Pristina Blocks Kosovo Serb Municipalities' Accounts

The accounts of the Serb-majority municipalities of North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok in north Kosovo have been blocked after they did not hand over budgets that complied with the budget circulars set out by the Kosovo government and the ministry of finance, officials said.

According to Ksenija Bozovic, head of the North Mitrovica assembly, the accounts have been blocked for a week and the municipality is currently "not able to carry out any transfers".

The deadline for passing budgets that conformed with Pristina's guidelines was February 28.

But the assemblies of the Serb municipalities put forward budgets that were much higher than those foreseen by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Governance - according to the ministries, they were around 59 million euro higher.

North Mitrovica budgeted around 20 million euro, although only 2.7 million euro was approved by the government. Zvecan approved around 14 million euro, as against an allocated 1.6 million; Zubin Potok approved 21.5 million while only were 1.8 million was allocated, and Leposavic approved 11.5 million while only 2.3 million was allocated.

Before the February 28 deadline ran out, the government requested that the local assemblies of each municipality set new budgets, according to the budget circulars approved by the government.

But the mayor of North Mitrovica, Goran Rakic, declared before the deadline that his municipality would not change its budget.

"I don't know how the work of the municipalities can be considered independent if the central government is involved. How do they wish to decentralize the power to the municipalities if they interfere in the work of the municipalities?" Rakic told Radio Kosova last week.