A popular poster around Tirana, which urges Albanians not to trade their rights for money. Its 24-hour hotline can be used to report instances of corruption.

Public Officials Scrutinized in Albania

Officials Face Fines, Dismissal
Public Officials Scrutinized in Albania

June 15, 2005 | Tiranë, Albania

Last year Albania sacked a high-level official from the Transportation Department after an audit of his assets revealed he owned the country’s largest asphalt company. And in the months leading up to the July 3 parliamentary elections, journalists discussed the assets of public officials on the ballot.

“There are some blatant conflicts of interest here … This was a very closed society, so the concepts of transparency and accountability are just not accepted or understood,” said Andrew Pentland, senior anticorruption specialist advising Albania’s newly formed High Inspectorate on the Declaration and Audit of Assets (HIDAA).

HIDAA, which was created on legislation recommended by a USAID-backed NGO coalition, is the first of its kind. It audits all public officials on two-year intervals. Its mandate was recently enlarged to include the implementation of a new conflict of interest law, also drafted with U.S. assistance. 

USAID has provided computers scanners and other equipment. It has helped design declaration forms and put in place a state-of-the art information management system that includes an official website. It is also training inspectors, and providing on-site technical assistance to HIDAA through experts like Pentland, who works out of an office in the High Inspectorate’s sleek new headquarters.

Fatmira Laskaj, a former judge who now heads HIDAA, has handed over cases of conflict of interest or suspicious assets to the Prosecutor General Office. As a result, some officials have been dismissed, and others prosecuted. In May, two months after the official deadline for asset declaration submissions, Laskaj issued fines to 84 public officials who were late with their submissions.

“It is difficult to change the attitude of officials to declare their assets,” Laskaj said in an interview with FrontLines.

But attitudes are changing, said Pentland. “You often feel like you’re getting nowhere, but then someone comes a month later and says ‘That was a great idea’ and does what we suggested,” he said.

Another sign of change is that journalists have been asking for the records of public officials leading up to parliamentary elections, Pentland said.

Albania loses about $1.2 billion per year because of graft and unpaid taxes, according to a recent World Bank study. Obtaining a business license or other documentation can be a lengthy and costly process. The regulatory system is not transparent, and often businesses have difficulty obtaining copies of laws and regulations. Rules are also often inconsistent, leading to unreliable interpretations.

USAID provides training, technical assistance, and small grants to anticorruption NGOs such as the Albanian Coalition Against Corruption and the Citizens Advocacy Office. It also supports judges and chancellors’ associations with binding codes of ethics, and tries to strengthen the enforcement of judicial judgments.

Written for Frontlines by Kristina Stefanova