Peja prosecutor launches investigation into patent-style abuse allegations

Peja's prosecution confirmed on Friday for Radio Free Europe that it has launched an investigation into allegations of patent-viser abuses in this part of Kosovo.

Infrastructural Ministry Deputy Minister Hysen Durmishi said earlier in the day at a news conference that the Peja Prosecutor had been sent a volume file about hundreds of candidates who received the license-viser in suspicious processes.

From what we have found so far, our doubts have to do with a broad criminal enterprise, which remains to be proven by justice organs”, Durmish said.

Peja's prosecution did not provide further details about the case, because, as it said, “the sensitivity of investigations”.

Durmish said that various information that citizens had addressed to the Ministry regarding abuses in obtaining patents had prompted a monitoring within units that issue these driving permits.

The Patent-Sophers Department is an institution within the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Within this department, there are centers in the seven main municipalities in Kosovo where citizens can be tested in writing and in the practical part to get permission to drive vehicles, which are otherwise known as driver's license.

As the deputy minister said, in areas where they had conducted checks, the most suspicious findings had been encountered in the Pec Unit.

There, according to Durmish, during 2023, over 600 candidates, most of them from other municipalities, had passed the practical driving exam.

The “is very suspicious when a candidate from Kamenica goes to Pec for a practice exam”, Durmish said.

In further research, according to Durmish, ministry officials had found differences in documents that testify to the processes that candidates have passed to obtain the driver's license.

Examples were cases when the candidates reportedly passed exams at two different centers in various years, according to records.

For example, Durmish also mentioned finding that a examiner (a test test test tester) had been engaged in the Pec unit for only two weeks and had spent over 200 candidates in the practical exam.

This is obviously above average and mainly are candidates to other municipalities”, Durmish said.

He added that in case these allegations are confirmed by competent courts, the ministry would cancel suspicious tests and seize patents-competers