Together for Life (OJF) dhe Instituti Shqiptar i Shkencave / Open Data Albania OJF i kanë drejtuar një kërkesë për Informim, mbi masa kapacitete import terapi intensive Covid 19, Ministrisë së Shëndetësisë.
Kërkesën e plotë për Informim e gjeni Këtu
Tender and Procurement in times of epidemics. The Albanian Government has not stopped its usual procurement procedures. The post-earthquake reconstruction program has just begun tendering in March. Open Procurement Albania publishes procurements, worth a total fund limit of 9.4 billion Albanian leks (without VAT) for houses and schools, which were damaged by the earthquake. The Government opts for “limited procedure”, avoiding open bidding competition. Based on Law No. 9643/2006 article No. 34, and Decision No. 914/2014 of the Council of Ministers, the time available for bidders to submit their tenders is 20 days, which is a criterion that the Authority has not met, putting the procedure at risk. The tender submission deadline is set in contradiction with the 20-days deadline. The procurement was announced on March 10th, the deadline for document submission was March 19th, i.e. nine calendar days only. The list The list of tenders is updated on our web-database for public procurement procedures conducted by the Albanian Development Fund.
There have been dozens of media articles published every month based on the data provided by the system for Transparent Procurement and Red Flag algorithm. The articles are generally of a reporting nature and quite discrete usually in the arguments they provide. The information available has helped especially fact based journalism. There have never been so many articles in the media on public tenders and contracts.
Potential Audience
Citizens; Media Representatives; Citizens Advisory Panels of Municipalities, Citizens Counsels, local and central government institutions interested in good models of opening up public information; Stakeholders and representatives of organizations involved in watchdog or advocacy processes; Parties interested in implementation of Open Contracting models.
The information has encouraged model of reporting, investigative, reactive, and very civilized journalism
Some of the titles of these articles in English are listed below:
https://exit.al/en/2018/11/16/e1-million-more-to-fusha/
https://exit.al/en/2018/03/28/fusha-wins-vlora-boulevard-tender-in-another-dubious-procedure/
https://exit.al/en/2019/02/19/municipality-of-tirana-gives-e360-thousand-in-a-suspicious-tender/
https://exit.al/2018/08/gjithe-shteti-per-fusha-shpk-mbi-e43-milione-kontrata-nga-pushteti-lokal/
http://shekulli.com.al/tirana-e-shkodra-kryebashkiaket-firmosin-tendere-pertej-mandatit/
https://shekulli.com.al/bashkia-tirane-tender-i-dyshimte-per-mirembajtjen-e-ndricimit/
https://shqiptarja.com/lajm/kryebashkiaku-i-kavajes-10-tendera-te-dyshimte-brenda-vitit
https://lapsi.al/2018/05/29/10-e-tenderave-te-bashkive-jepen-me-klientelizem/
https://exit.al/2019/05/luks-dhe-korrupsionin-ne-ndertesen-e-edi-rames/
https://a2news.com/2019/05/14/bashkite-62-miliarde-leke-me-shume-per-tendere-para-zgjedhjeve/
https://gazetamapo.al/para-zgjedhjeve-veliaj-1-miliarde-leke-me-shume-tendera/
https://portavendore.al/2019/05/20/bashkia-klos-tre-tendere-ish-kompanise-se-kryetarit/
https://portavendore.al/2018/12/07/bashkia-e-tiranes-103-tendere-te-dyshimte-per-6-muaj/
https://portavendore.al/2019/01/04/bashkite-harxhojne-58-milione-leke-per-festa-dhe-zbukurime/
https://sarandaweb.net/tenderi-me-flamur-te-kuq-ne-bashkine-finiq-2-leke-me-pak-se-fondi-limit/
https://faktoje.al/sheshi-skenderbej-dhe-beteja-miliarda-lekeshe-e-dekades-se-fundit/
https://balkanweb.com/landfilli-ne-sharre-vjel-parate-publike-e-private-ja-shifrat/
Empowerment of Youth through online training and employment opportunities in the Tech-Industry market. This is the impact of the project implemented by two organizations in Kosovo and Albania, the ODK and AIS. The project enabled school students from non-developed areas such Kurbini and Lezha to be trained and mentored at three levels via the platform Kursori.org. Thirty of the best students, trained and distinguished for their developers’ skills worked together during the BootCamp to program business ideas. In the end, the works were presented in front of Tech-Industry businesses representatives in Albania and Kosovo, who are looking for junior staff in their companies. BootCamp is on of the activities of our Open ICT Education project for Youth Employability, funded by the European Union in Albania as part of the IPA Cross Border Cooperation Albania-Kosovo. You may find the successful works conducted in the Bootcamp on our site and on the social networks of AIS and ODK.
