In Kosovo, there are calls for the resignation of the finance minister after it became known that unidentified ministry officials had withdrawn €2 million from the state budget.

Balkan Insight reports.

Finance Minister Hikmete Bajrami, in response to the reproaches, says she reacted immediately and reported the incident to the police within minutes of the incident.

“This is an economic cybercrime because passwords were cracked and users were created — without any signature,” she adds.

Prime Minister Avdulla Hoti said at a press conference that there is no room for fraudsters and abuse in government structures, and the Ministry of Finance must take care of the proper protection of systems.

The opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo insists on the minister’s resignation, because without it, in their opinion, an impartial investigation is impossible.

Bajrami herself said on TV the day before that she did not want to resign in order to understand the situation and bring the investigation to the end.

Kosovo police said they have already arrested one Finance Ministry official. He is suspected of four illegal transfers of funds in the amount of 2.77 million euros from the account of the Kosovo Ministry of Infrastructure to the account of a private company LDA Group. This happened on October 9th.

Two more people — co-owners of the company — are looking for. At the same time, one of them is the father of Hajri Gashi, who is an adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albulena Balaj Halima.

Halima said she had already fired him from her position as an adviser.