An unpublished report from the ministry of economics and finance has called into question the amount of money that officials are spending on telephone calls, petrol, and entertainment expenses. In a budget of around 700 million Euros per year, civil servants ate through approximately 8.3 million euros in just petrol and 2.5 million on mobile phones in the first half of 2006. Analysts are cautioning that unless Kosovo officials start reining in their lavish lifestyle and the amount they are spending, Kosovo will have large deficits, scare away foreign investors, and the international community will no longer help to pay off the deficits.
In other news, EU officials have stated that the decision of Kosovo's status may be delayed weeks or even months. The EU planning team for their mission has extended their mandate to March 2007. Meanwhile while EU officials are saying the status decision may be delayed, UN officials are making statements that the status question will be resolved by the end of the year. So who's really telling the truth?!
