Legislation: The Anti-Corruption Agency Law (which replaced the Corruption Suppression Law) provides the legal foundation for the Kosovo Anti-corruption Agency (ACA). The Law stipulates asset disclosure mechanisms for senior officials and sanctions to public officials and bribe-payers for bribes related to public tenders. Other relevant legislation includes the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Law on the Administrative Procedure, the Law on Access to Official Documents, the Law on Public Procurement, and the Law on Civil Service of Kosovo. The Criminal Code penalises the major forms of corrupt activity, including active and passive bribery, attempted corruption, money laundering and abuse of office. However, as indicated by Global Integrity 2009, extortion and bribing a foreign official are not penalised. In the summer of 2011, several new laws related to anti-corruption were adopted: the Law on the Declaration of Assets for Senior Public Officials and Gifts for All Public Officials, a Conflict of Interest Law, a Law on the Protection of Informants and a Witness Protection Law. In January 2010, a new anti-corruption law came into effect, which could bring a new approach to combating corruption in Kosovo. According to an Assembly member Armend Zemaj, the main advantage of the new laws are that they promote direct monitoring of the Kosovo Anti-corruption Agency (ACA) by the Assembly through a special commission, which will be led by the opposition, as reported in an August 2009 article by Kosovo Times. To see the latest legislation in Kosovo, visit the Ministry of Justice website which provides information on the latest legislation in a timely fashion.

Government Strategies: A new Anti-Corruption Strategy was adopted in 2009, and it was followed up by an Anti-Corruption Action Plan - to implement the Strategy. Firstly, the new Anti-Corruption Strategy recognises the failings of the previous strategy, namely the lack of political will. With this in mind, it hopes that by accompanying the strategy with a detailed and specific action plan the new strategy will be more successful in addressing the problem of widespread corruption. The strategy is to address corruption using a comprehensive approach that will cover all of society, starting from the legislative, executive and judiciary to the private sector, media and other civil society organisations.

Anti-Corruption Agency: The Kosovo Anti-corruption Agency (ACA, in Albanian) was established in 2006 with the task of preparing a further anti-corruption strategy for the government. The ACA publishes annual reports, which provides a progress report on the fight against corruption in Kosovo. The ACA, to which public officials shall report cases of corruption, forwards all information of corruption to the Office of Public Prosecutor, and supervises the assets of senior officials through a process of declaration of their assets. Holders of office are also required to make a declaration of gifts. The ACA does not have any executive powers itself; for example, if it is informed of a corrupt bidding/tendering process, it cannot stop the procedure, but can call on the relevant ministry to do so. The ACA has a free hotline service and a website where complaints can be made. According to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Report 2009, the ACA is now starting to cooperate with European Union's Rule of Law Mission (EULEX), in particular, in relation to the work of prosecutors. Previously there were independence concerns. According to TI Kosovo: Assessment of Institutional Integrity 2011, the the work of the ACA is monitored by a special Agency Oversight Committee - which now interferes less than the previous Oversight Council. Legally, the only way the government can influence the ACA is when the ACA budget is before the Assembly for approval. To date there is no evidence that the ACA has been subject to pressure or intimidation. In 2010, 430 cases were investigated by the ACA, 67 were closed due to lack of evidence, 39 were forwarded for prosecution, while 67 cases are in legal proceedings, as reported by TI Kosovo: Assessment of Institutional Integrity 2011. This represents a continuing increase in the number of investigations and cases brought before the courts. Access ACA's Annual Report 2007 and Annual report 2009. The latest reports are available in Albanian and Serbian.

Office of Good Governance (OGG): The OGG operates within the office of the Prime Minister. The functions of the office include initiating, drafting and supervising the implementation of policies, action plans and strategies in the sphere of good governance. According to the EU Commission Progress Report 2008, the work of Kosovo's Office for Good Governance overlaps that of the Anti-Corruption Agency. Furthermore, the delineation of responsibilities between the Kosovo Anti-corruption Agency (ACA) and the Office of Good Governance, whose head is deputy head of the Anti-Corruption Council, has led to friction, as emphasised in the EU Commission Progress Report 2008.

Auditor General: The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) is the supreme audit institution in Kosovo. The OAG conducts annual independent audits of all entities that receive public funds from the Kosovo Consolidated Budget. As stated on its official website, the OAG practices are based on the International Public Sector Accounting Standards. The OAG reports are submitted to the Assembly on a regular basis. A report from the OAG showed unexplained losses in the Kosovo budget of USD 0.8 million–2 million per ministry per year, according to the Freedom House Nations in Transit 2009. According to the TI Kosovo: Assessment of Institutional Integrity 2011 the Assembly adopted a new Law on the Auditor General in relation to external audit. The law regulates the transfer of external audit competences from the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) to the Kosovo authorities. The OAG is to remain an independent institution, reporting to the Assembly. Overall, there has been some progress in the field of financial control, with more municipalities being audited by the Auditor General, according to the EU Commission Progress Report 2011. Nevertheless, the government seldom acts on the findings of the OAG, and most of the governmental bodies fail to implement the audit report recommendations, according to Global Integrity 2009. Access the OAG Regularity Audit and Performance Audit reports.

