The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (APK) and the Consultative Forum with Civil Society, on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, called for a renewed focus on institutional integrity, strengthening accountability, and eliminating corrupt practices in the public sector.

The Director of APK, Yll Buleshkaj, at the opening of the event, stated that integrity must be a duty of every institution and that whistleblowers remain a key pillar in identifying violations.

“We do not believe there is a mechanism more important than reporting, including internal or external reporting, as well as public reporting. It is a clear commitment of the agency—and I believe of the public as well—that integrity is not optional; it is our duty. We as an agency will continue to be impartial, determined, and professional in every decision. We will continue to insist on the accountability of public officials and transparency, where corruption is not tolerated, neither in major nor minor cases. However, the agency cannot do this work alone if it does not cooperate with all of you,” Buleshkaj said.

The Head of the Integrity and Strategy Division at APK, Burim Sadiku, presented the monitoring report on integrity plans in public institutions, emphasizing the need for higher-quality reporting.

“Today, the result is that out of all 140 institutions, 125 have integrity plans, but this issue can be further advanced… We hope in the future that the issue of the integrity index in municipalities will expand and that all public institutions will implement it, because there we see the quality of public reports… The first challenge lies in the unit of actual risks, which does not apply to all institutions. In the unit of actual risks, especially in procurement and human resources, there is a lack of data, making the risk unit more about perception than analysis. The formal approach, unfortunately, in some municipalities has been a template, and after monitoring we saw it was a formal, non-substantive assessment, but with our recommendations, they updated it… High-risk areas remain, based on our analyses, public procurement, human resources, management of public assets, and institutions that do not issue permits and licenses,” Sadiku said.

University professor Bekim Baliqi spoke about the challenges of implementing regulations and integrity plans, emphasizing that a lack of resources hinders their real application.

“As in many things in this country, a strategy or regulation often remains a formal document due to various shortages, one of which is usually human resources, connected to financial resources. Additionally, I believe these shortages often make these plans remain only for reporting purposes,” Baliqi said.

Furthermore, during Anti-Corruption Week 2025, a coalition of non-governmental organizations consisting of the Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD), Lëvizja FOL, and the Initiative for Progress (INPO) held a one-day strike as a form of protest against corruption and against policies that are paralyzing the functioning of the state.