Local Government Law. The Election Situation Room against three mandates for locally elected officials

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Tirana, 15 December 2015

The Election Situation Room has asked the Assembly of Albania not to change the original draft law on local government, which restricted the time in office of locally elected officials to 2 mandates.

The latest decision to increase the number of mandates to 3 is considered a regress by the Election Room. According to the representatives of this Room, this decision is a move backward, because all the mayors, who had won a third mandate, were actually criminally prosecuted for abusing their power.

Gerti Shella (INFOCIP): The Albanian experience with the local government dictates today more than ever the need to restrict the mandates of locally elected officials to two. At the beginning of this year only, the mayors of the most important cities, who had already two mandates each, and ran for a third one, were criminally prosecuted for misuse of duty and corruption. Those prosecuted included also tens of commune mayors.

Aranita Brahaj (AIS and Za’Lart Albania 2015): The observation of election situations in the 2015 local government elections showed that where the existing mayors reran in these elections, there were higher expenses and more cases of misused of the public administration for purposes of electoral campaign. The Za’Lart platform received reports from citizens about problems with the transfer of voters’ names on the civil register. In municipalities, where existing mayors reran, there were also cases of pressure being exercised to intimidate voters through public services, violating thus the principles of fair competition among the candidates. Therefore, the law should not tolerate the use of power for such a long time.

Kristaq Kume: We are going to use such restrictive mechanisms such as the restriction of the right to be elected to no more than two mandates”

The changing of the original local government draft law is, according to the Election situation Room, against the recommendations made by the international bodies, as well as against the consultation process with the interest groups.

 

  • Title: Election Room against the draft law: Such draft law produced corruption – Top Channel Albania – News – Lajme

Shekulli Newspaper: Election Room – Mayors should be elected for two mandates only

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Ballkanweb: Election Room – Mayors should be elected for two mandates only

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MAPO Newspaper: Declaration of the Civil Society – Draft Law on Local Government makes negative deviation

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Phases of the Court process of AIS vs Political Parties for transparency on electoral financies

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In the framework of its efforts to promote electoral transparency, AIS has appealed at the Administrative Court of Appeal against the decision of the Court of Tirana to dismiss the organization’s request towards the main political parties PD, PS and LSI (two of them in power) to make available their information on campaign spending and donations. Considering this issue the first court case where an entity / organization submitted a claim against the three main political parties

The Constitution of Albania, which brings one of the best models of access to information on election finances with no restriction, discrimination, bureaucratic procedures and institutional intermediaries.

AIS will continue to advocate the judicial position that political parties are subjects to the Public Law, and obliged, based on the Constitution to provide information to the citizens, media and other civil actors. Also, transparency over campaign spending and donations is an essential aspect of free and fair election.

Chronological steps of the process

  1. Official request sent to the three main parties on 09.06.2015
  2. Request based on the Law on right of information and the Constitution
  3. The three parties didn’t replied to the official request of AIS
  4. AIS addressed the issue to the Commissioner for the Right of Information (Mr. Besnik Dervishi), but the claim was dismissed
  5. AIS sued the three political parties in the Administrative Court
  6. The court held three sessions, in which were present only the representatives of the Socialist Party and the Commissioner for the right of Information
  7. The last session held on November 10th the court decided to dismiss the AIS claim
  8. AIS appealed the decision in the Administrative Court of Appeal,
  9. In this process AIS is represented by the Law firm Gumi & Associates
  10. Appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal
  11. Request for acceleration of adjudication
  12. AIS addresses the Strasbourg Court. Albania does not guarantee trial within a reasonable time (Article 6 of the ECHR)
  13. Administrative Court of Appeal Decision dated 22.11. 2017 with no. 4916 (5236)
  14. AIS addresses the Court of Strasbourg in the absence of both a High Court and a Constitutional Court in the country, asking this court to review the merits of a case, which is now in a process of recourse.

Important Documents of the Court Process:

Request for Information PS                  

Request for Information PD

Request for Information LSI

Complaint for the Commissioner of the right to information

Law suit act                       

Court Call document

Decision of the Administrative Court

Appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal

Request for acceleration of adjudication

AIS Request to Strasbourg Court (PDF)

Decision Administrative Court of Appeal

Request: AIS addresses the Court of Strasbourg in the absence of both a High Court and a Constitutional Court in the country, asking this court to review the merits of a case, which is now in a process of recourse.

 

 

Invitation for participation: Hackathon Albania 2015 “Life in another city”

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Hackathon Albania is a yearly event organized to celebrate Open Data and promote their use, adoption, and development of new exciting apps. This year, the event takes place on December 19th 2015 with the topic “Life in another city”.

The event is open to individuals, analysts; engineers; (storytellers); scout programmers, designers or students able to develop an application based on Open Data.

