But, from 2021, the Kosovo Police will carry out all vehicle purchases without an open tender procedure.
In a written response, this institution says that from 2021 to 2026, they purchased a total of 570 vehicles.
However, none of them appear to have been purchased through an open public procurement procedure.
"The Kosovo Police from 2021-2026 has purchased around 570 vehicles, while during the same period over 100 other vehicles have been received as donations from donors from various friendly countries.
We are forwarding the response to you for your information, however, it is requested from you that the statistical information be used only for the requested purpose and not for other purposes, and any publication or other unauthorized use of KP capacities for other purposes remains your responsibility," the Kosovo Police response states.
When asked how many contracts they have with the Kosovo Police from this year, Pruthi says "many".
"Journalist: Since 2021, do you have many contracts with the Kosovo Police?"
Pruthi: We have many, many, with all institutions, not just with Kosovo."
For this reason, the Oath for Justice has addressed additional questions to the Kosovo Police.
In the request to the Police, "Oath for Justice" is interested in the legal procedure by which the same vehicles were purchased, their value, from which companies, how many of them are Skoda Octavia Selection, and whether there was an official agreement in 2025 for the purchase of the vehicles, which failed.
However, the Kosovo Police has not responded.
Meanwhile, Kabashi says that purchasing vehicles for the Kosovo Police by avoiding public procurement procedures is not in the spirit of the law.
"In the specific case of the contracting authority of the Kosovo Police, we as an organization have seen that the purchase of vehicles has not been done through public procurement procedures because nothing has been published on the electronic procurement platform so far. From this we can understand that the contracting authority of the Kosovo Police, therefore, has excluded the purchase of vehicles from the use of public procurement procedures and we consider that this method is not in the spirit of the law because it concerns vehicles that are common and which are in daily use by the Kosovo Police. So for vehicles that we as the public see constantly and we do not consider that there was a strong justification and a strong basis for these vehicles to be purchased through other procedures and not through public procurement procedures."
Furthermore, Kabashi says that the purchase of vehicles by the Kosovo Police cannot be considered a secret.
Meanwhile, he explains that one of the ways in which the institution could be supplied with vehicles is through the Central Procurement Agency.
"So we consider that the purchase of vehicles by the Kosovo Police should not be considered a secret because we are talking about vehicles that are in circulation every day and that we as the public see every day, so those vehicles.
Therefore, we consider that the exclusion of vehicle purchases from public procurement procedures bypasses competition, bypasses transparency and consequently accountability for the spending of public money. In this case, for such standard procedures, we consider that the use of public procurement procedures should be the rule and not the exception.
The purchase of vehicles for various public institutions is within the framework of the centralized contracts of the central procurement agency, so the central procurement agency makes the purchase of vehicles or the leasing of various vehicles for all contracting authorities. So, one of the forms that the Kosovo Police could have used is to develop this contract through the Central Procurement Agency, but even if this form were not appropriate through the CPA, because the contracts that they purchase, that is, the vehicles that the central procurement agency purchases, are the same vehicles and then apply to all public institutions. If in this case the Kosovo Police would like to bypass the contract and the centralized contract from the CPA, it could itself, as the contracting authority for vehicles that are even more specific, initiate the procurement procedures itself. "Now recently we have a concrete case where the office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, due to the different specifications that required different vehicles, initiated its own procurement procedures."
The Oath for Justice has also requested a response from the Public Prosecution Regulatory Commission, whether they are informed about the legal procedures under which the Kosovo Police has been supplied with vehicles in the last 5 years, whether there are single-source negotiated contracts, why they are not public, and among other things, he has monitored the PPRC's vehicle purchase processes by the police, whether they have been carried out in accordance with the legislation.
However, the PPRC's response says nothing.
The PPRC's response states that all contracting authorities are obliged to follow public procurement activities except in cases where we are dealing with state secrets.
However, without indicating whether in this specific case, the purchase of police vehicles constitutes a state secret.
Avoiding public procurement procedures in the purchase of vehicles that are seen every day in the field, turns out not to correspond to confidential information.
What was once an open procedure subject to competition has transitioned to a closed, hermetic procedure from 2021.
This approach increases suspicions of abuse and avoidance of accountability.
Meanwhile, the implementation of the law is mostly expected from the institution itself that conducts the investigations.
For more, follow the research "Failed Scheme: Vehicles "Destined" for the Police Change Destination", which is broadcast on T7, Gazeta Express and the online platforms of "Betimi për Drejtësi"/
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