GAP Institute has published an analysis titled “Cadre Fund: A special fund for deficient specialists or for managers?”

06/10/2015

While the Government of Kosovo is drafting the lists of the beneficiaries of the Cadre Fund for 2015, GAP Institute has analyzed the operation of Cadre Fund since its establishment in 2008. The purpose behind the establishment of the Fund has been to attract high level specialists to fill the deficient positions in Government.

During the presentation of the findings, Jeton Mehmeti, policy analyst in GAP Institute, has said that with the time passing, Cadre Fund has abandoned its initial purpose, has been misunderstood and might have been misused by different ministries. The findings suggest that most of the beneficiaries do not have advanced degrees. From 222 officials that have benefitted from this Fund in 2014, six have PhDs, 94 have master’s degrees, and for 122, or 55% of the beneficiaries it is unknown whether they’ve obtained at least a bachelor degree. This contradicts the original purpose of the Fund which was to attract individuals with advanced degrees. In addition, most of the beneficiaries have been already working in respective ministries before being added to the list of the beneficiaries of the Fund. This pattern has amounted to a practice in ministries, where they have seen the Fund as an additional bonus to reward some of the employees. This too contradicts the original purpose of the Fund, which was created to attract individuals in deficient positions. Among many beneficiaries are directors, deputy directors, heads of departments within ministries; in other words, mainly managerial positions. However, many other beneficiary positions are not deficient in Kosovo’s market.

Considering the original idea that led to Cadre Fund establishment, looking at the Regulation on the Operation of Cadre Fund, and analyzing the distribution of beneficiary positions in 2014, GAP Institute recommends that the Committee for Cadre fund initially evaluate each of the beneficiaries of the Fund for 2014. During the evaluation, it should be considered whether the beneficiary has fulfilled the basic criteria for the selection of candidates, especially in regards to having a degree in a related field, English language abilities, and previous experience in that field. In the future, this Committee ought to not approve positions and candidates that fall outside the scope of the Regulation. The primary purpose of the Fund should be filling the deficient positions for which the Government is in need. To be more transparent, the list of beneficiary positions together with the names of candidates should be made public.  

You can read the full analysis HERE.