How to prepare for the Hackathon (Hacker+Marathon) ?

Everyone can collect data about its city or town (not just digital) and create a map or an application. This edition triggers data analyses and applications of various themes affecting different aspects of life in Albanian cities regarding

  • Economy, employment, enterprises
  • Infrastructure including urban distances, buildings, forests ect.
  • Technological development and Internet access in various cities
  • Demography

All those who would like to participate in this event, may be registered for free in the following link : Hackathon Albania 2015  or join the event on the facebook page of the Albanian Institute of Science

Thank you in advance!

The impact of Open Data in the democratization of fiscal policy

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Within the framework of OpenBudgets.eu project, AIS participated at the workshop “Democratization of Fiscal Policy” organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation International and OKF Germany, on 30th November and 1st December, 2015. The workshop aimed at creating an open-source model that would integrate all Budget data and transactions expenditures for various public sectors to foster better understand what role open data plays.

AIS promoter of open budgeting through the implementation of Open Data Albania and Open Spending platforms, presented different models that made transparency over state budget expenditures and treasury transactions. Also, the use of linked data helped in the identification of conflict of interest, cases of corruption and nepotism in Albania.

Different civil society organizations such as: Fair-Play, Hasdana, k-monitor, UNDP, journalists and policymakers, worked together on the processes of partnership-building, the acquisition of the best open budget practices, as well as shaping concrete actions in the Democratization of fiscal policy.12309084_10153157338517051_1514968783_n12325358_10153157338577051_101162729_nUntitled

Declaration of assets of elected Mayors on 21st of June 2015

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In the framework of Money, Government and Politics program, updated data are released in Spending Data Albania portal, “Money and Power” column, about declared assets of newly elected Mayors of June 21st, 2015, as well as their relatives’ assets. The data are published in compliance with access to information, transparency and accountability principles. Through these publications every journalist or citizen can be informed of the annual income of each mayor such us income from rents, bargains, intellectual property, gifts, opening of inheritance acts etc.

  • In case of employment of the family members through declarations, we can provide information on labor relations in the public or private sector and in some cases investigative journalists can assess whether it is necessary to undertake an investigation on possible conflict of interest.
  • Statements also contain information on their income abroad such as credits in foreign banks and real estate outside the country.
  • The release of these data creates the possibility for citizens to monitor, if the Mayors will favor the development of specific properties and businesses.

As we would like to thank you for your attention, we want to remind you on the eventual use of the data contained in our publications without any restriction. But on the other hand we would like that you always cite Spending Data Albania portal, Money and Power column, developed in the framework of our organization program AIS titled  Money, Government and Politics.

Share PSI 2.0 Workshop in Berlin: Maximizing interoperability — core vocabularies, location-aware data and more

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Albanian Institute of Science (AIS)  is being represented by Besjana Hysa at the workshop Share-PSI 2.0 taking place in Berlin on 25- 26 of November. The workshop is explicitly interested in ideas, concepts and solutions that directly or indirectly address the interoperability of open data and PSI. In order to identify best practices the workshop with focus in the areas of Public Sector Information, cultural heritage, commercial and scientific data that are also relevant.12265796_10206461028298482_7907977692778259273_o12247998_10206461029618515_9218758947201088749_o12291737_10206461030058526_3307530724395671215_o

ODA publishes well-stuctured data for corporates that functions as media associations

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Shoqëri Biznesi (alb): Open Corporates Albania that functions as Media

Through the publication in one of its sections the Open Data Albania Portal makes possible the visualization of data on Media Associations.

 The data gives information on:

  • The Media Associations in Albania
  • Their legal form
  • Who are the shareholders and the associates
  • Their annual profit

These data are available to the section Open Corporate Albania by selecting at Corporate Category “Media Associations”.

 The illustration in the attached image 1 shows how to select the category

 Up to now there are 111 Audio-Visual Media subjects

Once you have clicked one subject demonstrated in an alphabetical order (first with a letter A) like AV N. By clicking you can see the general information of the company. Then you can click the visualization that display pictures on the companies profit  over years, the distribution of capital by the associates and shareholders of the company.

Clicking at the Treasury Transactions  are displayed all the values that AVN has benefited from budgetary institutions. In this case the company has received 3 transactions from 2 institutions.

Attached the illustration (figure 2) indicates where to click for further information on the company.

Like for the AVN you can find data about 111 media subjects.  The section provides information on companies suspended or closed.

