Secretariat of CEC
Secretariat of Central Election Commission
In carrying on its responsibilities and functions, CEC is helped by the Secretariat of CEC which prepares reports, recommendations and decisions for CEC, and provides other necessary administrative assistance for CEC. Secretariat also assists CEC in implementation of responsibilities and functions that are in accordance with election regulations.
Units of the Secretariat
For efficient implementation of its professionally defined responsibilities and duties, Secretariat has an organizational structure as follows:
Office of Chief Executive Officer of Secretariat is in function of work progress of Chief Executive, as well coordinates the work with other structures of Secretariat.
- Draft secondary legislation (bylaws), in consultation with other CECS departments and CEC Committees, which are approved by the CEC;
- Receives the requests for replacement of municipal assembly members, reviews them and proceeds them to the Committees and the CEC;
- Drafts cooperation agreements between the CEC and other institutions;
- Administers the electoral appeals process, prepares relevant files for each submitted complaint and makes them available to CEC members within the deadlines and method defined in the Election Law and CEC acts;
- Represents the CEC in the judicial bodies at all stages of the trial for cases where the CEC is a party;
- Ensures that the secondary legislation acts proposed and drafted by the CEC are based on the legislation in force;
- Provide legal advice, recommendations, instructions and legal interpretations for the CEC and the Secretariat.
- Implement the necessary activities for all operational issues related to the preparation of elections and referendums;
- Drafts and implements the Election Operational Plan;
- Undertakes all activities related to drafting of voter list;
- Plans and organizes trainings for electoral bodies and support staff;
- Plans and organizes voter education and information;
- Organizes and implements activities in the out-of-Kosovo voting operation and registration of persons with special needs and circumstances;
- Performs other duties and responsibilities defined by the legislation in force and by the Chief Executive Officer of CECS.
The Department of Election Operations is composed of three divisions;
- Division of Voter Services,
- Division of Information and Education,
- Division of Trainings.
- Provide necessary administrative services to the CEC;
- Implement policies related to the CEC administration;
- Plans and prepares the budget of the CEC, compiles and controls the periodic financial reports as well as the financial statements.
- Track the performance of budget expenditures in accordance with the respective budget lines to ensure the smooth running of financial management and expenditure control;
- Supervises all aspects of budget reporting by the CECS and performs all functions assigned to the Chief Financial Officer according to the legislation in force;
- Provide administrative services in the field of personnel and other matters pertaining to human resources management in the Secretariat, in accordance with the legislation in force;
- Distribute funds for political party support and execution of payments for parliamentary groups;
- Provides translation services for the needs of the CEC;
- Ensures the functioning of logistics, transportation, warehousing, office materials, documentation, election materials and the Secretariat infrastructure;
- Preserve and systematize all official CEC documents, in accordance with the rules and procedures established by relevant archiving legislation, and maintain, manage and administer the archive system.
The Department of Administration and Support composed of these divisions:
- Division of Budget and Finances,
- Division of Personnel and Joint Services.
- Develops and implements plans, procedures and projects for the highest quality IT operation, provision of appropriateservices to all CEC staff;
- Analyzes and evaluates the needs and opportunities for automation of processes, and implements new technologies in electoral operations;
- Administer and maintain the CEC network, systems and applications;
- Creates and maintains the database defined by the CEC;
- Cooperates with the Agency for Information Society and other institutions for the implementation of IT policy;
- Provide and maintain equipment, as well as provide information and telecommunication services to the CEC and the Secretariat;
- Maintain and update the CEC website, including timely publication of all election rules, decisions and other materials of the CEC
- Supervises the work of the Senior Municipal Election Officers;
- Coordinates the activities between the CEC Secretariat and the Senior Municipal Election Officials (SMEO’s), respectively the Municipal Election Commissions (MEC’s), regarding electoral operations at the municipal level;
- Assists and advises political entities for municipal elections;
- Conduct activities to prepare strategic and operational plans at municipal level;
- Drafts and implements the Security Operational Plan for Elections;
- Coordinates election activities for the SMEO’s/MEC’s in the field for staff and management bodies engaged during the elections between central and municipal level, in cooperation with other Secretariat units;
- Takes care for the implementation of activities, normative acts issued by the CEC in Municipal Election Commissions.
- Drafts and prepares audit plans;
- Performs audit duties in accordance with work plans, rules, guidelines and auditing standards;
- Provides support to the Chief Executive Officer and CEC in improving internal management and control;
- Prepares reports and reports to the Audit Committee;
- Manages the Internal Audit Unit, in accordance with the applicable law on internal audit;
- Performs internal audits in accordance with rules, policies, manuals, guidelines, and professional standards in force.
- Prepares, coordinates and implements the annual plan of the Secretariat in the field of public procurement, in accordance with the legislation in force;
- Ensures that all procurement requests are prepared in accordance with procurement rules and procedures;
- Prepares standard materials, depending on the procurement procedure;
- Signs public contract on behalf of the contracting authority;
- Defines the procurement procedure for the tender and the pricing procedures;
- Provides advice and assists management in making decisions regarding disputable issues that may arise in case of execution of contracts.
- Intakes and conducts initial control of sensitive election material;
- Conducts the data entry, audit of results forms and their investigation;
- Verifies conditional ballot envelopes and by mail ballots and counts them as well;
- Recounts based on CEC decisions;
- Undertakes activities for tabulating and publishing preliminary and final results;
- Manages operations and processes related to results, and prepares election results for the CEC;
- Plans the requirements and specifications for information systems for tabulation and presentation of results;
- Does analysis and research related to statistics and election results.