UNMIK-JIAS Fact Sheet
Joint Interim Administrative Structure

The Joint Interim Administrative Structure (JIAS) has been administering Kosovo since February 2000 when it officially replaced all previous parallel structures for revenue collection and provision of public services. Intended as a provisional set of institutions, it will continue until democratic elections enable the establishment of a more permanent structure.

At the centre, the structure has three distinct elements (chart one): the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), the Kosovo-wide oversight and advisory organs representing Kosovo's institutions and political groupings, and the Pristina-based administrative departments responsible for administration, service delivery and revenue collection. At the municipal level, a second level of administrative organs comprises the offices of the UNMIK municipal administrators, administrative councils representing local institutions and parties, and administrative boards with recruited members responsible for local services. Neither level includes the police service, which remains solely an UNMIK responsibility.

The mandate for such a sharing of administration is rooted in UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which on 10 June 1999 set out the tasks for the international presence in Kosovo. Among the responsibilities it assigned to UNMIK was "organizing and overseeing the development of provisional institutions for democratic and autonomous self-government pending a political settlement" and "transferring, as these institutions are established, its administrative responsibilities while overseeing and supporting the consolidation of Kosovo's local provisional institutions and other peace-building activities."

Oversight and advisory organs

The Interim Administrative Council (IAC) makes policy recommendations, serves as an advisory cabinet for the SRSG and acts as an executive board for the JIAS. It achieved its full membership on 11 April when the Serb National Council nominated its representative to attend as an observer. As the JIAS executive board, the IAC meets twice each week. It defines the policies that the other JIAS components. the 20 administrative departments and the municipal structures will follow. It also recommends new regulations and amendments to applicable law.

The Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC), nominally with 36 members who represent the full spectrum of Kosovo society, meets weekly. The highest-level advisory body of Kosovars to UNMIK since it was established in July 1999, the Council was expanded under the JIAS Agreement of 15 December 1999 in order to better reflect the pluralistic composition of Kosovo. This increased the representation of political parties, and brought in representatives of minority and religious communities, as well as members of civil society.

Administrative departments

The interim administrative departments are fully operational when they have appointed Co-Heads and regulations promulgated by the SRSG (see chart two). Each administrative department, along with four independent agencies, is co-directed by a Kosovo nominated by a particular political party and one by a senior UNMIK international staff member. Both Co-Heads are subject to SRSG approval. As a group, the Kosovar Co-Heads reflect a formula agreed by the Interim Administrative Council under which co-management of the departments is shared among the three IAC members' parties, three national communities (Serb, Bosniac and Turk) and a political independent.

Municipal councils and boards

An integral part of the JIAS, the municipal boards and councils are the instruments for decentralizing the management and delivery of many public services to a level where they can be influenced by the communities they serve. The administration of each municipality and day-to-day running of its services is the responsibility of a Municipal Administrative Board, headed by the UNMIK Municipal Administrator. The Administrator may appoint a president and vice-presidents of the Board, as well as department heads.

While the Municipal Board acts as the executive body at the local level, it is guided in terms of policy by its Municipal Council, whose President and members represent a spectrum of local opinion. Pending municipal elections, they are also appointed and headed by the respective Municipal Administrator.

JIAS principles

The role and functions of the JIAS and its components bodies were set out in UNMIK Regulation 2000/1, of 14 January 2000. This largely incorporates the JIAS Agreement of December 1999, signed by the leaders of three major Kosovo Albanian political parties (those present at the Rambouillet talks). Hashim Thaçi of the PDK, Ibrahim Rugova of the LDK and Rexhep Qosja of the LBD.

The Agreement binds its signatories to participate in the JIAS, which will be governed by the following principles:

• Share provisional interim management of Kosovo with UNMIK, while respecting UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the legislative and executive authority retained by the SRSG;
• Reach decisions in conformity with the Applicable Law in Kosovo;
• Transform and progressively integrate all other executive, legislative or judicial structures into the JIAS;
• Involve all communities in Kosovo in the provisional administrative management.

UNMIK recognized the need to incorporate local leadership in the running of Kosovo in order to dismantle parallel structures of various governments and to enable cohesive governance under the guidance of the United Nations. On 1 February 2000, the IAC agreed. It endorsed the immediate dissolution of parallel structures, defined as any body not authorized under Resolution 1244 that claimed or attempted to exercise any form of public authority in Kosovo. Thus, on that date, the 'Provisional Government of Kosovo,' the 'Presidency of the Republic of Kosovo' and the 'Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo' ceased to exist. Funds which supported those structures should be transferred to theKosovo Consolidated Budget. As well as KFOR, the UNMIK Police, UNMIK Civil Administration, the Central Fiscal Authority and UNMIK Customs Service, the signatory parties themselves were asked to identify any parallel activities which had not stopped.