Prishtinë, 25 April 2012
Political parties coming to power in Kosovo are closely linked to their donors. During elections, they receive amounts of money from physical and legal subjects in violation of the Law on Financing of Political Parties. During the elections of 2010, the parties in power, PDK and AKR have received the most of donations from physical and legal persons, in comparison with other competing parties in the elections. The audit report commissioned by the Central Election Commission (CEC) on the financial statements of the political parties for 2010, published during June of this year, observed that the biggest violators of this law are the two political parties – the Democratic Party of Kosovo and New Kosovo Alliance.
These two subjects have the largest number of donors, and as a consequence the largest number of violations. Disregarding the law, the donors, be it physical or legal persons, have given larger amounts of money than allowed by the law. Previous research carried by “Preportr” shows that the donors of political parties in power are mainly companies which win public tenders as a compensation for their support to the parties during election campaigns, which represents a serious violation of competition in public procurement. During the last research, “Preportr” has found that 43 different subjects, mainly construction companies, which as businesses and physical persons financed the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), during the last two elections campaigns have benefited in the amount of more than 100 million euro through public tenders.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), led by Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, is the party which has received the most donations both from physical but also from legal persons. The audit report has found this political subject to have committed the most violations, as well as other irregularities in the financial statements it has submitted to CEC.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), led by Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, is the party which has received the most donations both from physical but also from legal persons. The audit report has found this political subject to have committed the most violations, as well as other irregularities in the financial statements it has submitted to CEC.
PDK with numerous violations of the law
This research has mainly focused on the amount received by political parties in the form of cash, but this is not the only form the parties receive support from the private sector. Not rarely do companies offer support in the form of services, especially marketing, which it can be said go almost un-monitored.
“Magjistralja” from Gjilan has given PDK 16 thousand euro, which is in violation of the Law on Financing of Political Parties, and article 1 and 1.2 says “Political Subjects are allowed to receive contributions from: legal persons in the amount of – not more than ten thousand (10.000) for one (1) calendar year”.
Also “Euro Trans” company, also from Gjilan, has given more money than allowed by the law. This company has given PDK 10,500 euro.
Apart from companies, also individual person, mainly businessmen related with the public sector, have exceeded the limits determined by the law in financing of political parties. Even as physical persons who have financed the parties by exceeding the legal limits, Nijazi Idrizi within one day has given 7000 euro. According to CEC audit report for 2010, also Florim Zuka, owner of “Tali” company has donated 3000 euro to PDK election campaign as a physical person.
Amounts exceeding what is allowed have also been given by: Gëzim Duraj 5000, Naser Kurti 5000, Shefki Xhakli 4500, Bejtush Mustafa 3500, Rexhep Ferizi 2.500, Musli Ramadani 6,497, Flurim Zeqiri 5.000, etc.
These donations exceed the legal limit for donations by individuals, respectively physical persons, which according to the law the limit determines amounts not more than two thousand (2,000) Euro for one (1) calendar year – article 1 and 1.1 of the Law on Financing of Political Parties.
Regarding PDK, the auditor has found other violations as well. In some cases when amounts exceeding 1,000 donated by physical persons, the personal data of the donors and the date of the donation have not been filled in. The external audit report observes that the data on the registration and operation of political parties according to Regulation 01/2008 have not been completed.
The auditor has found that this political subject (PDK) has not maintained a proper accounting, according to applicable standards in Kosovo, and therefore, the data presented in the form do not reflect reliability, since according to the auditor, the verification was impossible due to the lack of supporting evidence.
Ironically, the violation of the law by non-complying with the required accounting standards, respectively the lack of financial documents have been turned around to serve as defense by the violating parties, since according to the audit report, it is impossible to establish whether there is material misuse or not.
“...due to lack of supporting documents, we were not able to...verify whether the financial statements declared by the political subject are free of material misuse, and whether they are in harmony with regulation 01/2008 for the Registration and Operation of Political Parties and with the Law on general elections 03-L/073”, the audit report says.
Donations from overseas
The clan support given to AKR is what makes this party different from the others. Thus, individuals with the last name of the head of the party prevail in the list of donors, but taking in view that the head of the party, Behgjet Pacolli is a multimillionaire, it is possible that these names have simply been used to create the impression that the financing of this political party is not one-source.
After PDK, the party which has received the most donations is New Kosovo Alliance (AKR) of Behgjet Pacolli. According to the audit report, this party has received more money from a single person within one day. Furthermore, this party has received a lot of donations from Switzerland. The clan support given to AKR is what makes this party different from the others. Thus, individuals with the last name of the head of the party prevail in the list of donors, but taking in view that the head of the party, Behgjet Pacolli is a multimillionaire, it is possible that these names have simply been used to create the impression that the financing of this political party is not one-source.
