Caretaker Government Decisions Raise Suspicions of Overstepping Its Powers

Kosovo’s caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti during a vote at a meeting of the caretaker government. Archive photo.

Since the early parliamentary elections of June 7, Kosovo’s caretaker government, led by the Vetëvendosje Movement, has approved decisions on appointments to interim boards of public enterprises, the allocation of budget funds, expropriations and the leasing of public property.

The decisions also include the appointment of commissions to recruit officials for senior management positions, as well as the appointment of individuals to important institutional posts.

During this period, Albin Kurti’s caretaker cabinet has taken a total of 75 decisions at 11 government meetings.

Representatives of political parties and civil society say that some of these decisions may be in violation of Kosovo’s Constitution and the Law on Government. According to them, a caretaker cabinet should deal only with essential activities and with implementing a plan established earlier.

The Kurti government, which remained in office after the dissolution of the Kosovo Assembly following the failure to elect a new president, continued procedures for appointing officials to senior positions even after the elections were held.

It established commissions to recruit candidates for the position of secretary-general at the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade and at the Ministry of Health. Similar commissions were also established for other positions, including that of executive director of the Treasury of Kosovo.

Ragmi Dalipi was also appointed director-general of the Information Society Agency (ASHI).

The caretaker cabinet’s decisions have also affected public property. In the municipality of Hani i Elezit, around 10 hectares of land were leased for 15 years for the extraction and use of limestone. Public land was also leased for the same period and purpose in the municipalities of Ferizaj and Shtime.

Gzim Shala, a researcher at the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI), considers these steps to be in violation of the Law on Government.

In a statement to Radio Free Europe, Shala said the law does not allow the initiation of new procedures for appointments to public functions and prohibits decisions that are not essential, including the leasing of property.

“This situation undermines the principles of the rule of law, because we are dealing with a clear situation that is unlawful and unconstitutional, and yet it continues,” Shala said.

Liridon Salihi of the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) said that the appointment of candidates to public positions by a caretaker government may take place only when procedures to fill those positions began while the government had a full mandate.

Radio Free Europe asked the caretaker government to respond to allegations that it had overstepped its powers, but had received no response by the time this article was published.

The Law on Government stipulates that the powers of a caretaker government are limited and that it may not take important decisions. Under the law, the cabinet may continue only essential activities included in the annual plan and the Budget Law.

The same law also prohibits the approval of initiatives to sign international agreements requiring ratification by the Assembly. A caretaker government may not approve draft laws, constitutional amendments, strategies or concept documents either.

Meanwhile, the law also prohibits the opening of new procedures for appointments to public functions and the nomination of candidates for positions requiring approval by the Assembly.

For Shala and Sahiti, the issue became even more complicated after the election results were certified, as several members of the caretaker cabinet were elected as deputies of the Kosovo Assembly.

According to them, decisions taken by ministers who also hold a parliamentary mandate are unlawful. The Law on Government stipulates that a cabinet member elected as a deputy must resign from the post of minister before the day the results are certified.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) certified the results of the early parliamentary elections on July 8.

Article 72 of Kosovo’s Constitution stipulates that “a deputy of the Assembly of Kosovo may not hold any executive post in the public administration or in any publicly owned enterprise, nor exercise any other executive function.”

Shala also referred to a Supreme Court decision from last year, which found that simultaneously exercising these two functions is contrary to the Constitution.

According to that decision, a caretaker government may carry out only essential and planned activities, while it has no right to approve new secondary legislation.

“Citizens must clearly understand that people whom the law does not allow to act as members of the government are making decisions on behalf of the state and creating obligations that could burden institutions for many years,” Shala told Radio Free Europe.

Sahiti of GLPS said that decisions exceeding the restrictions imposed on a caretaker government, or those approved by an unlawful composition in which ministers were simultaneously deputies, should be reviewed and annulled.

“GLPS considers that any action following these decisions is contestable, since the composition of the collegial body that issued them was incompatible with the legislation in force,” he told Radio Free Europe.

The debate over the legality of the decisions intensified after the caretaker government’s meeting on August 12.

The Alliance, a parliamentary party, announced that it would refer to the Prosecutor’s Office a case concerning 18 decisions taken by the caretaker government. Most of them concern the appointment of commissions for recruitment procedures in public institutions.

Besnik Tahiri, an Alliance deputy in the Kosovo Assembly, told the media that these decisions had been taken in violation of the law and that the caretaker government was using the administration for party interests. / RFE