Did the Auditor General leak the AKI’s ‘secret’? Doubts over the security certificates for the dams report

The National Audit Office’s report on dam safety has been classified at the “Restricted” level, while institutions are not saying whether the persons who drafted, reviewed and accepted the document met the security conditions, according to the new investigation of the KIKS Kosova programme on Klan Kosova.

The Auditor General, Vlora Spanca, confirmed in June that the audit had been completed, but the report would not be published. “Today we finalised the audit report ‘Monitoring, maintenance and safety of dams in Kosovo’. This audit report will not be published, but has only been sent to the responsible audited parties for the implementation of the audit recommendations,” she had said.

According to Spanca, publishing the data could harm the security of vital infrastructure and expose weaknesses that could increase the risk to public safety. She said the decision had been taken based on the legislation on classified information and following the recommendations of the competent security bodies, thanking the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI) and the Agency for the Protection of Classified Information for their support in this process.

However, the reply of the Agency for the Protection of Classified Information (AMIK) opened another issue: who was entitled to see the report. AMIK confirmed that the heads of independent institutions, including the NAO, have the legal competence to classify information — but explained that persons who have access to classified information must meet the conditions set by the Law on the Protection of Classified Information, including being equipped with a Personnel Security Certificate when required for the respective classification level, as well as respecting the “need to know” principle.

According to well-informed KIKS Kosova sources, the auditors who worked on drafting the report and the persons who reviewed it did not have security certificates. KIKS Kosova asked AMIK whether the NAO had requested consultation on the classification of the report and whether the Agency had given a recommendation, assessment or opinion — questions to which AMIK did not reply.