Riinvest Institute 2014

55 Analysis of boards of PEs and independent agencies, 
KIPRED 2011, f.28-29
56 Corporate Governance and Transparency of PEs, Riinvest 
Institute 2012
57 Government Decision nr.10/149, 19.09.2013 on board 
appointment of PEs (www.mzhe.rks-gov.net/njpmnp)
58 Record of the meeting of KPZHEITI, 22/11/2013

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Kosovo Government has often been criticized 
for not granting access to all documents required 
by civil society, media and other interested parties, 
which by Kosovo Constitution and Law are granted 
rights to all citizens of Kosovo. On the other hand, 
Kosovo Government has committed to become 
member of the Open Government Partnership 
(OGP) where transparency is considered as one the 
key pillars for good governance. Greater transpar-
ency might affect better governance, which in turn 
leads to improvement of the socio-econom
ic
condi-
tions in the country and faster integration in the Eu-
ropean Union. Kosovo Government has made some 
steps in improving transparent governance, but still 
there is lot of weaknesses.
The Government of Kosovo has entered in various 
contractual agreements related to public invest-
ments during the last six years. The overall public 
procurement amounts to around 1/5 of the Kosovo 
GDP (Riinvest, 2012).
59
Having in mind that these 
projects are financed by Kosovo budget (taxpayer’s 
money), it should be mandatory for the government 
to enable access to all contracts related to public 
investments as this would ensure a higher level of 
accountability towards its citizens. Riinvest (2013) 
opinion poll results have shown that citizens’ de-
mand for access to public documents is high.
59 Riinvest, 2012. Improving Transparency and Governance of 
Public Funds. Public Procurement Process in Kosovo
.
About 77% of interviewed respondents agree that 
all financial, performance and technical informa-
tion on government funded contracts should be 
made public. However, some technical and finan-
cial parts of the public contracts are generally to be 
shown upon request.
60
Nevertheless, throughout 
last couple of years, efforts of the civil society or-
ganizations and media representatives many times 
were hopeless in aiming to get access to govern-
ment contracts on public investments.
As it is stated in the Kosovo Constitution “Every per-
son has right to access public documents”, while as 
Kosovo Law states “Every natural and legal person 
has right to have access, without discrimination on 
any grounds, following a prior application, to official 
documents maintained, drawn or received by the 
public institutions.”
61
Citizens who request access 
to public documents are not obliged to have a spe-
cific reason for that, whereas government officials 
are obliged to grant them access on public docu-
ments they require. 
To ensure a better response of the institutions on 
citizen’s requests, each institutions has assigned 
an official responsible for granting access to pub-
lic documents, whereas the Prime-minister’s office