Selmanaj: Bureau with current law risks turning into instrument of persecution of political opponents

Selmanaj has said that this bureau with the current law risks “with the greatest convenience to turn into the instrument of persecution of political opponents”.

“The LDK, even in the preliminary case, has put the Bureau's pro-foundment vote, even though we had our dilemmas in terms of the spirit of constitutionality of that document, we also had a recommendation from the Venice Commission. But unfortunately, the Constitutional Court ruled that not all issues are addressed to maintain the constitutional and institutional system we have established in Kosovo. Now we have another draft and we read it carefully and we say again that this document is with anti-unconstitutional elements”, Selmanaj said.

The first issue, according to Selmanaj, is the manner of electing the director who, according to him, is a constitutional attack and challenges the role of the Parliament.

The first “concerns the director of this mechanism. While the Venice Commission has said it is good to think of a college leadership, not of one person, the Government insists that it be one person. Article 16, paragraph 16 says that candidacys come to the Parliament, and if eventually fails the first time, the competition is announced for the second time. But what happens the third time? In the third time, says that even after the contest is repeated, the Parliament fails to elect the Director General in two rounds, then the Commission announces the competition and conducts procedures, with the exception only that the Commission at the end of the process chooses the candidate mostly as director general. That leads to surprise for the role of the Parliament. So if the Assembly fails to elect the Bureau's director, the commission there picks it. This is the constitutional attack of the role of the Kosovo Assembly”, Selmanaj has said in the Assembly.

The second point, according to him, is the composition of the supervisory commission that, according to him, seriously violates the Bureau's independence.

The second key that seriously violates the independence of this institution is the composition of the supervisory commission. This commission is made up of three members who choose the Assembly, meaning the simple parliamentary majority. It's a VV and a Google list. The fourth member is a member of the Corruption Prevention Agency that also elects the Assembly. And the last member is the Director of Financial Intelligence Unit that selects Prime Minister”, Selmanaj has declared.

While the third point involves transitional provisions that are unconstitutional.

The last “is about transitional provisions. It says until the functionality of the Bureau, its administrative function is exercised by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, which I share additional means for carrying out this post. Completely illegal action” has added Selmanaj.