The protest of Pristina’s public transport workers against the blocking of municipal funds this Tuesday took another form. Unlike the day before, when all transportation lines of the capital of Kosovo were suspended and employees protested in front of the municipality and government buildings, buses without passengers temporarily blocked road traffic.
“On Friday, the Ministry allocated 3.2 million, the municipality allocated 630 thousand euros for Urban Traffic, they are not part of what covers the oil expenses that we owe 1 million, we owe 800 thousand euros to the workers for two salaries, 100 thousand euros are being cut from our health insurance contract because we owe. The municipality is not reflecting, it forces us because the ministry has not allocated the money. Yesterday we met the minister for 1 hour and 40 minutes with the president of the associations, they promised that if the municipal assembly issues a decision on the transfer of own revenues for 2024, the moment it issues the decision and forwards it to the ministry, at that moment the ministry is ready to allocate the funds. This decision has not happened so far“, said Gashi.
But the mayor of the municipality of Pristina Përparim Rama, who was refused the request to participate in the meeting of the heads of the operators and the minister of finance Hekuran Murati, rejected Murat’s claims that despite the fact that the budget of Prishtina for 2025 was not approved by the municipal assembly within the deadline, the funds provided for December have been released from the treasury to pay some bills.
“We have 35 million blocked for months now, on Thursday we will introduce another 28 million in the session, I call on all assembly members to vote for another 28 million so that the capital has options. It is not an issue with the funds of the capital, there are enough funds to pay all the operators, so we do not have a problem with the operators, the problem is with the Ministry of Finance even today I am ready to meet immediately wherever they want to meet and unlock this process, it is an issue that is not a problem but it is being done“, he said.
For two days, the citizens of the capital of Kosovo have been forced to find other alternatives to go to work or school, as the entire system of city transport buses has stopped working due to non-receipt of payments from the municipality of Pristina.
Journalist: Elda Pepa
