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Synopsis and Findings

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Synopsis and Findings

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  1. Kosovo: UN Leaves, Scandals Stay Stefano Valentino- il Venerdì, weekly supplement of the Italian daily “La Repubblica”, April 2008Global Investigative Journalism Conference, Lillehammer 2008 Panel: “How to investigate corruption at international Institutions” – 12th of September, 11amPUBLICATION FRONTPAGE

  2. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT This present investigative story is just the top of an enormous iceberg. Here you are the plot we should all work on. Unmik prosecutors have only few months left to end up their investigations on 9 years of untold financial scandals involving the International administration in Kosovo. Next October, Unmik (the UN mission in the former Serbian- province) will be taken over by its European-style successor "Eulex". Frauds and briberies for hundreds of million euros will be definitively shut down by political cover-up and the need of granting independence to Kosovo without shaking the credibility of the UN. All Unmik officials involved in such scandals have been indicted too late, when they were already far away from Kosovo. That's the privilege of UN short-term contracts. No international arrest warranty has been effective so far. Only one among the "bad" has been trialed and sentenced guilty. Investigations on new cases are going on. But even the latter will be turned into wasted paper since all Unmik hierarchy will soon return home safely. Since 1999 now, the UN mission in Kosovo has managed high volumes of funds injected by the generous International donors (mainly the EU) in the budget of Pristina, and has privatized hundreds of former Serbian public companies. Such an operation was supposed to burst development in Kosovo, thus making the economic independence the effective ground for a truly political independence. Nevertheless, the economy in Kosovo is still stagnating, growth is near to zero. Allegations say many UN officials mismanaged, for their own profit, privatization bids and corporate operations. They become rich to the expenses of international taxpayers, misled by diplomatic slogans on the "humanitarian crisis" and the "peace process" in Kosovo. OUTLOOK WHERE: UNMIK – United Nation Mission in Kosovo WHEN: 1999 – 2008 (duration of Unmik mandate) WHO: Unmik international administrators with the collusive complicity their Kosovar deputies as well as officials from the provisional government of Pristina WHAT: Mismanagement of public funds provided by the International Community, mainly the EU (roughly 3 billions euros, the biggest amount ever spent for an UN mission) HOW : Manipulated privatization of Publicly Owned Enterprises and contract tenders resulting into frauds, briberies, money-laundering HOW MUCH: 47 million euro mismanaged accordingly to certified allegations cases INTERNATIONAL COMPONENT: List of indicted persons and suspected companies including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK, US, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Kenya CERTIFIED LEGAL ACTIONS : dozens of judicial investigations and trials, at least 3 international arrest warrants, 1 international administrator sentenced to jail. BIGS TO FURTHER INVESTIGATE : Joachim Rucker, former Special Representative of UN Secretary General (SRSG), Steven Schook, Rucker Deputy, James Wasserstrom, Head of the Oversight Coordination Office for Publicly Owned Enterprises, Alexander Borg Olivier, Head of Unmik Legal Office and SRSG advisor Synopsis and Findings

  3. Investigative Methods Web documents research Find out how the International Organization (IO) works according to its specific mandate Media reports Review local media coverage in the country where the IO is in place: it is often underestimated, but it is a starting point Unofficial sources Pick up possible ties between international officials and locals: that is how expats try to grab political protection for their wrongdoings Expert / official sources  Cross-check violations / manipulations of rules: IO are not democratically elected, so they bear little accountability for acts which would be judged illegal if committed by a national government Monitoring the updates  Follow the suspected: is their position improved after the alleged wrongdoing? It may easily happen in the UN where officials have short term contracts Examples KTA (Kosovo Trust Authority) board, the privatization body, consists of both local government officials and Unmik international representatives, including in 2005 Joachim Rucker as KTA board chairman Kosovar newspapers on March 2006: the Head of the Mining Department of the Shadow Government, Bajrush Xhemajli, accused the Minister of Trade and Industry and Rucker’s deputy, Bujar Dugolli, of asking for a 3 million euros bribe from the winning bidder Adi- Nikel for the privatization of Ferronikeli. Bhari Shabani, former Kosovo Trade Union Repr esentative in the KTA board: “The Head of KTA Privatization Department, James Johnson, and his deputy, Arten Bajrushi, provided confidential information on the tender to the company Alferon. The latter at the end of 2005 bought NewCo Ferronikeli as the only bidder (following Adi-Nile withdrawal), with Rucker decisive approval, in breach of KTA privatization rules (*). (*) KTA public relation office: a minimum of 3 bidders is required unless the unique bid is targeted on the perceived market value. Mustafa’ Muhammet, Chairman of Kosovo Riinvest Institute for Development Research : the winning offer (33 million euros) is lower than the one made by the first bidder (48million euros) for NewCo Ferronikeli, so it is by definition lower than the market value. Rules tailor-made for frauds? At the beginning of 2006 Johnson becomes Bujar Dugolli advisor, then Prisitina airport managing director paid 23.000 euros a month, Bajrushi takes office at NewCo Ferronickeli and Rucker is appointed Unmik chief (SRSG), replaced last July Story Play – Way Forward Results Understanding of Unmik money management power and its relations with local interests Finding suspicious cases involving Unmik / KTA officials Exploring further hints set behind media reports Double-checking the consistence of unofficial sources hints Underlying the benefits drawn by the alleged wrongdoers: bribery?

