28/02/2015
Regional network of civil society organizations POINTPULSE of the four Western Balkan countries – Kosovar Center for Security Studies (KCSS) from Kosovo, Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP) from Serbia, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) from Serbia, Centre for Security Studies from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Institute Alternative (IA) from Montenegro – held the first public event under the frame of POINTPULSE project at the Media Center in Belgrade. Objective of this project is the contribution to increased trust and confidence in the law enforcement agencies in the Western Balkan countries by fighting police corruption and promoting police integrity.
KCSS researchers, Skënder Perteshi and Plator Avdiu presented findings with respect to challenges and problems that the Kosovo Police is facing in the areas such as integrity and fight against corruption within the Police. Public procurement, providing of the Police contracts with those private companies that do not respect the laws, non-implementation of the Law on Public Procurement, politicization and political influence on the Police, briberies, grading system and nepotism in the Kosovo Police during the employment recruitment are some of the gravest challenges of the Police. Furthermore, the same challenges are facing the Police of other Western Balkan countries, which were mentioned by representatives of civil society organizations from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.
On the other side, a common conclusion of this regional network of civil society organizations POINTPULSE was that the Police in the four Western Balkan countries should undertake deep reforms on how it is spending the state budget. Another recommendation is that there is a need to depoliticize the Police which would lead towards increasing the integrity at this important institution regarding security and law enforcement.
This event was a part of the “Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust - POINTPULSE” project supported by the European Union through Civil Society Facility programme (EuropeAid/136-034/C/ACT/Multi).
