The abuse of 4 million euros in Kosovo/ The cooperation of the former Serbian minister with the former secretary for agriculture

2023-06-01 17:22:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The abuse of 4 million euros in Kosovo/ The cooperation of the former Serbian

Nenad Rikalo, former Minister of Agriculture from the Serbian List in Kosovo

Journalist Besnik Krasniqi has published an article today, where he shows how a former Minister of Agriculture from the Serbian List in Kosovo has worked in cooperation with the former Secretary General.

Through a status on social networks, Krasniqi says that former minister Nenad Rikalo and former secretary Kapllan Halimi committed abuses amounting to 4 million euros.

He declares that one abuse is related to the companies "Novus", "Sofra Distribution", "Blerimi-B" and "Kettering Prishtina" for the construction of the agricultural products market.

The second is related to the companies "Dhemetra", "Dhemetra Joint Venture" and "Moea" for the construction of a factory for the production of organic fertilizer.

While the third with Rade Utvici, a farmer who represented the agricultural cooperative "Zubin Potok" for the establishment of a facility for storage and preservation of fruits.

According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture gave grants worth 500 percent higher than those given with the regular program, eliminated competition, as well as violated and changed 3 times the administrative instruction that gave the grants.

Full text:

The people of the Serbian List are not to blame for fighting the government's decisions.

Read today's news that proves to us how they are cheated by the previous governments, and how the state's millions have been stolen by them:

An investigation by the newspaper #KohaDitore on the abuse of 4 million euros of the Ministry of Agriculture, resulted today in a court decision against two people involved in the affair. Former minister Nenad Rikalo (Lista Serbe) was sentenced to 3 years effective prison and former general secretary Kapllan Halimi (PDK) to 2 and a half years.

Happy that the research I worked on for more than a month and during and after which I had threats of lawsuits materialized with a guilty verdict.

With one million, the consortium of these companies was supported: "Novus", "Sofra Distribution", "Blerimi-B" and "Catering Prishtina". Pleurat Halili is a representative of this group of businesses, which has provided support for the construction of the agricultural products market "Horec Agromarket". Halili was introduced in 2007 as a candidate for the Democratic Party together with Kaplan Halimi, who later became secretary general in the Ministry of Agriculture, and with Blerand Stavileci, former minister of the same government department. At the time the story was published, Halil's name was mentioned in a correspondence that implicates former president Hashim Thaçi in the illegal spending of public funds allocated for lobbying purposes.

The other million went to the consortium consisting of the companies: "Dhemetra", "Dhemetra Joint Venture" and "Moea". In all three businesses, the shareholder is Armend Malazogu, who is the brother of the now ex-ambassador Leon Malazogu, appointed through the political key. The consortium represented by Armend Malazogu has provided support for the construction of a factory for the production of organic fertilizer.

The two million have been allocated for two different projects. However, there are three shareholder names that turn out to have benefited from both projects: Nijazi Shaqiri, Alban Ibrahimi and Bunjamin Alili. In one consortium, together with Malazog, they are shareholders in the company "Moea". In the other consortium, there are three of the five shareholders of the company "Sofra Distribution". Thus, these three are shareholders in the two winning consortia, even though the administrative instruction on the basis of which the grants were distributed, in paragraph 3.5 of article 29 specifies that "The beneficiary cannot be given a new project if the previous projects are not have been completed in accordance with the contract signed with AZhB".

The third million was given to Rade Utvic, a farmer who represented the "Zubin Potok" agricultural cooperative. He has benefited from the project for the establishment of a facility for the storage and preservation of fruits. Otvi? was part of the structures of Serbia that operated illegally in Kosovo, which are supported by the Serbian List, a political entity that at the time of granting the grants headed the Ministry of Agriculture.

None of the beneficiary businesses met at least one of the two eligibility criteria, which required them to be registered at least two years ago in ARBK and AVUK. Two of these projects had previously received support from donors, even though the administrative instruction on the basis of which the grants were allocated specified that "The projects financed by this program are not financed by the Measure for investments in rural infrastructure, by the Office of the EU in Kosovo or any other local or international public donor".

The research found that the Ministry awarded grants worth 500 percent more than those awarded under the regular program; competition at the country level was eliminated when it was determined what type of specific project would be supported in each of the country's six regions; the administrative instruction on the basis of which the grants were granted was changed three times; the instruction itself was violated during the selection of three of the four beneficiaries and; there was a lack of transparency required by regulatory acts. Even the selection criteria were affected at the time when the applications were being reviewed.

The verdict issued today also contains additional reasons for the punishment of the extortionist Serb-Albanian manda./ CNA.al