Kosovo Tax Officials Admit Ties to Politicians

Behxhet Haliti, former director of the Kosovo tax administration, TAK, admitted maintaining connections with top politicians during his two mandates from 2009 to 2015, adding that he was not ashamed of having helped the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK.

"I still think that today and tomorrow the person in my post [in the TAK] should help the PDK, or even the Democratic League of Kosovo, the opposition Vetevendosje and others," Haliti told BIRN Kosovo's TV show Jeta ne Kosove on Thursday evening.

During his mandate, Haliti, was interviewed by police and faced criminal charges over a 2007 decision to reschedule a loan for someone who provided a house he did not own as collateral during his mandate.

"I would have to be cold and robot-like to say this did not worry us, but that is the price that each official has to calculate and pay if they want to take a step forward," Haliti recalled.

On the same show, Murat Mehmeti, - the whistleblower who revealed the existence of major tax scam involving companies getting fake invoices to lower their tax bills - said that his employers in TAK were still not tackling potential crimes due to political influence.

Mehmeti, team leader of TAK's investigations unit, said the TAK was aware of a number of tax scam cases but had failed to act.

The TAK was "full of possibilities [for investigations]… It is like if I was working at sea and you asked: 'Murat, are you able to fish?' How could fishing be an issue for me on a boat. Fish jump on the boat by themselves," Mehmeti told the same show.

Mehmeti said the Tax Administration was cutting the number of staff trained to deal with scams. He claimed only 12 of the 23 trained people from the investigations unit were now left, as the others had...