CEPI project with Transparency International, Workshop with journalists and activists, Monitoring of public sector databases and use of evidence based practices to accountability

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The organization AIS, otherwise known as Open Data Albania, organized a workshop with journalists and activists on the topic of Monitoring Public Sectors, Databases and guaranteeing Accountability through Evidence based practices.

This event was held as part of the EU 4 Rule of Law Project: Civic Engagement for Public Integrity in the Western Balkans and Turkey, a project led by Transparency International, in collaboration with local partners and organizations. The Project is Funded by the European Union.

See the agenda HERE

Albanian journalists and activists worked in the workshop to increase their knowledge on issues related to anti-corruption, evidence based practices as a basis for accountability and the use of databases and other tools for monitoring the public sector. An important moment of the workshop is also the work to create a Registry of High Level Corruption Cases, as seen by Journalists. Below you can find photos and videos from the Workshop  





 

 

Presentation Open Corporates Albania

Presentation Money and Power Asset Declaration

Presentation Open Procurement Albania

Presentation Open Spending Data

Activism and Civil Society for Drafting, Consultation and Implementation of the State Budget in Parliament

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The organization AIS/Open Data Albania organized, on October 23rd, in the city of Lezhe, a training with activists, journalists and representatives of non-governmental organizations. The subject of the training “Activism and Civil Society for Drafting, Consultation and Implementation of the State Budget in Parliament”.

The event was held within the framework of the Project “Increasing the Parliament’s Responsiveness to Citizens’ Concerns”, supported by the British Embassy in Tirana and implemented by a consortium led by IDM in partnership with AIS and Citizens Channel.

The objective of the Training was to raise the capacities of CSOs, activists and the media to contribute to the State Budget Planning, as well as Policies of Distribution and Expenditure of Public Money.

This training cycle will also be held in the municipalities of Lezhë, Diber, Shkodër, Kamëz, Tiranë and Malësi e Madhe, targeting representatives from Civil Society; Activists and Local Journalists.

 

 

The training aims to strengthen comprehension and monitoring skills in regards to the Drafting, Approval and Reporting Process of the State Budget in the Parliament, as well as raise responsiveness and participation capabilities during the phases of Planning and Approval of the State Budget and policies concerning Public Finances. Another aims of the training is to inform about the existing legal instruments who allow for participation, proposals or hearings in the Parliamentary Committees.

See the agenda in Albanian HERE

See the agenda in English HERE

Activists from the Lezha district, apart from gaining insight from the lectures and the training curriculum, worked on practical cases, to help them gain a better response faculty regarding the budgeting and distribution of Public Money. The area of Education and its budgeting  was one of the moments that aroused the most interest among the participants, emphasizing that the region faces two types of difficulties. The urban area faces limited capacities in public schools, overcrowded classes, lessons in shifts and a limited number of teachers. Meanwhile, in rural areas, schools operate with a very limited number of students, endangering the very existence of classes and schools and adversely affecting the education and life of the respective residents.

 

 

The event also highlighted the need for more support and more dignity for parents of children with specific needs and better management of social protection.

This project aims to strengthen the Parliament’s efforts to foster an enabling environment for the inherent engagement of citizens in policy making and legislative processes in the country, as a means of promoting public interest and building trust in the institution.

 

 

Public Procurement in Albania – Matters of Practice and Legislation

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Presentation by: Aranita BRAHAJ, Executive Project Coordinator

Viktor GUMI, AIS’s Legal Expert

October 19th, 2023, h.13.00.

AIS’s commitment towards Transparency, as well as Improving Accountability and Dialogue within the Cluster 1 negotiation framework.

AIS is a local organization founded in 2011, best known as the promoter of Open Data Albania, working on Transparency, Accountability and Good Governance.

SIDA Support and Partnership. For the March 2021 – February 2024 period AIS is implementing the “Open Data Access and Transparency over Sectors exposed to Risk of Corruption” project. Supported by the Swedish International and Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA.

Focus: Open Data, Evidence Based Approach and Anti-Corruption.

AIS has contributed to fostering dialogue for better public policies through Research Articles; Publications, Litigation and drafting of Policy and Position Papers.

AIS is working with young people through its OpenDataFellowship Youth Network on educating, capacity building, as well as internshiping the fellows on articulation and public debate based in facts and data.

AIS is part of a Consortium of 4 Local NGO-s, aiming to Improve Policy Debate and Accountability in the Fulfillment of the First Group of Negotiating Chapters Cluster One, C1-EU-NPA.

AIS and IDM are local partners with Transparency International in the implementation of the Project “EU4Rule of Law: Citizens Engagement for Public Integrity (CEPI) in the Western Balkans and Turkey”.

