For Kosovo Officials, Training Means Travel on Taxpayer Dime

"Institutions continue to ignore… the hotel industry and other related industries" in Kosovo," said economic expert Ermal Lubishtani, arguing that such neglect had a detrimental effect on the local economy.

The expenses for participation in trainings, conferences, forums, and workshops of Kosovo's ministerial staff 2015-2020. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not included because it did not have expenses from the budget. The Ministry of Justice had expenses of only one training held abroad in 2018 (included in the story). The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports; Ministry of Local Government are not included because they did not provide data to BIRN.

Not all trips are 'obligatory'.

The training of public officials within Kosovo is usually handled by the Kosovo Institute for Public Administration, IKAP, which uses its own facilities. In 2019, IKAP spent almost 69,000 euros on training courses in Kosovo, up from some 47,000 in 2016.

Thousands of public officials pass through IKAP courses every year, compared with far fewer treated by their ministries to training sessions abroad at far greater expense.

In some cases, training sessions abroad appear to be getting more expensive.

In 2017, the Ministry of Finance spent 51,700 euros on 121 training trips abroad. The following year, it paid more than 90,000 euros for 133 training trips.

In 2018, the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning, and Infrastructure held 33 training courses abroad at a cost of more than 111,000 euros. The following year it held only 16, but paid more than 113,000 euros. In total from 2015 to 2020 BIRN calculated that at least some 30 such trips were not part of regional...