  4. Circumstances, Problems, Developments • I am working alone, while cross-border team-working is necessary in order to deal with the international component of the investigation • No active role is played by newspaper editors because the issue is broadly unknown and lacks international media coverage • I had little time to investigate on the field as a freelance journalist, so most of the work was prepared at home before going to Kosovo • My investigation on the field consisted in double-checking among unofficial and official sources the results of previous web researches • Misleading media reports required further verification of alleged cases, but it also led me to uncover new cases which became the object of my current investigation • My initial focus was too much on single and fragmented cases, often involving the same persons, while my new technique is now investigating the relations between those persons and tracing back to the suspected outcomes of such relations • Cover up of financial scandals and lack of international media coverage can only be the result of political pressure from Western countries in order to divert public opinion attention from an unprecedented waste of international public money and save the face of Unmik, the diplomatic tool used to bring Kosovo to a strategic independence • Further investigation is needed to clarify the relations between Unmik top hierarchy with Western governments and check who is granting judicial immunity to suspected and indicted persons

  5. Official sources websites Unmik and Kosovo-related UN contacts http://www.unmikonline.org/pio/staff.htm http://www.unmikonline.org/justice/index_pillar1.htm http://www.un.org/depts/oios/ Institutions involved in money management and reporting http://www.euinkosovo.org http://www.kta-kosovo.org/html/ http://www.delprn.ec.europa.eu/ http://www.ks-gov.net/portal/eng.htm http://www.ks-gov.net/oag/ Main companies involved in financial scandals http://www.kek-energy.com/?l=2 http://www.ptkonline.com/newsite/en/ http://www.winne.com/kosovo/to05.html Statistics and analysis on economic investments in Kosovo http://www.eciks.org/english/rrethnesh.php http://www.kosovo-eicc.org/ http://www.riinvestinstitute.org/?cid=2,9,100 Media sources and civil society websites Kosovo local newspapers contacts http://www.birn.eu.com http://www.gazetaexpress.com/about.php?gjuha=eng http://74.52.64.18/~wwkoha08/index.php?option=com_contact &Itemid=46 Kosovo local media monitoring http://www.unmikonline.org/dpi/localmed.nsf/f0300?OpenForm http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/ Anti-corruption movement contacts http://www.cohu.org/index.php?option=com_contact&vie w=category&catid=5&Itemid=5 Keywords on Google (type word+Kosovo) Kosovo Consolidated Budget (KCB), Unmik International Task Force, Unmik Financial Investigation Unit, KEK, PTK, Ferronikeli, Infonova, Norway Invest, Crown Agents, Gerhard Fischer, James Johnson, Jan Wollet, Roger Reynolds, Soren Jesen-Petersen, Joachim Rucker, Gavin Jeffrey Bujar Dugolli, Xema Leme Research Tipsheet

