Vlora Spanca, Kosovo’s General Auditor, highlighted persistent issues in the management of public funds and capital investments by government institutions. She voiced concerns over the slow pace of prosecution investigations and the minimal number of indictments regarding their findings.
In an interview for Kallxo Përnime TV Programme, the General Auditor of the National Audit Office in Kosovo, NAO, Vlora Spanca highlighted that local and central institutions often contract capital investments without proper planning and funds, leading to financial mismanagement and unfulfilled obligations. She expressed concerns over the slow pace of investigations by the State Prosecutor’s Office, which has resulted in a low number of indictments from cases forwarded by the National Audit Office.
Spanca explained that each year the National Audit Office issues a series of findings and recommendations regarding the performance of public institutions and the management of public money. One of the main sectors where significant shortcomings and poor management have been identified is public finances.
There are, however, some positive cases. Spanca noted that the Ministry of Justice has had a “clean opinion” for several years, praising it as a good example of financial management and internal control.
“The results show that the Ministry of Defense has implemented an appropriate internal control system, which has prevented risks related to the mismanagement of public finances and has ensured good quality in financial reporting,” Spanca stated.
Nonetheless, Spanca mentioned other ministries that have struggled with managing funds and have received qualified opinions from the NAO, largely because of the complexity of their activities. She mentioned the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure as institutions that face major challenges.
“They carry a much higher budget than the Ministry of Justice and have activities that are related to capital investments,” Spanca added.
Spanca emphasised that capital investments are one of the areas where the largest shortcomings are found and that local governance institutions in many cases have contracted operators without having all the necessary funds available in their budget.
Spanca explained that there are always irregularities in processes “where public procurement procedures are also used.”
Lack of investigation and indictments by the prosecution
The auditor expressed concern that very few of the cases forwarded as information by the National Audit Office to the State Prosecutor’s Office are being handled, emphasising that only a small percentage of the cases have led to indictments.
“Out of the 380 cases we have sent [to the prosecution] since 2018, feedback has only been provided for 143 cases, charges have been raised for only three cases, 80 are under investigation, and 50 cases have been closed,” Spanca explained.
Spanca clarified that the NAO is not authorised to file criminal charges, but is required to report violations to the prosecution and provide information that may assist investigations.
The National Audit Office sends the cases as information to the State Prosecutor’s Office, they do not file criminal complaints
“In December 2024, we held a workshop together with the state prosecutors to discuss these concerns of ours and to help in some way the state prosecutors better understand the audit findings, and if necessary, to see if additional information needs to be provided. We have noticed that we [auditors and prosecutors] have differences in understanding of what constitutes a criminal offense. For us [auditors] some cases are very black and white, to put it bluntly,” Spanca said.
“I am not satisfied because something is not right. Not enough work has been done to investigate the cases. Often, the cases have been closed only with statements or interviews taken from witnesses that they have evaluated,” Spanca added further.
Spanca explained that one of the main issues is that Kosovo legislation allows “annex contacts” which allow for the initially agreed costs to increase by “10 percent … in unforeseen cases, where it was not possible to plan or something unexpected came up during the implementation of the project.”
“This shows that the planning for a project from the very beginning was not proper, it was not in line with the needs, whether for road construction or for building a school, and always in every contract, it turns out that additional work is needed… resulting in unforeseen expenses that burden the institutions,” she claimed.
For example, the Kosovo Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning, and Infrastructure signed annex contracts for additional work on the construction of the Prishtina-Podujeve road project, which resulted in more than 3 million euros in extra costs.