The performance reports after the approval of the law on municipal performance in the Assembly of Kosovo, will not only be an election of the municipalities, but also a legal obligation for all of them.

This is what the Minister of Local Government Administration, Elbert Krasniq, said during the round table organized by this ministry, where the results of the performance measurement report of the municipalities for 2020 were discussed.

The performance according to the 19 fields of competences turns out to be the same in 2020, compared to 2019. Until in 2019, the performance according to the fields was expressed in 58.78 percent, in 2020 it results in 57.06 or 1.72 percent less, which will says that despite the pandemic, the municipalities have managed to have almost the same consistency in the provision of services compared to the previous year.

The report states that due to the non-reporting of data in a considered number of areas, the results obtained are not complete in Zubim Potok (1.7.4%), North Mitrovica (2%), Kllokot (21.65%), Zveçan (15.06%), Novobërdë (15.99%), Leposaviq (15.86%), Partesh (21.29%) and Graçanicë (28.82%). The lack of data and the poor quality of reporting in this municipality, not only does not sufficiently reflect the level of achievements within the measurement indicators, but also affects the results of the performance grant.

"It has already passed the first reading and the working groups in the Assembly together with us prepare the final draft and which will be voted and the performance is after this moment not only the choice of the municipalities but also a legal obligation and we have formalized the position of the coordinators of performance at the local level which are very important," he said.

The director of the department for municipal performance and transparency, Diellor Gashi, said that performance management has a good legal basis due to the documents they have prepared.

He said that there were challenges during the work for this report, since in addition to the year of the pandemic and the municipal elections in some municipalities, the challenge was also the verification of data during the performance of the municipalities.

"The reporting will be mandatory in each municipality, and the most important thing is that with the performance grants, the regular categorization of the financing of the municipalities from the state budget will be done, leaving the possibility open for donors with their funds. The performance report, as I already pointed out, collects data in the framework of 19 areas of measurement that originate from the own competences provided for by the law on local self-government... For over 30 percent of the data that were received by the municipalities, they were declared invalid due to their lack of correlation with official source documents. Also, there are also data that do not correspond between the fields, there are some constant data that have caused us problems in ascertaining their final value and the rest has been the verification in the field that despite the things specified in the documents of the municipality has no correspondence with the finding of the commission on the ground", he said.

Representatives of the municipality of Malisheva requested that the deadline for submission of municipal reports be 45 working days and not 45 days, including weekends and holidays.

He was answered by the secretary of the ministry, Venera Čerkini.

"Also, the timeframe for us to assess expectations is too short. But regarding this deadline, you know that there is a possibility for an additional deadline if there is a reason, but otherwise for very long deadlines, it should be discussed with the municipalities to see if the deadline should be postponed", she said.

According to the report, compared to 2019, where transparency was ranked third, in 2020, it is ranked first, with an increase of 4.34%, in the overall level of results within the indicators of the field.