You are pleased  to use such information without restriction, but always with the suggestion to quote the indicated portal where the data is available. At the same time at the Open Corporates Albania you can find data for different  sectors and companies.

shoqerimediatike-oda avn-oda

The Ambassador of Kingdom of the Netherlands in Albania visited AIS

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The Embassy of Kingdom of the Netherlands supports the Albanian Institute of Science in our ‘Money, Government & Politics’ project. This project intends to address issues of abuse, corruption and conflict of interest in the context of governance and politics in the country by sharing public data on expenditures of state institutions, electoral spending and the wealth of high state officials. On 8th of October Ambassador Dewi van de Weerd visited the offices of the Albanian Institute where she had a discussion with Mrs. Aranita Brahaj and her team on the ongoing projects in publishing data on the online platforms (http://open.data.al/en and http://spending.data.al/en) in a standardized format, which makes it easier for citizens, journalists and civil society to analyze and compare the large datasets that are made available by the Albanian government. The comparison and analysis of such data increases transparency and accompanied by public discussion these projects can lead to meaningful change. Her Excellency strongly appreciated our projects and stated that the Embassy will continue to support great initiatives undertaken by AIS.

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Declaration of assets of Senior Officials at Open Spending Albania

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 In the framework of Money, Government and Politics program, updated data are released in Spending Data Albania portal, “Money and power” column, about declared assets of Members and Ex-members of the Council of Ministers as well as their relatives’ assets. The data are published in compliance with access to information, transparency and accountability principles and after the model applied by the High Inspectorate for the Declaration of Assets.

  • Through these publications every journalist or citizen can be informed on the annual income of the prime minister, former prime minister and members or former members of the Cabinet.
  • A feedback on non-wage income such as income from rents, bargains, intellectual property, gifts, opening of inheritance acts etc. is also interesting.
  • Another interesting detail concerns their enrichment and expansion of assets via legalizations, privatization and transformation of agricultural land into land plots (with a growing value) at the time of their stay in office and through decisions made via bylaws.
  • In case of employment of the family members through declarations, we can provide information on labor relations in the public or private sector and in some cases investigative journalists can assess whether it is necessary to undertake an investigation on possible conflict of interest.
  • Especially interesting is the fact that how senior government leaders have chosen to invest in pension funds, privatization vouchers or stock markets.
  • Statements also contain information on their income abroad such as credits in foreign banks and real estate outside the country.
  • You can also find 2014 data for MPs, Members of the High Council of Justice HCJ and Supreme Court. This portal generally contains declarations of assets in various years for about 325 entities liable to declare their income and assets.

 As we would like to thank you for your attention, we want to remind you on the eventual use of the data contained in our publications without any restriction. But on the other hand we would like that you always cite Spending Data Albania portal, Money and Power column, developed in the framework of our organization project AIS titled Money, Government and Politics.

Annual income and change of assets 2014, members and former members of the Council of Ministers

http://www.spending.data.al/sq/moneypower/list/pos_id/6

http://www.spending.data.al/sq/moneypower/list/pos_id/22

http://www.spending.data.al/sq/moneypower/list/pos_id/4

http://www.spending.data.al/sq/moneypower/list/pos_id/5

http://ais.al/new/

Information on Declaration of the Senior Judges assets

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In the framework of Money, Government and Politics program, updated data are released in Spending Data Albania portal, “Money and power” column, about assets declared by Senior Judges and members of the High Council of Justice HCJ as well as their relatives’ assets. The data are published in compliance with principles of access to information, transparency and accountability. Personal data are protected by filters applied according to the model provided by the High Inspectorate for the Declaration of Assets.

  • Through these publications every journalist or citizen can be informed on the annual income of the Judges of the Supreme Court, Constitutional Court and Members of the High Council of Justice.
  • Income from double employment in the private sector (mainly nonpublic universities) or in the nonprofit sector (entities registered as foundations or organizations) is considered as an interesting detail. Journalists as well as citizens are invited to analyze whether such non-public entities or their heads, who are at the same time employers of senior judges are parties to proceedings scrutinized in these courts.
  • The model applied for open data journalism concerning the assessment of conflict of interest, is also applied for interest based relations with private companies, which have been mentioned in the statements of the judges due to contracts of sale, lease, enterprise or exchange of real estate with a judge or family persons under the declaration.
  • An interesting information is also that on non-wage income such as incomes from rents, bargains, intellectual property, gifts, opening of an inheritance act etc.
  • In case of employment of family members through declarations, you may get an information on labor relations in the justice system something that will enable you to assess if it is necessary to control conflicts of interest and professional impartiality.
  • The statements contain also information on loans and borrowings.
  • You can also find 2014 data for MPs, Members of the Council of Ministers or other constitutional and independent institutions. This portal generally contains declarations of assets in various years for about 325 entities liable to declare their income and assets.

You can find other open and transparent data on Treasury Transactions, Concessionaire Register, Tax Calculator (on salary) and the Budget.  As we would like to thank you for your attention, we want to remind you on the eventual use of the data contained in our publications without any restriction. But on the other hand we would like that you always cite Spending Data Albania portal, Money and Power column, developed in the framework of our organization project AIS titled Money, Government and Politics.