"George Bush" Square, Murati: The Municipality of Pristina signed a contract worth 18 million euros without having the budget

Acting Minister of Finance, Hekuran Murati, emphasized today that the announcement of the tender and the signing of the 18 million euro contract for the 'George Bush' Square by the Municipality of Pristina was done without having the necessary budget allocated, which is in violation of the legislation in force.

Murati writes in a Facebook post that the Municipality of Pristina has launched a procurement procedure worth 18.4 million euros, having only budgeted 1.89 million euros, or 1/10 of the necessary budget.

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The tender announcement and signing of the 18 million euro contract for George Bush Square by the Municipality of Pristina was made without having the necessary budget allocated, which is in violation of the legislation in force.

For every procurement procedure, a Declaration of Funds Availability is required to be signed, which ensures that the organization, in this case the Municipality of Prishtina, has sufficient budgeted funds.

The Availability Declaration signed in 2024 by the Mayor of Pristina and the Chief Financial Officer states that the funds needed for this project are 18.4 million euros, and that they are budgeted under code 53984 - Renovation of George Bush Square.

The problem lies in the fact that in the project code in question, only 2024 million euros have been budgeted in 1.89, from own funds carried over from the previous year.

So, the Municipality of Pristina has launched a procurement procedure worth 18.4 million euros, having only budgeted 1.89 million euros, or 1/10 of the necessary budget.

Meanwhile, after the procurement procedure was carried out, the contract was signed this year, which constitutes the next violation, because the budget of the Municipality of Pristina, although approved in the assembly, due to late approval, has not yet been approved in the Assembly of the Republic to be integrated as a supplement/amendment to the Law on Budget Allocation for 2025.

In other words, the budget law currently in force for 2025 does not contain the George Bush Square project at all, so there is 0 euro budget allocation, but the Municipality of Pristina signed the contract despite the lack of budget allocation.

Such cases of incurring unsecured financial obligations constitute a violation of the law on public finance and the law on public procurement, and endanger the financial sustainability of the municipality.

I would like to believe that law enforcement agencies will have the necessary diligence to handle this flagrant case of legal violation. /Telegraph/