Briefing Notes, 02 May 2002

DPI Director Simon Haselock
Director of UNMIK Directorate of Administrative Affairs Leonid Bidny
Spokesperson of OSCE Sven Lindholm
Spokesperson of EU Monique De Groot

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, you got me today because I have something to add and emphasize on the case which Mr. Bearpark and Mr. Steiner brought to you the other day.

I would like to introduce to you Mr. Leonid Bidny, who is the Director of UNMIK Directorate of Administrative Affairs (DAA), Ms. Margot Eelman, Head of Central Processing Centre (CPC), who will give an update on Travel Documents and ID cards .. (inaudible).

What I wanted to speak to you today about is the ongoing investigation into possible fraud at KEK. I think it is important that I emphasize to you and remind that contrary to some of the reports in the press this morning, the investigation is not limited to an international suspect or suspects, and it is extremely important that you understand that. This is a multi-national investigation not an international investigation and there are local individuals as well as an international who are involved in the substance. OLAF, in the European Anti-Fraud Office, is pursuing the investigation and Mr. Andy Bearpark is currently in Brussels at OLAF to assist in pursuing this investigation further. Now, it is important that when we talk about this investigation from our perspective, is not a question of the amount of money involved that is the important issues here but rather the fact that we are involved in a very, very specific approach against corruption and organized crimes, generally, throughout Kosovo. So, is our approach to this particular investigation rather than the specifics of this particular investigation, the amounts of money or who is involved. As Mr. Steiner said, he has "zero tolerance for crime and corruption" and we are serious about what we are talking about in regard to this particular matter.

As far as Mr. Steiner's visit to the earthquake site in Gnjilane the other day, UNMIK has now deposited 500,000 Euro into the Earthquake Emergency Fund, which is ready to be dispersed quickly to help victims in the region rebuild. You will also be aware that we are seeking other international support - Mr. Steiner is talking to the representatives of the Japanese Government about possible support in terms of bringing seismologists here from Japan. This is not confirmed yet, but obviously they have significant experience in dealing with earthquakes and this is to reassure the population to be able to move back into their houses and that the situation is safe to do so.

UNMIK's team of engineers will probably be on their way, either today or tomorrow, to deploy and assist the local experts, another point that Mr. Steiner mentioned while he was there. Meanwhile, Municipality offices are moving into the UNMIK logistical base in Gnjilane to continue their work because I think their building is not suitable at the moment.
Finally, before I hand across to Mr. Bidny, I would like to say again on behalf of the SRSG that we would like to urge Coalition Povratak to name its nominees quickly for the Government posts which we were expecting them to come up with soon. As you know that is, the Intra-ministerial Coordinator on Returns, the Returns Adviser in the SRSG's Office and the Minister of Agriculture, specifically. There has been a lot of talk about returns in the same way that we are serious about corruption and organized crime, we are also serious about returns. These positions must be in place in order to move this process fully, the longer they are delayed nominating these positions the longer it is going to be before we take this process further. So, it is in their hands and we urge them to bring this into resolution as soon as possible. Thank you.

Leonid Bidny

The first point is Travel Documents. There was a previous round of talks with the mass media, with you, and the occasion was that we were experiencing some difficulties and we had a lot of applications that had to be processed, and at that time, we had 50,000 applications as a back log for the travel documents to be issued. We went to extraordinary length in that regard in order to solve the problems including doubling the shifts and so on. As a result, I can report to you today that now we received 199,974 applications for travel documents and we produced as of yesterday197,165. In other words a little bit more than 2,000 are left but take into account the fact that we can produce more than 10,000 travel documents a week, all back log will disappear in two --three days and all it will take to get a travel document will be several days or may be a week or a little more.

Second point, the announcement we want to make today is that yesterday, we started a new area with regard to travel documents. We started to issue travel documents for children, so for any child that is born the parents can apply, until 16, for travel documents and the child will be treated as an adult, of course with some peculiarities and specifics because he or she will have to go through the registration. But just at the beginning of the registration, i.e. fill out the form and then get the travel document and, when he or she become 16, will get an ID card and will finish the cycle of registration.

