Prishtina, 12.03. 2018 – Initially please allow us to clarify for the public that the mandate of the Director of Trepça J.S.C. expired on 5 February 2018, therefore, any letter of “resignation” is tendentious, insincere and causes no legal consequences.

The Ministry of Economic Development is obliged to respect legal terms and provisions in relation to any head of any publicly-owned enterprise, including the former manager of Trepça J.S.C., Mr. Ahmet Tmava.

Also, we wish to emphasize that since September 2017, when Minister Lluka took over the mandate to head the ministry, he has engaged with all its capacities towards treating matters pertaining to the functioning and administration of Trepça J.S.C. with utmost priority. As a result, we are now in the final phases of selecting members of the Supervisory Council, which will then hold exclusive competencies on the selection of managerial staff and on taking strategic decisions in company’s interest.

On 28 February 2018, Minister Lluka received a request from the former manager of Trepça J.S.C., Mr. Ahmet Tmava, requesting access to the company’s bank accounts. Minister Lluka rejected the request, considering that it was as such illegal and submitted by a former manager with an expired term.

To this end, and taking into account the interest of the company’s employees and business, Minister Lluka asked for the authorization to operate with the company’s funds to be transferred to competent official persons, in accordance with laws in force and practice to date.

Allegations on any sort of intervention are ungrounded and clearly aim to misinform the public and, above all, justify unilateral actions of former manager Tmava, who, without any prior notification of the shareholder (the Ministry of Economic Development), decided to take part in activities with financial implications for the company, in contradiction with the applicable legal provisions.