Rental expenses of public institutions

A number of public institutions are based either in private or socially-owned properties. In 2015 alone, the rental cost reached over seven million euro.  Apart from the high cost,  some private buildings where a number of public institutions are located do not meet proper working standards.  In some cases such buildings do not even have construction permit, like  the building where the Office of Auditor General is based.

On  18 February  2008, the Government of Kosovo approved the Strategic Plan 2008-2015 for the Residential Accommodation for the Government of Kosovo, a document which lists all public institutions based  in private and socially-owned property,  the rental cost and the owners who received the money.  . This document shows that public institutions were spending 3.1 million euro a year on rent. In order to relocate from private and socially-owned premises in state-owned premises which are managed by the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA), the Strategic Plan proposed a number of short and long term steps.

One recommendation says that  some state-owned premises where public companies are located, should be renovated to accommodate some ministries. For example, the building called “Toskana” in the boulevard “Mother Theresa” in Prishtina which was used from the Kosovo Energy Corporation, was proposed to be used from the Ministry for Energy and Mining (later on the Ministry for Economic Development). Despite the recommendations, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) was not relocated to the premises “Canteen of Students”; the temporary relocation of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to the premises of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Prishtina did not happen; and the Regulatory Authority of Telecommunications was  not relocated to the central premises of the Post and Telecom of Kosovo (PTK).

The Strategic Plan also suggested that UNMIK administration should vacate the state-owned premises  which should be used by the public institutions. This process has happened along the years. The Strategic Plan foresaw that between 2008-2015 around 87 million euro will be invested to build new offices for the public institutions. The total cost of the relocation of the whole state administration to state-owned premises was around 112 million euro.

However, according to the Ministry of Public Administration  only 86 million euro was spent during 2008-2015 for renovation and construction of state-owned  premises. The following table lists some of the most expensive projects.

Despite the evacuation of the UNMIK administration, the renovation of the Rilindja building, and the construction of the Palace of Justice - where almost all judicial institutions are located, the rental costs  has increased. In 2015 the rental budget  was 143% higher than in 2007.