Download document here.

AIS has built digital databases, based on the Open Data Standards, which have enabled the empowerment of public actors, through easy access to information and facilitation on the monitoring of the public sector (expenditures, procurements, contracting, asset declaration).

Open Procurement Albania.

For each tender we create a Passport containing information on the tendering procedure, by the first notification till at the Budget payment. The passport lists all the Tender Documents (the institutions stop publishing/advertising the relevant tender documents after the finalisation of the tendering).

The information, distributed by institutions is closed formats pdf, not consistent in time and not integrated or comprehensible to third parties.

The AIS team collects and gather all documents, data and information regarding a Tender and creates the integrated tender PASSPORT according to the Open Contracting Standard.

 

In the end, an algorithm for risk assessment makes it possible to mark with a Red Flag tenders displayingrisk of potential irregularities. The algorithm assesses only the variables of Competition and Competitiveness. Models: Instruments and Principles of Open Contracting Partnership; Risk Assessment Tools from Transparency International.

What have we found

Disclosed Data and RedFlag Assessment prompt media investigations; public debates; audits of the Supreme State Control, in some cases even Criminal Complaints in SPAK are based on Open Procurement Albania evidence.

15 to 35% of Tender procedures are RedFlaged, marked for displaying concerning competition and potential clientelism. Municipality tenders score 15% Redfleg procedures, while the Health Sector 30%.

Concentration of Tenders in the hands of Select few Competitors. Absence of foreign companies: 42% of the value tendered in the frame of the State Reconstruction Program was awarded to only 15 local companies.

Businesses Companies allegedly involved in money laundering of organized crime, were given the status of Public Contractor in tenders. (SPAK has started several investigations, complaints have been filed by MPs and the Opposition and evidence can be accessed via the OpenProcurementAlbania Database).

Special laws for certain programs and natural disaster situations have created room for Clientelism.

In 2021, around 28% of the tendered value was tendered through the Restricted Procedure, as established through the Special Law.

Debate and Accountability on Fulfillment of the First Group of Negotiating Chapters Criteria, chapter on Public Procurement

  • Policy Paper, February 2022

Public Procurement Albania through the lens of European Integration. Author V. Gumi

Debate and Accountability on the Fulfillment of First Group of Negotiating Chapters Public Procurement Chapter Criteria

  • Policy Paper, February 2023

Integrity Control of Public Contractors. EU Practice and Contracting in the Albanian Context – The document was drafted by AIS, in collaboration with renown expert Eduard Halimi.

Comments/Recommendations in the framework of the Public Consultation Process regarding the Draft Law presenting Amendments to Law 162/2020.

The organization AIS, promoter of Open Data Albania, engaged in monitoring and identifying issues related to the Public Procurement, comments and recommendations regarding the draft law “On several additions and amendments to law no. 162, dated 23.12.2020 on Public Procurement”, that is currently in the Public Consultation Process and was presented by the Albanian Government in June-July 2023.

The Need to improve the Public Procurement

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As part of CI-EU-NPA “Improving the Debate on Policies and Accountability to fulfill basic rights through the creation of the Platform for Negotiations of Cluster I Albania”, AIS held a roundtable on the Needs for Change in Public Procurement Legislation. Member s of the Parliament, Mrs. Jorida Tabaku and Mr. Eduard Shalsi and representatives from the Public Procurement Agency, Mrs. Xhoana Ristani was part of this roundtable. This document comes within the framework of the Consultation process that the Albanian Government has announced for its Legal Initiative with Amendments to this Law. AIS has annylized this draft law taking into consieration EU Accession process where Public Procurement is cpart of Cluster 1. The three important aspects proposed by the Council of Ministers in the Draft are as follows:

See the agenda HERE

See the document HERE

a) Bringing the procurement process out of the public domain, that is, the inclusion of private-non-public entities that will play the role of Contracting Authorities in the public procurement process;

b) The establishment of another SPE Electronic Procurement System which in the draft is presented to us with the first two innovations SPE harmonized and integrated with other electronic systems and the second SPE which is accessed by paid users.

c) Defining Artificial Intelligence as a mechanism that will serve for the development of the SPE for the standardization of technical specifications, as well as the development of the dynamic purchase and electronic auction system using advanced Artificial Intelligence technology and robotic processes, etc.

 

AIS / Open Data Albania presented its position and analysis regarding these three aspects of the Legal Initiative of the Council of Ministers.

This event takes place in the framework of C1-EU-NPA “Improving the Debate on Policies and Accountability to fulfill basic rights through the creation of the Platform for Negotiations of Cluster I Albania”, a project implemented by four Albanian organizations: CSDG, ISP, AHC and AIS, with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Albania in Tirana.