Bislimi denies AAK's accusations on the Deçan-Plavë road issue

The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) has accused the former Kurti government of cutting the budget for the construction of the Deçan-Plavë road. This accusation was made by the leader of the AAK, Ramush Haradinaj, and then by the head of the parliamentary group and the MP of this party, Daut Haradinaj, and Rasim Selmanaj, respectively.

This accusation has been denied by the former Minister of Finance in the Kurti government, Besnik Bislimi, sharing a document with the exact expenditure figures on his Facebook profile.

In an interview with IndeksOnline, Ramush Haradinaj said that the project has been discontinued because the Kurti government has removed its budget.

Full text published on IndeksOnline:

Decan - Plavë road, Haradinaj says there is no budget, accuses Albin Kurti

The project for the construction of the Decan-Plava road was cut in half by the Kosovo government after the intervention of the Serbian Church and Belgrade. For former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, it is only a matter of time before the works resume.

For "Indeks-Intervistë" Haradinaj says that the lack of budget is the reason for the interruption of the works.

"We didn't have a budget because it would have been done," declared the leader of the ruling party.

He even accuses former Prime Minister Albin Kurti of this.

"The project has been discontinued because the Kurti government has taken away its budget, unfortunately..." - said Haradinaj.

Similar reactions were also made by the head of the AAK Working Group, Daut Haradinaj, in February of this year, when the new budget was voted on by the former partners in government, VV-LDK. In addition to him, the same reaction was also made by the AAK MP and former mayor of Deçan, Rasim Selmanaj.

Links to published articles regarding the accusations of Daut Haradinaj and Rasim Selmanaj:

Kurti's government "blocks" the Deçan-Plavë road, a strong reaction comes from Daut Haradinaj

​RASIM SELMANAJ ACCUSES THE KURTI GOVERNMENT FOR THE DEÇAN-PLAVE ROAD: THIS GOVERNMENT TOOK DOWN THE FUNDS FOR THIS PROJECT

Immediately after this accusation, Bislimi denied Ramush Haradinaj's claims, saying that he "repeated some untruths that have been said several times by representatives of his political entity." Bislimi, in his clarification, said that the financing of this road has not been stopped, arguing that such a thing was done during the Haradinaj government.

The full text published by Besnik Bislimi on his Facebook profile:

Yesterday evening (Thursday, August 20) Haradinaj repeated some untruths that have been told several times by representatives of his political entity. While talking about the suspension of works on the Deçan Plavë road, he said that if the Kurti government had not stopped the budgetary support for this road, it would have been completed by now, and consequently we would not have the problems with the monastery.

Below, through two tables, I want to once again expose all these untruths of Mr. Haradinaj and his subordinates in AAK.

The first table below is as we found it in the budget drafted by the Haradinaj government, while the second table reflects the situation with the budget as approved by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo in mid-March of this year.

From these two tables the following results:

1. The road from Deçan to Plav has no chance of being completed this year according to the figures budgeted by the Haradinaj Government itself. This is because the bulk of the financing for the construction of the road is foreseen for 2022 (in the amount of 5.1 million euros). It is likely that there will also be a budget allocation for 2023. If Haradinaj's statement is taken as correct (this regarding the completion of the works this year), then it follows that the entire amount of 5.1 million euros for 2022 has been a well-planned misuse from now on.

2. There was no expenditure on this road in 2019, so the entire amount of 1.908 million euros was carried over to 2020. This means that the Haradinaj Government had allocated funds in 2019, but had not been able to spend them. Perhaps if it had worked at the planned pace in 2019, this road would have been built earlier.

3. The statement that the Kurti Government has removed this project or has stopped funding for it for 2020 is a lie. The Haradinaj Government, in the budget it drafted for 2020, had foreseen ZERO euros of new investment in this road. The Kurti Government has done the same. The only change is that, given the inability to spend in 2019, the amount carried over from 1.908 million euros from 2019 has been reduced to 500 thousand euros for 2020.

4. Any modification in this category of expenditures has been made with full autonomy by the Ministry of Infrastructure, it is known that this ministry is not led by VV but by Mr. Haradinaj's governing partner.

Table 1. Budget drafted by the Haradinaj Government

Table 2. Modified and approved budget as of mid-March 2020 (by the Ministry of Infrastructure)

Analyze:

Based on the analysis conducted, it can be said that this article falls into the category of "biased reporting", as it did not confront the arguments of the other side, in this case Besnik Bislimi.

Also, the hibrid.info team has rated this text with the category "denial", given that the former minister in question has denied the accusations made against the Kurti government with a series of arguments.

Reasoning:

Biased reporting – A media report is considered “biased reporting” if it is clearly seen to favor facts, positions and conclusions that align with a particular narrative, often disregarding the rule of contact with the other party when it comes to claims that are damaging to someone’s reputation or portrayed by certain actors with a negative approach. One form of biased reporting is the selective presentation of facts, where facts that support a particular thesis are emphasized, while facts that do not confirm it are neglected.

Denial – The “Denial” rating is an additional rating, which is given in cases where the media determines that the published content falls into one of the above categories of negative ratings, and in accordance with this knowledge denies it 1) in accordance with the facts 2) in a visible manner, in accordance with the principles of publishing denials. Media that have published the original verified content, if they have published contact information on their pages, will always be contacted to comment on claims that prove to be controversial, giving each of them the opportunity to correct errors in this way. In such cases, the analysis