Prishtina – 11 September 2018
Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals presented an information brochure for illegal mining activities
The prohibition of formal economy is the duty of the state institutions and in the concrete case the prohibition and prevention of illegal operators in the exploitation of mineral resources was said in the remark of the Chairman of the ICMM Board, Mr Musa Shabani. ICMM actually manages 523 mining entities. Only during this year, the Inspectorate of ICMM has identified 46 illegal exploiters of mineral resources mainly sand, gravel, clay and lignite. 79 criminal charges have been submitted to Prosecutors during 2017, based on the field reports. ICMM implements and is responsible for implementation of the Law on Mines and Minerals, Law on Safety at Work in Mining Activity, Mining Strategy of the Republic of Kosovo and State Policies for Development and Upgrade of Mining Activity. Hereupon, he asked for support of all institutions and joint coordination to prohibit this phenomenon by performing each of its tasks.
Despite efforts and progress, the prevention and prohibition of illegal mining activities continues to be a serious challenge for the ICMM. Among other things, good inter-institutional coordination articulated through an Action Plan will enable the mining sector to overcome the challenge of illegal operations.
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for Economic Development, Ms Sala Berisha Shala gave support to the ICMM and expressed her satisfaction for an inter-institutional cooperation in preventing illegal operations. As a key obligation, special emphasis was given to the construction of legal infrastructure the implementation of law, if needed, and its amendment and supplementation.
The ICMM Director, Mr Ramiz Krasniqi, required from the Municipalities to not be supplied with illegal material by the unlicensed enterprises, where the Municipalities have received as well the notifications initiated by the ICMM.
The Executive Director of the Association of Municipalities, Mr Sazan Ibrahimi, emphasised the request of the Municipalities that the Law on Mines and Minerals shall be amended from the following year so that Municipalities shall receive 20% of the royalty.
The initiation of the brochure was in common with the Kosovo Police, where Director of the Directorate for Serious Crimes, Mr Fadil Gashi promised the cooperation and assistance of Kosovo Police in preventing illegal activities.
After the presentation of the information brochure by Mr Jahir Gashi, the Inspector of Mines for the illegal activities, the ICMM concluded that there is a need for continued cooperation to prevent illegal activities. Cooperation should continue to not allow damaging the Kosovo budget and the environment, especially endanger of people’s lives.
Representatives from the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development, the Ministry of Economic Development, MESP, the Association of Kosovo Municipalities, the Directorate of Investigations of Serious Crimes and other interested parties were participants during the workshop. All of them agreed that cooperation should continue to not allow damaging the Kosovo budget and the environment and especially the prevention of the loss of people’s lives.
In the end, it was concluded that this brochure will be helpful to identify illegal operators and to prohibit their illegal activities.
