NEW! MCC Newsletter: May-June 2008 [PDF, 3.14MB]
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold Agreement Programs assist countries that are on the “threshold” of meeting eligibility for Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Compacts and are committed to undertaking policy reforms to improve their performance on these criteria. MCC measures performance in three areas — Ruling Justly, Investing in People, and Encouraging Economic Freedom — using 16 policy indicators that have a demonstrated link to effecting poverty reduction and economic growth. Threshold Agreement assistance is used to help such countries address specific policy weaknesses indicated by the countries’ scores on these policy indicators. For more information, please visit: http://www.mcc.gov/.
The two-year $13.85 million Millennium Challenge Albania Threshold Agreement between the Government of Albania (GoA) and MCC, administered by USAID assists the GoA to reform and modernize tax administration, public procurement, and business registration processes, through IT solutions and legislative enhancements.
For more information about the project, please visit the project's website at http://www.mcata.org.al/
Project Components:
Reduce Corruption in Tax Policy and Administration
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Limit tax officials’ personal interaction with taxpayers and their discretion in tax assessment and collection;
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Broaden the tax base by including a larger percentage of the economy;
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Improve tax collection by upgrading information technology applications;
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Upgrade technical expertise and improve procedures by providing training and manuals to tax collectors, internal auditors and the judiciary; and
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Create a better and more efficient legal environment for taxation.
Attain Transparency and Reduce Corruption in Government Procurements
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Improve transparency and facilitate public scrutiny of procurement procedures;
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Enhance institutional mechanisms to detect, deter, and punish corrupt practices;
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Bring the existing public procurement system into fuller compliance with the 1995 public procurement law;
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Strengthen technical capacities at the Public Procurement Agency to enable it to exercise oversight over other government procurement entities; and
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Provide continuous, professional and sustainable training for procurement officers at all procuring entities to elevate skill levels and strengthen commitment to the enhanced procurement process.
Combat Corruption in Business Entry and Registration; Establish a National Registration Center (NRC)
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Create a unified registration form and simplified registration procedures;
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Establish e single office (the NRC) where businesses can file electronically all documents needed to set up a new enterprise or renew the registration of an existing one;
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Revise administration rules so that approval is automatically granted if a relevant agency does not respond within a given time.
Targets:
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Increase the total tax collected by the Large Taxpayers Office to 50 percent from the current 30.4 percent;
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Reduce from 42 to 13 the percentage of firms stating that bribery in tax collection is frequent;
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Reduce by 20 percent the cost of governmental procurements (adjusted by volume, currency and inflation);
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Reduce the value of the gift expected to be paid to obtain a government contract from 6.15 percent to 2 percent;
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Increase from 625 to 1000 the number of new businesses registered monthly;
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Reduce the total registration cost as percentage of income per capita from 31 percent to 13 percent;
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Reduce the percentage of businesses that consider corruption a big obstacle to operation and growth from 69 percent to 30 percent;
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Reduce the percentage of businesses that paid a bribe to register from 19 percent to 5 percent;
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Reduce from 47 to 1 the number of days it takes to register a business.
Project Newsletters:
Documents:
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