Habibe Bunjaku, Tahije Pacolli, have donated 15, 000 euro each, Enver Pacolli 14, 992 euro, Erika Campello 13, 475 euro, Flamur Sefaj 20.000, Adnan Pacolli 19, 965 euro, the amount of 19 thousand and 963 euro given by Armend Salihu and Luciana Gaitto, and Daut Pacolli 15, 200 euro.
The auditor has not found violations of such nature in the other two big political parties, LDK and AAK, which during this period of time have been outside of governing power. This in a manner confirms the suspicions that donations are closely related to the power of the parties, which based on numerous researches, return the favor to the donors by using their power over the public procurement.
Foreign financial support and materials is prohibited from: act 1.1 government or non-government foreign institutions, as well as foreign physical and legal persons
Another scandal is the practice of interference of foreign capital in financing of political parties, which is prohibited in democratic countries since it can account for a serious infringement of democracy. Smaller parties, mainly coming from the communities, have received funds from overseas, which is in violation of the Law on Financing of Political Parties, Article 11, act 1.1, which specifies that “Foreign financial support and materials is prohibited from: 1.1 government or non-government foreign institutions, as well as foreign physical and legal persons”
The political party Crnogorska Liberalna Stranka has received donations in the amount of 3000 euro from Montenegro. Money from overseas has also received the political party “Levizja per Bashkim”, which has received from Albania an amount of 9,963 euro.
No sanctions for the violators of the law
The violations we observe in this reporting are not a new phenomenon in the functioning of political parties. They have been present even in previous mandates, when other parties were in power. These violations are sanctioned very poorly, or not at all, and this is repeated year after year.
The Central Election Commission up till now has not issued any fines to political subjects, which according to the audit Report have violated the law. The only measure undertaken by CEC is the request made to political parties that they return these illegal donations back to the donors, thus without being sanctioned for violating the law.
Fehmi Pireva, high legal officer in CEC has said that after the publication of the audit report, they requested from political parties to return these donations, when there were cases of exceeding the amounts, and this within a 14-day deadline, which according to him, the parties accomplished to do.
“We have done this based on Regulation No.01/2008 for registration and operation of political parties, where article 17.7 says that “If the registered political party accepts the contribution which is not allowed according to this Regulation, the head of the party returns the contribution to the contributor within fourteen days (14) from the time of receiving the information for the prohibited contribution”, he says.
In cases when the political subject has not been able to return the funds to the donor, this Regulation determines that the money should be allocated to the Budget of Kosovo.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo has so far carried out this obligation towards CEC, and regarding four cases when the donors could not be identified, the money allocated to this party by the National Assembly has been allocated to the Budget of Kosovo.
Although the administrator of this political subject, Halil Selimi says that the part of raising donations for the campaign is not their responsibility, since during election campaign it is the Leadership of the Party which announces people responsible for raising money, they have cooperated with CEC in returning those funds.
“I cannot say that these cases represent violations of the law, but I can say that that money has been received in an irregular manner. Now all this has been settled in cooperation with CEC”, Selimi has said.
He has said that the party did not identify 4 donors and the money that should have been returned to them in the amount of 2,500 euro has been allocated to the budget of Kosovo.
Officials in PDK have not consented to show which the amount was due to be returned to the donors. Unofficially, it has been pointed out that this amount is a little over 50 thousand. This money has been returned from the Fund for development and democracy, which the Assembly has allocated to this party.
The other party, which according to the audit report has violated the law by receiving more donations than is allowed from the same donor within one day, has not received any request by CEC to return the money.
Hafize Pacolli, responsible for finances in AKR, has said that since she did not receive a request, it implied that this political subject did not violate the law.
“This can be due to the fact that all sources of money are known to the party. All the donations to the party are carried through bank transactions and we have submitted all bank invoices to CEC and the auditor”, she has said, but without being able to explain the fact how it did come that the auditor has evidenced the donations received in the amounts exceeding 1,000 euro from the same person within one day as violations by this political subject.
The lack of certified financial officers
The violations of the law, which political subjects prefer to call irregularities, occur more due to lack of experience and knowledge of the law of those receiving the donations.
The auditor has observed that the political subjects do not have certified financial officers, whereas one such officer is lacking even in CEC.
The lacking of a financial officer is also mentioned by the Director for the registration of political parties, Miradije Mavriqi. She has implied that a lot of things go wrong because the Office has a very small number of employees.
Even the political subjects have mentioned the fact that people in the field are not properly prepared.
During a roundtable recently organized by the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), focusing on the financing of political parties, the majority of participants have emphasized the lack of specialized staff in CEC, but also in political parties.