Kosovo still without anti-corruption strategy, government says getting ready soon

Even a few days become half a year, since Kosovo still has no strategy, whose instructions would be followed by institutions to fight and prevent corruption.

The strategy, which was in effect, is no longer in 2021 since it was its mandate until 2023.

Unlike the other times this strategy was employed by the Anti-Corruption Agency this time the document is drafting Albin Kurti's government office.

“The state anti-corruption strategy is being drafted and approved for the first time by the government. A long and careful work has been done in drafting it. Finance, Labour and Transitions Minister Iron Murati, as chairman of the Ministerial Commission for drafting the Strategy in question, has held several meetings with our partners in terms of finalising its Strategic and Action Plan draft. The strategy is expected to come up in public consulting soon. As for the issue of monitoring, implementation monitoring is done by the Corruption Prevention Agency,” Kosovo government spokesman Progress Kryeziu.

The government's criticism of the delay in adopting this document is from civil society. Gzim Shala from the Kosovo Institute for Justice says adopting such a strategy is a legal obligation.

The “is very problematic to see, a government which has come with this promise and since it is completing its mandate it does not yet have a government against corruption, adopting this strategy is a legal obligation, but if we see it in its goal it is very problematic to expect effects from a strategy adopted at the end of the ruling mandate,” has said, IKD researcher Gzim Shala.

And lawyer Yll Zekij says that by the time Kosovo is at the centre of criticism, for the corruption situation, the government would have to have such a strategy ready.

“The anti-corruption strategy is one of the main strategies we have to have because both the criticism and the real status of corruption we have in Kosovo, we have different reports, like those of the State Department, then progress report, and reports on Kosovo that give huge criticisms of corruption, and the government should always be willing to have the strategy that ended in 2023, ready the draft,” said, Lawyer Yl Zeqaj.

In the latest UN report, released last month, the Kosovo government has been criticised for failing to implement the law effectively for corruption in this institution, citing officials not being punished.