KOSOVO PROSECUTORIAL COUNCIL FAILS TO PENALIZE THE PROSECUTORS AND OFFICIALS WHO VIOLATED THE RULES OF TRACKING MECHANISM FOR CORRUPTION CASES

KOSOVO PROSECUTORIAL COUNCIL FAILS TO PENALIZE THE PROSECUTORS AND OFFICIALS WHO VIOLATED THE RULES OF TRACKING MECHANISM FOR CORRUPTION CASES

KOSOVO PROSECUTORIAL COUNCIL FAILS TO PENALIZE THE PROSECUTORS AND OFFICIALS WHO VIOLATED THE RULES OF TRACKING MECHANISM FOR CORRUPTION CASES

Prishtina, November 18 – Kosovo Law Institute (KLI) expresses concern over the continuing failure of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC) and the Chief Prosecutors at Basic Prosecutions and the Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo (SPRK) to hold accountable all offenders within the prosecutorial system for their failure to meet legal obligations, by delaying the adjudication of corruption cases.

KLI has monitored and assessed the implementation of the Action Plan for Increasing Efficiency of the Prosecutorial System in the Fight Against Corruption from entry into force of this action plan. (4 November 2013). During its monitoring, KLI has found that a large number of cases of corruption are not registered in the database – Tracking Mechanism, created especially for characteristic criminal offenses, which include cases of corruption. The failure to register corruption cases has been identified by KPC itself, through the Prosecution Performance Review Unit, by creation of (February 2014) the Committee on Oversight and Verification of corruption cases in prosecutions. Results of the work of this committee, revealed great irresponsibility of a chain of officials at the prosecutions, from prosecutors to members of supporting staff, who had not respected the rules of The Tracking Mechanism for registering the cases of corruption in the database. These findings and recommendations of the Commission were approved at the meeting of the KPC, held on February 25, 2014, during which the decision no. 45-2014 was issued, through which all chief prosecutors are obliged to take disciplinary action against persons who have failed to comply with the rules for registering the cases of corruption in the Tracking Mechanism. Despite numerous violations that were identified by the Commission and the final decision of the KPC to take measures against the offenders, Chief Prosecutors have not taken any disciplinary action against the responsible prosecutors and other employees. Seeing the reluctance of the Chief Prosecutors to penalize their officials, KPC, at the meeting held on April 25, 2014, has decided that Chief Prosecutors at Basic Prosecutions and the Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo should report on the implementation of the decision no. 45-2014 adopted on 25 February 2014. KPC, through this decision, has directly held accountable the Chief Prosecutors for failing to penalize the prosecutors and their staff who have not registered the cases of corruption. In this regard, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC), has also failed to prosecute the responsible prosecutors, in harmony with its mandate to investigate violations, based on the findings of the report of the KPC in order to hold accountable the prosecutors who have committed violations. ODC has initiated 44 investigations into cases of corruption published in the reports of KLI, encouraging its investigators to do their work independently, but also asking them not be amnesty without investigation the offences committed by prosecutors, as identified by KPC.

The Institute considers that this culture of impunity demonstrates a complete failure of the prosecutorial system which has pardoned the persons responsible for the identified violations. KLI finds even more concerning the failure of the Chief Prosecutors to implement the decision of the highest authority within the prosecutorial system, the KPC, and the failure of the KPC to implement the decision to penalize the Chief Prosecutors in the case that they do not sanction the prosecutors and their employees for identified violations.

This response is in continuance of the reactions of the KLI to the KPC which has continuously failed to address the most important matters falling within its mandate to implement the decisions related to combating corruption in Kosovo.