Four Infrastructure Ministry Officials Indicted for Abuse of Office

The Special Prosecution has filed an indictment against B.R., B.H., R.Q. and N.L., who are charged with the criminal offense of “Abuse of Official Position or Authority.”

The indictment states that, from August 2, 2017, to November 26, 2020, the defendants, in their capacity as officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure in Pristina, allegedly exceeded their legal authority and failed to fulfill their official duties.

The case concerns the initiation, procurement, management, authorization, certification and execution of payments for the public contract titled “Maintenance of Bridges on Kosovo’s National and Regional Roads for 2017–2019.”

According to the Special Prosecution, the defendants acted in violation of the Law on Public Procurement, the Regulation and Operational Guidelines on Public Procurement, as well as the Financial Rule on the Expenditure of Public Funds. Although the procurement procedure was launched with an estimated value of 500,000 euros, the payments made totaled 5,377,058.07 euros.

The indictment also alleges that work reports were signed and certified for quantities several times greater than those specified in the tender dossier. This was allegedly done without an annex to the contract, without conducting a new procurement procedure and without proper oversight by the works acceptance commission.

The Special Prosecution has asked the Court to impose, in addition to punishment for the criminal offense, the supplementary measure of barring the defendants from holding positions in the public administration or public service.