AKK: municipalities received over 55m euros, capital investments endangered

The executive director of the Kosovo Commission Association (AKK), Saban Ibrahimi, said most of these tools were taken from budgetary lines dedicated to capital investments, warning direct consequences for citizens.

“Even this year as past years municipalities are being challenged extremely financially. Even this year, up to the first four months of this year's municipalities have received over 55m euros for implementing judicial decisions where most of these decisions concern the collective contract. Of these 55m euros, most of these tools have been obtained from budgetary lines, which have been dedicated to capital investments. So a lot of projects that have been ahead of municipal budgets can't be implemented, and directly this will have a negative impact on citizens' lives. If the government is reviewing the budget for this year, namely whenever this is going to be the government this year after the June 7th elections, it should be a priority to resolve this problem”, he said, for Online Economy, broadcast Periscope.

Ibrahimi said the AKK has tried to resolve the issue through dialogue with the central level, but has so far seen no concrete results.

We as an association have worked through dialogue with the central level to solve this problem, but so far there is no result in the central level facing this problem and accessing the central level to solve this problem has been fair. So municipalities are continuing to be badly damaged because of collective contracts and solutions there is still no. On the other hand, even our courts are not efficient in solving this problem”, he said.

He announced that over 26 municipalities have exercised indictments against the central level for the return of means seized from municipal budgets.

“Several years ago over 26 municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo have filed charges against the central level for unjust access to these financial means from municipal budgets and in those municipalities require the remuneration of means and they do not beg the cause of the problem, but the problem is being solved because the municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo are being damaged and there have been years since these demands of municipalities which we consider to be legitimate are not being resolved by our courts in the Republic of Kosovo, and we also appeal that this issue be taken over by our own courts, said.

According to him, courts have been more efficient in dealing with teachers' indictments than in municipal cases.

We're saying this because when it comes to lawsuits filed by teachers, our courts are very efficient, but there are several years that the demands of municipalities are not being heard even in the justice system in the Republic of Kosovo, and we require maximum commitment from our courts to resolve, to give this final verdict because municipalities are being severely damaged by the unfair acquisition of financial means due to collective contracts. Once again we are re-exemplating: association and mayors are not against collective contracts, but they are against taking the means unfairly from the owners, from the decisions of our courts that go smoothly in favour of teachers”, he said.

Ibrahim also raised concern about the failure to comply with the Constitutional Court's court's conviction regarding the additions to work experience, saying the financial burden is being carried to municipalities.

The second problem, which this year will be for municipalities from the financial side, is that the central level has not implemented a Constitutional Court act on additions to work experience and for us last year, we have a kind of agreement with the independent union of public administration so that public officials do not start exercising indictments because they are going to deal with municipalities again, even though municipalities are not guilty here because the central level has not implemented a Constitutional Court act, and this year many public officials even at the local level have begun to apply the normal indictment for the central level to be harmed by the municipalities, he said.

He explained that the Constitutional Court has decided that all public officials will benefit additional 0.5 per cent for their work experience, but it is not reflected in central budgets.

The law on salaries in the current law says that for public officials who have less than 15 years of working experience, the additional measure is 0.5%, while for those with experience than 15 years, the additional measure is 0.5%. But the Constitutional Court has said that all public officials' additional work experience measures should be 0.5%, and that the central level has not been implemented, and for 2023, 2024 and 2025 central levels have not in their budget seen this additional measure of work experience, and now public officials have done judicial acts where municipalities are still at risk of unjust financial means being taken”, he said.

He also criticised the Central Election Commission, saying there are no means for covering the costs of technical workers committed during the election process.

According to him, all these actions are directly affecting the reduction of capital investments and the damage to Kosovo citizens.

So the first collective contract, the second non-compliance of the Constitutional Court's act on labour experience, and now we have the next problem that has been born due to the CEC because the CEC is also in the past elections, but also in this election has not envisioned financial means for covering costs for workers who will be engaged in election days, technical workers in institutions managed by the municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo and dealing with technical preparations for the election process. So this cost the CEC is thinking of carrying municipalities unjustly. So the CEC is the institution which has full legitimacy for organising elections. Even in this case the financial cost of technical workers engaged during election days should be covered or taken by the CEC, not by municipalities. So these actions by central institutions are seriously damaging the local level budget and because of these actions municipal budgets are greatly reduced, but there is also no possibility of capital investments in our municipalities. So directly the citizen of the Republic of Kosovo will be damaged”, he said. /Periscope/