The Weakest Link of Kosovo's Democracy - KFOS

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The current battle to capture the boards of Publicly Owned Enterprises (POEs) is an
indicator on how far the Kosovar institutions are from building an independent administrative
structure. The POE Boards have been continuously dominated by the political
figure and the final decision to reconfirm the Minister Et’hem Çeku, professionally a
historian, as the Chair of the KEK Board shows that the government is not applying
professionalism as a management criteria. This case illustrates the best the consequences
from politicizing the very mechanisms which should be founded first of all
on professionalism. It is a well-known fact that the Minister Çeku leads the campaign
on construction of the private power plant Kosova C. To lobby for such a cause that
conflicts directly with his position as the Chair of the KEK Board, since KEK and power
plant Kosova C should compete against each other.
Ultimately, a degradation of KTA’s work has been noticed in June 2006 by the EU – CA-
FAO (the mission of customs and fiscal assistant) when of 72 evaluated criteria, only
five had been evaluated as completed. 38
Kosova Tax Administration – Where Did It Start and How Did It End
Kosova Tax Administration has been established almost from scratch. The Central Fiscal
Authority, later KTA, and the Customs Administration have been the first part of
Kosovar administration built after the war. As such, Kosova Tax Administration has
been established before the PISG became operational, at the times when UNMIK was
in fact administering with Kosova. For this reason, during the period before the PISG,
a considerable number of Kosovars have been trained and educated with Anglo-Saxon
tax administration standards. At this time, the KTA had several advantages:
1. Inability to exert political influence on staff selection and on determining
tax collection
2. Vast possibilities to benefit reap the knowledge on the matter through
practical trainings and to equip oneself with theoretical knowledge on
administration of developed countries including Great Britain and USA
3. Introduction of modern technological systems based on producers’
competency level rather than political influence as often happened
with PISG
Minister Shatri Dismisses the Partisans of the Former Minister
Sadriu – to replace
Them With His own
Once the competences had been transferred to MEF, employees that initiated the CFA/
KTA began being replaced with people whose political determinations were more suitable.
The preferential approach has been initiated by the very appointment of the
former Minister of Economy and Finance, Ali Sadriu, in close cooperation with the
former director of KTA, Mustafë Hasani. In such a situation of new government creation
in late 2004, coming to power of Haki Shatri could not help hoping for a more
professional approach. But Mr. Shatri was too good to quickly disappoint even the big-
38 Report for the European Commission and the 10th meeting of the Stabilization and
Association tracking Mechanism, June 20, 2006