Public officials in ten municipalities risk being left without pay in November

Public officials of over 10 Kosovo municipalities are at risk of falling short of November's salary as a cause of collective contract. So has the Executive Director of the Association of Kosovo municipalities, Sahan Ibrahimi, announced about Online Economy.

Ibrahimi has said that according to the data they have as a result of the collective contract there are over 122m euros that were illegally taken from municipalities. He has stated that these vehicles were taken from municipalities from capital investments, subsidies and from goods and services.

The main procedure of municipalities at the moment is collective contract and implementation. Based on the calculations we have over 122m euros have been taken into the municipalities unjustly, when the absolute majority of these means have been obtained by capital investments, subsidies and goods and services. In November, we are, according to information we have over 10 municipalities, at the end of the month, that public officials at the local level will be left without pay, or part of them”, Ibrahim said, as the serious situation looks at the end of the year, because the absolute “of municipalities have minus in the category for salaries and extraspecies”.

“Based on the information we possess from Kosovo municipalities, the situation will deteriorate by the end of December because the information we have the absolute majority of municipalities have minus in the category for salaries and additions, that will make a situation extremely uncaring towards public officials at the local level, because they are likely to fall to a position where they cannot afford to get the figure, Ibrahim said further.

He has said he has asked the Kosovo government to allocate budgetary means for pay spending and additions to public officials for Kosovo municipalities, the same as he did last week by sharing the budget for the municipality of Kamenica and Year.

This has happened in two Kosovo municipalities -- that is, the municipality of the Year and Kamenica -- but fortunately the government in this case has reacted and for the month of October has covered the wage spending and additions for public officials of these two municipalities. We as the Association ask, because responsible for dividing Kosovo's salaries to all public officials is the central level. So it's the Kosovo government and we've just addressed a request by Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Minister Hekuran Murati, that the same action that they've taken against the municipality of the Year and Kamenica to take to other municipalities that have minus in the category for salaries and additions. That is reasonable, even the government has the obligation to think about this issue because collective contracts are signed from the central level, not the local level”, he said.

The AKK executive director has said that they have also sought from Kosovo's Parliamentary MP for 2025 to predict a budgetary visa for covering the financial cost stemming from collective contracts.

“We, like the AKK, have asked all Kosovo Assembly deputies to see a budget line for covering the financial cost stemming from collective contracts during next year's budget review. We have also addressed this concern of the head of the Assembly where we have demanded that the AKK have a meeting with the head of the Assembly in order to find a choice in terms of this problem. We have also addressed the same creed to the Boarding Commission”, he said.