The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network – BIRN has published a regional evaluation report on government transparency and accountability in the Western Balkans which states that the Office of President Vjosa Osmani during her tenure as Acting President has been named the most transparent institution in the region in 2020.
The evaluation included institutions from Kosovo, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the BIRN Report, the data of the former President's Office were quite the opposite; requests based on the right to information received no response or were rejected despite the legal obligation.
“Since November 5th 2020, when Vjosa Osmani was appointed Acting President of Kosovo, all requests based on the right to information from BIRN journalists (such as invoices, financial data, or minutes of meetings) have been fully disclosed in record time and often even before the expiry of the legally prescribed deadline, ”the BIRN Report said.
For the period of November 6th 2020 until the end of 2020, the Office of the President has received 9 requests for access to public documents. One of these requests was made by an individual, one was made by a member of the Committee on Legislation, Mandates, Immunities, Rules of Procedure of the Assembly and the Oversight of the Anti-Corruption Agency and seven requests were made by the media.
In a discussion organized by BIRN, Artan Murati, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the President, said that this transparency of the Office is more than an assessment, a responsibility.
According to him, the Office of the President is and will remain open to any request, by providing the required information.
“We have opened the Office to the media, facilitating their work and demonstrating our will and readiness for full transparency. “Such an opening to various requests makes us believe that has also affected the trust of citizens in the institution of the Presidency,” added Murati. Furthermore, he said that the President of the country, Mrs. Vjosa Osmani is entirely willing to make the Office of the President fully open in both the decisions it takes as well as in the spending of public money.
“This award today is an encouragement for us to continue with the same readiness, to be open to every request, to every citizen in relation to every decision or expenditure made within the Office of the President. We will aim to have a proactive approach in this direction, looking at the possibility that the non-sensitive documents be published by the Office itself, “stated Murati during the debate.