Since 2014 at least four whistleblowers in Kosovo have been fired, demoted or found guilty of committing a crime after they publicly criticised their employer or exposed the mismanagement of public funds

by Flutura Kusari

PRISHTINA – Though Kosovo’s Assembly passed a whistleblower protection law in 2011 that includes many international standards, some employees who have reported misconduct nonetheless have faced retaliation as well as charges of disclosing internal documents and damaging the reputation of their employers.

The case of bank cashier Abdullah Thaçi illustrates how whistleblowers can be punished and suffer career damage even if they report information that leads to guilty parties being held to account.

Thaçi, who worked at ProCredit Bank, noticed that about €10,000 had been transferred from the public budget into the personal account of Nexhat Çoçaj, the education director of Prizren, Kosovo’s second-largest city.

Thaçi became suspicious about the transactions and raised the matter with his colleagues, who recommended that he “not pay attention” and carry on with his work. He says he reported the case internally but did not receive any response from managers. Ultimately Thaçi shared the evidence with an opposition political party, which filed a criminal report against Çoçaj.

Leading to his downfall, Thaçi was caught on the bank’s security camera printing Çoçaj’s account statements and taking them from the building. The bank fired him and filed a criminal report against him for disclosing confidential information.

In this case, both the whistleblower and the perpetrator were punished. On June 4, 2015 Thaçi was convicted of disclosing secret information and fined €5,000. Çoçaj was sentenced to three years in prison in June 2016. He appealing the penalty.

A month before Thaçi’s sentencing, on May 26, two employees of the public broadcaster Radio Television of Kosovo were fired after publicly reporting that they faced censorship from political parties. They managed to return to work following their appeal of a decision by the Kosovo Labour Inspectorate, though they continued to face retaliation.

The case of bank cashier Abdullah Thaçi illustrates how whistleblowers can be punished and suffer career damage even if they report information that leads to guilty parties being held to account.

In a more recent case Shaqir Totaj, the regional director of Kosovo’s Tax Administration, was fired on February 1 after he publicly criticised his employer on national television. While presenting the agency’s work, he raised concerns about alleged internal corruption and revealed that several people had been hired contrary to employment laws. After appealing the decision, he was reinstated albeit at a lower-ranking post.

Kosovo’s Whistleblower Law: Out of Practice

While a welcome piece of legislation, Kosovo’s whistleblower law – the ill-titled Law on Protection of Informants – is hardly in line with European or international standards. Among its shortcomings:

• External whistleblowing is not permitted, which means that people who disclose wrongdoing outside the sphere of a public institution are ineligible for protection.
• Public institutions are not required to set up reporting channels, meaning they need not appoint a specific official to receive and investigate reports. Under the law, this remains at the discretion employers.
• The law imposes no financial penalties on employers who fire, demote or otherwise retaliate against their workers.
• There are no mechanisms to monitor implementation of the law.

In practice the law has not been implemented or enforced effectively, thus exposing whistleblowers to victimization and career ruin. There are several reasons behind this failure.

First, whistleblowing still is generally perceived as “spying” and is negatively associated with collaborators of the Serbian regime before the 1999 armed conflict between Kosovo and Serbia. The inclusion of the word “informants” in the law has served to perpetuate this impression.

Second, civil servants and private company employees have yet to be adequately informed on how to exercise their freedom of expression rights to raise concerns arising in the workplace.

The limited training of judicial officials may also be to blame for the poor implementation. The Kosovo Judicial Institute, the leading authority that trains judges and prosecutors, has not provided comprehensive training on the law and its practice. The same can be said about the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates.

The situation is improving, however, thanks to financial support from institutions such as the EU and Council of Europe. Over the past two years, international experts have trained judges, prosecutors and lawyers on whistleblower law, and additional training is planned.

The EU’s Bad Example in Kosovo

In 2014 UK prosecutor Maria Bamieh alleged that international staffers at the EU’s Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) received bribes. Bamieh initially requested an internal investigation, though to no avail. After EULEX suspended her for releasing internal information, an allegation that both Bamieh and a local newspaper deny, she publicly accused the mission of neglecting her request for an internal investigation.

EULEX attempted to discredit Bamieh through a smear campaign published by many local and international newspapers. Under the growing pressure, however, Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Commission, called for a review of the matter following a series of articles by the Prishtina daily newspaper Koha Ditore. Unfortunately the review wrongly applied previous whistleblower-related decisions by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) by suggesting that Bamieh was ineligible for whistleblower status.

Bamieh has since sued EULEX for wrongful termination, a lawsuit on which she has already spent more than €100,000.

EULEX’s handling of the case is particularly shameful, since it sets a poor example for local institutions in Kosovo that look at EULEX as a role model. It also discourages other EU employees from voicing their concerns on matters of public interest.

Flutura Kusari is a media lawyer based in Kosovo.
facebook.com/fluturakusari
flutura@article10.org