Lobbying to abrogate the law that reduces the benefits of maternity, has already started; Open Data Albania makes available the tables and the new calculations

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Soon after the detailed analysis public available at Open Data Albania on the reduction of the benefits as a result of legal amendments, members of the Group on Gender Issues in the Parlament of Albania notified on a possibility of abrogating this article, that obviously consists in legal aggravated effects. The women’s right of maternity derives from the protection of the scheme on social securities. This legal treatment has to be protect the right of the individuals to have a family with better possibilities to raise up the minors.

The reduction of the benefits from maternity, after the 1st of January 2015, is considered as a situation not in favor of the women that want to work and be parent simultaniously. This article that regulates the scheme of social securities, was amended in July 2014, without a prior consultation of the organizations that deal with legal aspects, not being present in the Parliament because of the boycott, along with other MPs, and representatives of opposition parties.

ICT Tools for Monitoring Public Treasury Albania

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In order to increase transparency over the Government data, AIS, the implementer of Open Data Albania Project, has enabled the Albanian public, journalists, scientific researchers, businessmen, and Government’s opponents and opposition, to get informed in real time about every expenditure made by the State Treasury both in the form of transactions and payments.

Such monitoring is done through the Spending Data Albania portal under the Treasury Transactions section. This system, which is open to the public, includes data from the state treasury for 1400 state-budget institutions like ministries, Government agencies, independent institutions, municipalities and communes, and central and regional directorates.

Every such transaction is now online for all those who wish to know how and how much is spent. The application contains data from January 2012 up to date.

People may search the data using the available filters for the following categories:

  • State-budget Institutions that make payments;
  • payment Beneficiaries or Clients;
  • the date on which a payment was ordered or executed;
  • the value of a transaction.

Data can also be searched through the Expenditure Category. Every transaction contains a description of the order or contracts that enables a payment. Payments made for public works awarded through a tender procedure are also part of the system.

The system also contains a special section on Monitoring Ministries only, as part of the Government Cabinet.

This space for transparency enables the public to lean about expenditures on public interest, cases of abuse and excessive expenditures for specific categories, and cases of nepotism and conflict of interest involving certain clients or beneficiaries.

We would like to thank NED and OSF for financially supporting the work for enabling the online Monitoring of the Treasury Transactions. We would also like to thank the Albanian Government, which since January 2012, in the context of its commitment for Partnership for an Open Government, enables access to payments made by the state institutions through the state treasury. Thus, our country, Albania, becomes part of the countries, where the public has access to the State Treasury Transactions.

We invite the public to widely use these data; the taxpayers may get information about how their money is spent; the media may report on cases of abuse and conflict of interest; and watchdog organizations may use the Treasury Transactions data to promote accountability and exercise public pressure for good governance.