ministry of Economy and Environment and KPM take the necessary action to create a database for monitoring licenses and research and exploitation permits, to create a black list for economic operators, who do not adhere to the conditions and exploitation criteria, to not become the delivery of the license or its continuation without completing all the quality programme documentation needed for rehabilitation”, Bajralija said.

She said the auditing report has shown that the process of granting licenses and permits for specific activities by the Independent Commission for Mining and Minerals has not provided sufficient security that all criteria have been met during the licensing of economic operators.

Vetevendosje MP Enver Haliti said that over the use of industrial and construction minerals in the past four years has doubled the number of licenses for stonebreakers.

“Based on the results of the ZKA auditing shows that responsible institutions have failed to do enough to protect the environment from illegal operators during developing mining activity, enabling these operators to operate without implementing criteria and offering security on the ground where they operate... As regards the use of construction and industrial minerals in the past four years, the number of stonebreakers has doubled in addition to increasing demand for highway construction and other demand for construction”, Haliti said.

Against the establishment of the investigative commission has been the Parliamentary Group PDK, whose deputy Fadil Nura, said recommendations are contrary to the Mine and Mine Law

“Reconfirm our opposition to these recommendations addressed by the KPMM to the fact that, to the greater extent, they have no support in the audience's findings in the performance auditing report, and they are completely contrary to the Law on Mines and Mines, while they are completely non-professional in the procedure. For example, the first recommendation, says the Assembly to establish the investigative commission to investigate all licenses and permission for research and permission for exploitation, is a recommendation which has no basis in the performance audit report”, he said.

Even LDK Parliamentary Group chief Arben Gashi said procedures for establishing the parliamentary investigative commission have been ignored, for which he has proposed that the procedure be initiated from the beginning.

“In principle we are pro-creasing a parliamentary investigative commission that investigates the activity, the licenses of mining and minerals. The problem lies in the way of the proposal, the recommendation in the way it is written does not meet formal-juridical conditions to be supported, because the Law on the formation of parliamentary investigative commissions explicitly says the formation of the parliamentary investigative commission should have specific territory, duration no longer than six months, budget, the number of commission members and commission chairmanship. None of these five essential elements for forming a parliamentary investigative commission are available in this recommendation. It would be good for the functional reporting commission in this case to withdraw this recommendation and initiate the procedure from the beginning, so to initiate a real procedure that I believe we will all support”, Gashi said.

Even the AAK Parliamentary Group spoke against establishing the investigative commission, where the MP for this party, Albana Bytyqi, said the government is mixing companies with boards.

“We as a parliamentary group oppose these recommendations not to make the licenses and continue them, because by today those companies have worked and there has been no problem. I consider those companies have met the conditions to operate so that they can't be harmed anymore because I don't know what you're based on to stop the activity. And all of those companies that haven't met the conditions, and if there are those that are not licensed, we encourage you to make criminal statements rather than companies that are productive. You're used to downloading boards and mixing companies are almost public companies' boards. Please don't expel these companies with boards! ”, she said.

But, Vetevendosje deputy Pacolli, called for the prosecution's involvement in the investigation into environmental degradation and damage to the country's economy, regardless of whether it comes to former senior officials.

For 20 years our mineral assets have been exploited without adequate planning criteria, our common assets have been converted into private assets and used for the interests of only a few individuals, and as a result our economic situation has been sequenced and the environment we are living in has been degraded and only a few individuals have been enriched”, she said.

Kosovo's Assembly today has approved recommendations from the Commission for Public Finance Oversight on the Review Report “The effectiveness of the education interconnection and professional skills with the labour market needs”, as well as the Commission's recommendations for Public Finance Oversight for the Progress Report for the “Administratoration programme for treatment outside public health institutions and assessment of the results<3>.