Kosovo Municipal Integrity

Kosovo Municipal Integrity is a five-year activity that addresses long-standing challenges related to government corruption and poor-quality service delivery. The activity enhances public financial management (PFM) with a focus on municipal procurement, and reinforces accountability mechanisms both within and outside of government through civil society, the private sector, and media. With a focus on eight municipal governments and the Ministry of Health, successful public financial management approaches can then be scaled across all 38 municipal governments and national-level line ministries where appropriate. By doing so, this activity contributes to USAID’s overall goal of better serving citizens’ needs through accountable and effective governance.

Activities 

• Strengthen Kosovo’s accountability ecosystem to provide more effective and coordinated financial oversight; advance the use of digital procurement tools. 
• Promote use of good practices in budget planning, public procurement, and contract management by increasing local capacities through coaching and on-the-job training programs.
• Advance norms and practices that support improved internal audit, accountability and integrity of public financial management and procurement processes. 
• Strengthen the capacity of civil society, media and the private sector to monitor the integrity of public procurement processes. 

Key Results to Date  

• The National Audit Office and the State Prosecutor in Kosovo forged a new, formal collaboration to combat fraud and corruption in public procurement. This partnership is pivotal in combating corruption as it bridges the gap between auditing and prosecution, enabling a more robust and integrated approach.
• Partner institutions made significant strides (from 1% in 2022 to 43% in 2023) in adopting best value or the Most Economically Advantageous Tender criteria for capital investments, moving away from lowest price criteria that led to poor quality outcomes. 
• Partner institutions improved transparency of public financial and procurement data from 61% (2022) to 93% (2023), providing greater openness and accountability.
• Partner institutions successfully implemented 78% of their procurement plans compared to 39% in non-partner municipalities, and reduced unplanned activities. 
• Partner institutions complied 81% of the time with the 30-day payment timeframe for payment of invoices compared to 69% in non-partner municipalities. Businesses benefit from enhanced liquidity due to prompt payments, spurring economic growth and addressing one of the corruption vulnerabilities in public procurement.

Additional Information 

PROJECT FUNDING 
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID/Kosovo)

PROJECT DURATION 
March 2022 – March 2027  

IMPLEMENTING PARTNER
DAI Global, LLC.

TOTAL FUNDING 
$13,500,000 

KEY COUNTERPARTS
Democracy Plus, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (PPRC), Kosovo Institution for Public Administration (KIPA), Procurement Review Board (PRB), Ministry of Finance Central Harmonization Unit (CHU), National Audit Office (NAO), National Assembly’s Committee for the Oversight of Public Finance, Ministry of Local Government Administration

WHERE WE WORK 
Gjakovë/Đakovica, Gjilan/Gnjilane, Lipjan/Lipljan, Pejë/Peć, Pristina, Rahovec/Orahovac, Suharekë/Suva Reka, Vushtrri/Vučitrn and Ministry of Health 

CONTACT 
Jeton Cana, Project Management Specialist