  6. Full Story - English Translation Part 1 On the 20th of February, three days after the declaration of independence, the nth official from UN Mission in Kosovo (Unmik) is indicted: the Kenyan-Yemeni NABEEL Hussein, head of the financial unit at Dubrava prison. Allegation: embezzlement of funds. Approximately 40,000 euros disappeared from the municipality coffers. The news doesn’t make any big noise. Only the one caused by horns and kalashnikovs celebrating in the streets of Pristina the birth of the new state echoes in the world media. A miserable fraud looks like peanuts compared to the danger of a new crisis in the Balkans. However the perspective changes after a quick calculation based on official documents. Those 40,000 bring to almost 47 million euro the amounts of frauds (publicly disclosed so far) involving the UN Interim Administration in the former-Serbian province. In other terms, from 1999 to present roughly 2% of the reconstruction aids (3 billion euros) has been mismanaged by a bunch of Unmik international representatives together with their Kosovar accomplices. An hazardous as much rewarding game for both of them. The second eventually have their independent government, as corrupt as it was before the war against Belgrade. The first get relaxed abroad in spite of the international arrest warrants which are targeting them. So does Hussein. He fled from Kosovo before being tracked by Unmik Financial Investigation Unit (FIU). The head of FIU, Tennant Colonel Roberto Magni, keeps in his drawers a package of files on several top secret investigations: 30 conducted only in 2005 and others which are still ongoing. "We will continue to work even after Unmik will be replaced by the EU", says his deputy, Captain Massimo Vincenti, "The future FIU staff will be reinforced with officers from all 25 Member States". Yet, to date, Unmik international staff only counts one arrested: the German Jo Trutschler. He has been sentenced in Germany in 2002 for stealing 4.5 million from the budget of the electricity company, KEC Elektrokosova, where he had been appointed Director by the UN. This case is just the top of the iceberg. The bulk of financial scandals remain unpunished under the quiet sea of diplomatic propaganda. "Trutschler is in jail only because we convinced the German press to deal with his case," says Augustin Palokaj, reporter at Koha Ditore, the largest Kosovar-Albanian newspaper, "As long as corruption inside Unmik is only denounced by local newspapers nobody will take it seriously ". In the western media UN misdeeds in Kosovo worth less than an obituary, even now that Unmik is about to leave the scene to give the floor to Eulex, the European mission expected to be officially operational by next June. An annual cost in staff and offices of 300 million euros, a long list of allegations and pending trials and a zero effect on the economic development of Kosovo. This is the heritage left by UN bureaucracy. "We are working on several cases, many of which are still under preliminary investigation," says Annunziata Ciaravolo, Unmik Chief Prosecutor since 2004. Here you are the retrospective “crimes” history emerging from our investigation. In a chronological order, first comes the Swedish Gerard Fischer, former-advisor of the very initial head of Unmik: the French Bernard Kuchner (now foreign minister of "La Republique"). In March 2001, on behalf of the public telephone company, PTKs, Fischer signs a 42 million euros suspicious contract with the Austrian company, Infonova, which is supposed to develop Internet in Kosovo.

  7. Full Story - English Translation Part 2 He is indicted in spring 2004, while being in Switzerland. Unmik Prosecutors invites him for a talk in a neutral ground, the Macedonian capital of Skopje, but the case is soon closed up. Fischer’s Kosovar assistant, Leme Xhema, is not as lucky as he is. Appointed by PTK director in 2001 by Fischer himself, she is arrested and then released on bail. This is one of the many examples of joint illegal activities carried on by international and Kosovar officials, which end up with penalties only for the second ones. The problem is that Unmik foreign officials, those who earn more (about 3000 euros per month versus 800 paid to local staff) have short-term contracts. Their crimes are always discovered after they have returned home and the Code of Criminal Procedure prohibits Unmik convictions in absentia. The Kuchner Age is just the beginning. Over time manipulation of international funds get rooted more and more in the shade of collusive relations between UN hierarchs and the so-called local "Untouchable": Premier Agim Ceku and the other members of Kosovo provisional government. All of them are considered corrupted by 80% of the population, according to a survey conducted last year by the NGO Cohu. The internal audit on Kosovo Consolidated Budget (KCB) for the year 2005 unveils thousands of violation to public spending rules. Among the top five money wasters we find the Ministers of Finance, Trade and Industry and the Return of Refugees. All three, along with trade unions and Unmik representatives, sit in the Board of KTA (Kosovo Trust Agency). The latter is the supreme financial management body set up by the UN. It appoints the chiefs of State companies inherited from the former-Yugoslav-Federation, deals with privatization and tendering and has virtually in its hands all the money that pours in the country. Resulting from Unmik reform in 2002 and the introduction of the “Pillar IV” (the economic department funded with about 2 billion euros), KTA was born with the objective of gradually transferring into local hands the administration of Kosovo. The strategy envisages that initially the key posts are entrusted to KTA foreign officials, assisted by Kosovar deputies. But the new formula for international-local co-management further degenerates into complicity, thus becoming the source of all most recent scandals. Some names? The English Roger Reynolds, former CEO of PTKs. In March 2003 he signs a 300 thousand euros contract offering Norway Invest 50% of the profits resulting from the new project commissioned to the Norwegian company. A few months later Reynolds leaves Unmik and enters Norway Invest management board. In November 2006, Unmik Prosecutors include his name in the blacklist. The accusation is fraud and money laundering. Since then no more track of him, neither of his crime-associate, the Norwegian Ole Johansen, former PTK manager. Only the small local “fishes” have showed up at the first hearing, held last April. Among them, once again, Leme Xhema. Some names? The English Roger Reynolds, former CEO of PTKs. In March 2003 he signs a 300 thousand euros contract offering Norway Invest 50% of the profits resulting from the new project commissioned to the Norwegian company. A few months later Reynolds leaves Unmik and enters Norway Invest management board.

