Hoti: Government violated the law by failing to submit draft budget to Assembly within statutory deadline

Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) MP Avdullah Hoti said that the government had violated the law by failing to submit the draft budget for 2027 to the Assembly within the legally prescribed deadline.

He said that Article 22 of the Law on Public Financial Management required the government to submit the draft budget for the next fiscal year to the Kosovo Assembly no later than October 31.

“Today is November 1. The government has still not approved the draft budget. In doing so, the government has violated the deadline stipulated by the Law on Public Financial Management. It is unclear how the Assembly will consider, within its parliamentary procedures, a draft budget submitted after the statutory deadline. This has never happened before. Even during election periods, when the government was serving in a caretaker capacity, the draft budget was approved and submitted to the Assembly in accordance with the statutory deadlines and requirements,” Hoti wrote on Facebook.

He added that violations of the law and the Constitution had become common practice during the years in which the Self-Determination Movement and its partners had been in power, noting that the Constitutional Court had declared dozens of laws unconstitutional.

“The government and the Presidency have repeatedly violated the Constitution by dismissing or failing to appoint senior state officials. The current Kosovo Assembly was constituted after the constitutional deadline had expired. The Prime Minister fails to respond to summonses from judicial authorities. The Prime Minister and ministers violated a Supreme Court ruling by simultaneously serving as members of the government and as MPs,” Hoti said.