ID Cards - On ID cards, we received 1,186,874 and we produced 1,134,303. Out of those produced, 23,000 are so-called corrupted cards, when people received them but there was something wrong so that they had to be returned to Margot who is the Head of CPC, where the cards are produced and then we had to look at them again individually. We found solutions to 20,000 of them, they are in the data base and in a couple of weeks they will be produced. So, what will remain is just about 3,000 that we are still waiting to get some answers from those applicants. In other words the production of cards is 97 per cent proof. There are also cases when we cannot produce the cards because of some problems. These problems are now of two kinds. (1) Some data is missing, either picture or bio-data is missing and we send them to the field and we are receiving responses for them. As we receive responses for them, we produce those cards. (2) There are some other cards that are not that easy to deal with because first software has to be developed for them and other technical solutions to be found. We are working on that and we are getting additional specialist for that and we hope within very short period of time we will be able to solve all these problems. But, eventually, all these problems with ID cards will be solved and everybody who has registered is entitled to be registered as a resident and be able to get a card and will be able to participate in the coming elections.

Sven Lindholm, OSCE

Starting Sunday, for three days, the OSCE will have a delegation from what they call the Kosovo Committee at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly which is in Denmark. This delegation will be led by the Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly Rider Susmus??? (name) and they will be coming to assess the situation here including possibilities to expand the contributions by the OSCE Parliamentarians in the process democratization and institution building in Kosovo.

Monique De Groot, EU

CFA - The Central Fiscal Authorities together with Ri-invest and the Pristina University organise a macro economics seminar tomorrow. This is the fourth seminar in a series of ten. During the seminar the CFA-MEU team will present the most recent issue of the Kosovo Monthly Macroeconomic Monitor in the context of the current economic policy agenda. The seminar starts at 10:00 in the Statistical Office of Kosovo.

BPK - The Governing Board of the BPK granted the tender for the Kosova Insurance Company to the Kurum Commerce Group based in Istanbul. The New Kosova Insurance Company has been licensed under the new insurance regulation.

Siguria Insurance, an existing company, applied for a license under the new insurance regulation, and was approved by the Governing Board.

Q: Who is going to lead the investigation KEK corruption? Is it only the unti-fraud organization from Brussels or will they send a team here or will it be done with the UN authorities here?

A: The thing is, in any investigation you need to have somebody who is basically the front and centre organization which deals with it. The OLAF is the organization which has the expertise, the technical backup and the experience and the accountancy expertise to get to the bottom of this. So, they will be the organization which is leading the administrative investigation of this. If there comes a point where they need to hand jurisdiction across, for whatever reason that might be, for judicial reason whatever, they will do so if that becomes necessary. But, it has been lead and run by OLAF.

Q: If the guilt of one of the international staff is established how will it proceed, will he be tried here in Kosovo or outside of Kosovo, Brussels or somewhere else? Will he appear in the court here?

A: The answer is I cannot tell you because I do not know. It is a jurisdiction question and when we spoke to OLAF, they basically told us that these things were assessed on a case by case basis. So, they do not know as yet. The fact if there is sufficient evidence about whoever is involved, not only internationals but local people as well, they will be persecuted wherever the jurisdiction applies. It may be that OLAF take the persecution to a member state, may be the state to which the person belongs - whether it be in a European country or in a UN administered territory. So, we have to wait and see. But it is important that we understand that it is not international across the board.

Q: What is the logic of ringing all the bells that there is a corruption going on in KEK? Why is the investigation so public, wouldn't that encourage the people to destroy possible evidence?

A: It is ironic that you should use our normal response to questions on things against us. I am glad you understand the fact that investigations are sensitive matters and we will not give the novel of information out of that. I think it is important and this basic that we should approach all these cases in the future, is that we are transparent and that we have discovered that these things are happening and that we have sufficient evidence to conduct a formal investigation. The amount of information that you have got now is not considered sufficient to prejudce the investigation. The fact is the investigation is now a technical one and anybody who understands financial fraud, which I don't, needs to understand that these are extremely technical investigations and is not something that ordinary, and I mean this with great respect, ordinary policeman can necessary do. These are things that will require significant experience, accountancy and tracking roots for money, contracts, etc. This is a very technical business and that is where the investigation is basically focusing.

Q: So, you are saying that the investigation is almost finished?

A: No, I can't say that. I am not in a position to say that. What I am saying is that the investigation is on going and I cannot tell you when it will be finished.