Prishtina – December 9th is the International Anti-Corruption Day.

Corruption is an evil which threatens every society, which inhibits the development of the state, undermines the rule of law and slows down the economic growth of the country, said President Atifete Jahjaga in a statement.

‘As the President of the Republic of Kosovo I am determined to fight corruption and to the building of an independent system of justice, in service to the citizens and in service to the state of law.

Through the National Anti-Corruption Council, established and led by myself, we have improved the coordination and efficiency between institutions mandated to the fighting of corruption. We have increased transparency and are working with the civil society in awareness raising for the necessity of concrete results in fighting of corruption. During the last years, judiciary has significantly increased the number of indictments for senior officials on corruption charges.

According to World Bank “ Worldwide Governance Indicators”, Kosovo has this year improved the Corruption Control for 16 %, in comparison with last year.

I call upon the Parliament of Kosovo, to as soon as possible, promulgate the Law on Public Procurement, which will not only ensure the required integrity of the procurement process, but will also enable the electronic procurement in Kosovo, in order to make the public finance procurement even more transparent.

We are aware of the challenges, but are also determined to concretely engage in fighting of corruption.

We have a joint responsibility to show our patriotism in being uncompromised against the corruption and organized crime and in implementation of the law in building of the state of law,’ reads Jahjaga’s statement./rtk/