Photo Credit: USAID/Albania   Kreshnik Spahiu, Director of the Citizens Advocacy Office, was instrumental in the passage of a law requiring public officials to declare their financial assets.

Parliament Passes Law Promoting Transparency in Public Sector

Putting a Stop to Corruption
Parliament Passes Law Promoting Transparency in Public Sector

November 2, 2003 | Tiranë, Albania

Senior officials lining their pockets from major public works projects, tax authorities accepting bribes in return for underreporting and tax evasion, and customs inspectors paid off for pervasive smuggling of illegal commodities are commonly found and accepted in the public finance sector in Albania. Although all public officials are required by the current law to declare their assets as a means to prevent corruption and loss of revenue from the state, few comply, and no allegedly corrupt officials have been penalized. No data is apparently being electronically stored and recorded and no software has been devised to regulate data entry and use. As one of the consequences, Albania has become a welcoming institutional environment for rampant fraud and corruption.

On April 10, 2003, the ACAC, Albanian Coalition Against Corruption, assisted by USAID through MSI, Management Systems International, succeeded in having the Law on the Declaration of Assets by Public Officials completely revised and approved by Parliament. For the first time in Albania’s democratic history a vote was approved unanimously concerning corruption. “Seldom do the ruling party and the opposition agree on anything in Albania,” says Eric Richardson, USAID/Albania Democracy and Governance Officer. “This is an important step forward for USAID’s anti-corruption efforts.”

It took over one and a half years to convince the government that drafting a new law was a necessary element to the reduction of corruption in public finance. Parliamentary members were resistant to this change. Statements defending their ground such as, “We do not need an expensive body to monitor us, we can do it ourselves,” and “We cannot make public our assets because we risk having our children kidnapped and even being murdered ourselves,” were common.

ACAC played a major role in getting the declaration signed. They began by completing a systematic analysis of the factors feeding corruption. In this study they noted determining issues, with the lack of transparency of financial disclosures by public officials clearly standing out.  They started immediately developing a public awareness campaign; mounting pressure on the parliamentarian officials with increased active involvement of the media and face to face debates at public forums. They lobbied strongly the parliament to make changes to the current law and even sent out three consecutive letters to the 140 members making it clear that they were serious. “Organizations within ACAC felt strengthened to fight corruption with USAID behind them,” commented two active coalition members.

In the months to come, the ACAC has a hard job laid out for it. The difficult task will be to go from passage to actual implementation of the law. Fighting corruption requires full commitment and political will, with the government being proactive in ensuring increased institutional capacity and prosecution of corruption. The law calls for all declarations to be made public, a reduction of the number of senior officials and their family members  required to declare assets from 11,000 people to 3,500 (to only those that have access to public funds), and to create an independent body, called the High Inspectorate, responsible for the enforcement of the law.

ACAC made up of 160 individuals in a variety of organizations is the only coalition to be created in Albania, and the first ever to lobby against corruption. Bardhi Kadilli, the Deputy Chief of Party at MSI, remembers his experiences, “Two years ago no one was thinking the coalition would survive. Everyone was laughing at us.”  Now, ACAC is proud to say that the value of the coalition is finally recognized and will be a strong force to contend with in its fight against corruption. We will see one year from now a transparent and accountable system that successfully reduces the level of corruption in Albanian public finance, where few senior officials will feel free to rob the invaluable resources of the country.