Ombudsperson Institution: The Ombudsperson is elected by the Assembly of Kosovo. The Ombudsperson Institution is an independent institution, which responds to disputes concerning alleged human rights violations or abuse of authority between individuals and central or local institutions in Kosovo. The Ombudsperson accepts complaints, initiates investigations and monitors the policies and laws adopted by the authorities to ensure that they respect human rights standards and the requirements of good governance. The mandate of the Ombudsperson Institution has been strengthened by allowing it to initiate proceedings before the Constitutional Court to address the question of compatibility with the Constitution of laws, decrees, regulations and municipal statutes. The EU Commission Progress Report 2011 assesses the Ombudsperson Institution as 'weak' which is also supported by the TI Kosovo: Assessment of Institutional Integrity 2011. Both sources point to its lack of funding, political support and financial independence as reasons for its ineffectiveness. Furthermore, its cooperation with other institutions is poor. The recruitment of deputies to the Ombudsperson has yet to be completed and this issue has been criticised in both the 2010 and 2011 Progress Reports by the EU Commission. According to Global Integrity 2009, the government does not satisfactorily act on the reports of the Ombudsperson Institution, and at times the agency's findings are ignored or given superficial attention. Access the Ombudsperson Institution's Annual Report 2010.

E-Governance: In 2009, the Government of Kosovo began a project to implement all public administration services in electronic form, a plan that will be carried out over the next six years. The objective behind e-Governance implementation is to both improve communication and work-flow within institutions and their dealings with the public. As a result of the e-Governance initiative, several governmental portals have been launched, including Prime Minister's Office, the Assembly, the Police Service, the Customs service, the Tax Administration, and the Public Procurement Agency. In addition, e-Governance promoting pilot projects have been initiated, including the project 'Management, E-Government and Legislation in Public services' for high-level public officials in the framework of 'Efficient and Effective Kosovo Public Services' in 2007. The EU Commission Progress Report 2011 assesses the e-governance progress as uncoordinated and as a result citizens are provided with limited e-government services.

Public Procurement: Public procurement in Kosovo is regulated by the Law on Public Procurement, which provides the legal basis for the Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (PPRC), the Public Procurement Review Board (PPRB), and the Public Procurement Agency (PPA). The procurement law has been seen as broadly not in line with European standards by the EU Commission Progress Report 2011. By law, major procurements require competitive bidding, and unsuccessful bidders can ask for an official review of the bidding process and challenge the concrete procurement decision in the courts. Global Integrity 2009 illustrates that the law on procurement does not seem to be very effective, since companies guilty of major violations of procurement regulations are not prohibited from participating in future procurement bids. Furthermore, according to the report, although there are regulations addressing conflicts of interest for public procurement officials, these regulations are not enforced in practice. In order to promote fair and open competition for government tenders, as well as transparency in the procurement and regulatory process, the government publishes the rules, regulations and procedures of the tendering process on the websites www.assembly-kosova.org and www.krpp.rks-gov.net. However, according to the US Department of State 2010, there are frequent reports of irregularities in public tendering procedures. The recent revision of the public procurement law and a significant increase in public audits from the Office of the Auditor General are important steps forward. Similarly, the PPRC recently initiated procurement audits of the various Kosovo ministries, municipal authorities and agencies receiving funds from the Kosovo consolidated budget.

Whistle-Blowing: Two new laws specifically related to whistle-blowing were passed in August 2011: a Law on the Protection of Informants and a Witness Protection Law. The effectiveness of the laws will depend on their implementation. Prior to the new laws, Global Integrity 2009 assessed whistle-blowing measures in Kosovo as 'very weak', and emphasised that civil servants as well as private sector officials who report cases of corruption and abuse of power are not protected from recrimination. In a similar vein, Freedom House 2011 reported witness protection continues to be weak in Kosovo, especially related to war crimes cases, which are still handled exclusively by a number of international judges and prosecutors, but will be transferred to European Union's Rule of Law Mission (EULEX). According to a EULEX judge Francesco Florit, witnesses who come before the court are very often reluctant to speak the truth, because they are threatened, as reported in a July 2009 article by BBC News.

General Comments on the Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives: According to the EU Commission Progress Report 2011, corruption is still widespread and remains a major problem in Kosovo, but some progress had been made - displayed by new anti-corruption laws and the good work by the Anti-Corruption Agency and EULEX. However, challenges still remain, notably implementation of the new laws. The prosecution of high ranking officials is still lacking and a culture of clientelism persists. The EU report also notes that the fight against corruption needs greater engagement by law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.