Kosovo—Municipal Integrity Activity

Public procurement is a government tool used to deliver goods and services such as fixing roads, building schools, or buying medical equipment for citizens. Fair competition, a level playing field, and transparency are essential to ensuring public money is spent responsibly and leads to the best value for citizens in terms of high-quality goods and services.

However, in Kosovo, citizens, civil society organizations, and private sector economic operators report that public procurement had been compromised by political patronage, nepotism, fraud, and other forms of corruption. This problem reduces public resources available for service delivery to citizens, undermines public confidence in government, and deters foreign investment. It is critically important for the Government of Kosovo to address these weaknesses or gaps in the procurement system, especially at the municipal level, to safeguard public money spent through public procurement.

To assist the Government of Kosovo in strengthening systems and limit opportunities for fraud, waste, or abuse in public procurement, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Transparent, Effective, and Accountable Municipalities (USAID TEAM) activity, which DAI implemented from 2016 to 2022. The project supported Kosovo to improve the transparency and accountability of the municipal procurement process in all 38 municipalities. At the central level, USAID TEAM worked with institutions that oversee public procurement, supervise municipal internal auditors, manage the municipal budgeting process, and oversee anti-corruption investigations. In addition, USAID TEAM built the capacity of civil society organizations to exercise citizen oversight municipal procurement in a watchdog role and to provide checks and balances by exposing corrupt practices and working with citizens and local governments as a partner in the process of procurement modernization.

Building off that project, the Municipal Integrity Activity is working with central government oversight agencies, municipalities, civil society, media, and private sector actors to advance reform in public procurement, with a renewed emphasis on budget planning, contract management, audit, integrity, and private sector engagement.

Sample Activities

• Enhance public financial management, with a focus on municipal procurement.
• Reinforce accountability mechanisms both inside and outside government.
• Increase the government’s use of good practices in budget planning, public procurement, and contract management.
• Support the government in advancing norms and practices that support internal audit and accountability.
• Work with civil society, media, and the private sector to improve the integrity of public and private sector actors in public procurement.