  8. Full Story - English Translation Part 3 In November 2006, Unmik Prosecutors include his name in the blacklist. The accusation is fraud and money laundering. Since then no more track of him, neither of his crime-associate, the Norwegian Ole Johansen, former PTK manager. Only the small local “fishes” have showed up at the first hearing, held last April. Among them, once again, Leme Xhema. In order to strengthen the fight against illegality, in 2004 Unmik creates the International Task Force (ITF) consisting of agents from the Italian Guardia di Finanza, Olaf (European Anti-fraud) and the Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). The new team goes after Gavin Jeffrey, English, administrator at PTKs. He is considered responsible for the 30 thousand euros contract irregularly signed in 2004 with the advisory company "Crown Agents". Jeffrey, like many other misdoing directors reported by ITF to Unmik supervisors, is not even removed from office. In 2006 the FIU collects clues about his possible involvement in criminal and administrative activities. But Jeffrey has already packed. The last reported member of the “missing club” is the Welsh Ian Wollet, former-director of Pristina International Airport from 2005 to September 2006. Wanted since December 2006 for a bribery scandal (some of his Kosovar employees helped their friends to get a job at the Airport in turn of 3,500 euros per person) he is then acquitted thanks to the withdrawal of the main witness and a consequent lack of evidence. Accordingly to a report published in March 2006 by OIOS, the Danish Soren Jesen-Peterssen, head of Unmik at that time, has not taken appropriate counter-measures although aware of wrongdoings. Peterssen resigns in June 2007. His successor, the German Joachim Rucker, is probably the last pharaoh of Unmik dynasty. He is rumored not to be totally clean: he was KTA Director during the ”maneuvred” take-over of the mining company Ferronickel by Alferon, the Anglo-Kazhak multinational suspected of doing shady business all over the world. "The UN and in particular Rucker, who holds a big part of the responsibility, is trying to silence the whole thing until the end of UN mandate" comments Krenar Gashi from Balkan Investigative & Research Network, "After Unmik is dismantled all investigations will become waste paper and nobody will speak about them anymore". Box - Glossary UNMIK - United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo KTA - Kosovo Trust Fund KCB - Kosovo Consolidated Budget ITF - International Task Force FIU - Financial Investigation Unit OIOS - Office of Internal Oversight Services OLAF - EU anti-fraud Office

  9. Stefano Valentino Skype: globalreporter http://stefanovalentino.blogspot.com Editor EuroReporter Viale Etiopia, 15 - 00199 Roma (I) Tel: +39 328 2731295 Fax: +39 02 700 541 840 info@euroreporter.eu Brussels Office Residence Palace International Press Center Rue de la Loi, 155 - 040 Brussels (B) Tel: +32 477 990238 Fax: +32 2 2352242 My webistes: www.ricsi-online.org www.euroreporter.eu www.georeporter.travel www.globalreporter.it www.freereporter.info Join me on the following initiative: International Virtual Platform for Investigative Journalism Cross-border online newsroom linking up professional freelance investigation and citizen journalism in order to dig into the globalized interaction between cultures, resources and corporations. Objectives: News Production (bridging the gap between countries and between reporters and citizens) - Creation of a multilingual website enabling professional and non professional journalists to cooperate online in order to share resources in a common database and carry out cross-border investigations concerning local or international issues of global relevance. A virtual editorial staff will coordinate the different teams which will work in real time by means of software programmes to be integrated in the website. News Marketing (bridging the gap between independent reporting and mainstream media) – Promotion of the website among national and international print and online media, for example via a weekly bulletin updating on the ongoing investigations. Whenever a newspaper or a news website decides to buy a story, then the concerned author/authors will work on it using the material which had been previously stored on the common database. Once the full text is ready, it will be delivered after card payment via the website. The profit will go to the author/authors minus a minimum fee which will cover the website management costs. Email me for further details !!! Contacts and Projects

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