01/01/1970

Prishtina, 2 June – In the round table discussion with the topic “Functioning of public administration and possibilities of citizens”, in which participated representatives of civil society, municipal officials from Prizren, Gjakova and Association of Kosovo Municipalities, was presented the preliminary report of the project “Accountability of democratic institutions towards civil society in Kosovo” supported by the American foundation NED.

The report contains findings from different interviews and focus-group meetings with citizens, in which they mentioned the lack of will of officials to serve responsibly; corruption and increasing tendency of establishing a bribing habit for doing different small services; avoiding their responsibility and tasks, causing confusion among the uninformed citizens regarding procedures for a certain service; frequent modification of criteria for a certain service, lack of necessary clarification for a service; and finally lack of one stable legal basis. Ferdinand Nikolla, Executive Director of FIQ, said that one of the biggest problems for citizens is the inadequate functioning of institutions mandated for public services. Sazan Ibrahimi, Executive Director of Association of Kosovo Municipalities, said that the reforms in public administration require the harmonization of legislation, which often causes confusion in offering services. Nevertheless, he added, the trust of citizens in local institutions is higher than in central institutions. Teuta Haxhiu, vice-Mayor of the Municipality of Gjakova, said that the administration of this municipality has advanced in offering services to the citizens. Osman Buzhala, Director of Administration and Personnel in the municipality of Prizren, said that the Municipality has offered 12 offices to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in order to use them as centres for personal documents, and they also offered a number of apprentices in order to avoid long waiting lines of people.