The Open Corporates Albania website, which provides information of an economic nature, in the Albanian language, reaches a record number of clicks. Over 20 thousand unique users every month, i.e. 40% more than last year, Open Corporates Albania has resulted to be a favorable website for the information it provides for business companies contracted by public institutions. In January 2020, according to Google Analytics, the website reached a total of 32899 unique users and 1 million page views. Although 90% of the information is only available in the Albanian language, the website is also clicked in other countries as well. Thus, 78.4 % of the clicks come from Albania; 4.2% from neighboring Italy, third comes USA with 3.4% of the clicks, followed by Kosovo, Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Greece, Turkey, and France. Currently, the website is being maintained and updated with data by AIS team, a non-governmental organization promoting Open Data in Albania
1 in 3 tenders without fair competition, open data encourage investigative journalism to denounce corruption with taxpayers’ money On January 7th, the TopStory investigative show on Top Channel denounced forms of fraud through public procurement tenders. Shocking facts were brought to the program for one in every three tenders without fair competition. 300 million euros of taxpayers’ money results to be lost every year, abused and misappropriated through tenders with clientelist elements. AIS, an organization promoting Open Data in Albania, contributed to this courageous TV investigation through data released: Specifically: Data about tenders and contracts with problems regarding competition published on the Open Procurement Albania portal; information about clientelist companies published in the Open Corporates Albania portal, and data on the payments from the State Budget published on Spending Data Albania . For the last four years, AIS has been publishing data and assessing the risk of irregularities in tenders, known as RedFlag procurement, identifying information and gaps for every tender held by municipalities ; Albanian Development Fund ; Albanian Road Authority ; Health Sector; Central Purchasing Agency; Public-Owned Agency;
On January 7th, Top Story, an investigative show, reported on forms of fraud with public procurement tenders in the country. Journalist Entela Barjamaj and the national Top Channel TV team introduced shocking facts on Top Story, such as one in every three tenders being conducted without fair competition. 300 million Euros of taxpayers’ money seem to be lost every year due to abuse with, and misappropriation of, clientelist tenders.
AIS, the organization promoting open data in Albania contributed to this courageous television investigation through data released from three important open data databases. Namely:
In addition to open data released from our databases, including clear and denouncing arguments, contribution to this programme was also made by Director Aranita Brahaj, who elaborated on the shortcomings of tender procedures.
Corruption is one of the most problematic issues for the country. Justice institutions or anticorruption mechanisms in the country are weak to non-existent. Nevertheless, media and watchdog organisations continue to report facts and contribute against abuse with public money. For four years, AIS has been publishing data and assessing risk of tender irregularities, known as Procurement RedFlag, providing information and identifying issues with every tender conducted by municipalities, the Albanian Development Fund, the Albanian Road Authority, the health sector, and public-owned companies.
Top Story program and Promo are available on YouTube channel
The Albanian Government has signed eight contracts in 2019 for economic subjects that have obtained actual rights over state property against a symbolic price of 1 Euro. The Albania 1-Euro programme aims to grant potential employers (businesses) state property to use, with the purpose of increasing private investments and the number of employees. In 2019, six businesses and a non-profit organization have benefited from this programme. Only one of the contractors is a foreign investor. Properties granted for use in 2019, with a rental fee of only 1- Euro and for up to 60 years, are mainly industrial objects and military objects. In total, the Government has granted 537,503 square meters of total surface for 916 new jobs, without any contractual requirements that the employers in such contracts to be Albanian citizens. The investor, who has been granted the largest area, is the Albanian company Blu Imperial . More jobs in exchange for the Albania 1-Euro project are expected to be created by the Korean company Yura Co.Ltd, which will open a company for electric parts for cars. Its investment is estimated to be 6.5 million Euros and expected to create 516 jobs. Open Corporates Albania has prepared transparent passports for the business companies that have been granted rental contracts for only 1-Euro for state property.
Data and documents on the justice system after the Reform. Additional access to information on the new justice institutions and individuals being promoted to the system. The new Access to Justice Info database aims at enhancing the integrity of processes and institutions through a data mine (base) and information made available to the public and journalists. All laws, decisions, legal acts, strategies, reports, and conclusions of external monitoring conclusions are published according to the institutions of aksesdrejtesi.al. Similarly, the website contains also a profile for every prosecutor, judge, or member of the new justice institutions. The profile aims to provide easy to find documents on education, professional experience, qualifications, promotion, vetting, self-declarations, and any other documents linked to new individuals in the system. This site is a data mine, which enables also a summary of media articles on the reform.
Tenders and Contracts awarded by the Albanian Road Authority are now accessible by Open Contracting standards. Following tenders for municipalities, public-owned business companies, health, the Albanian Road Fund, and Central Purchasing Agency, the non-profit organization AIS is also ensuring transparency over tender stages and contracts awarded by this key contractor authority in the country. The Albanian Road Authority is the central planning institution for national road infrastructure contracts. The database and the algorithm for corruption risk show that 40 out of 100 tenders are marked by a redflag, indicating the potential for racial inequality. Open Contracting – The Albanian Road Authority is one of the activities of the “Improvement of the Integrity of Public Contractors” Project supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Ambassador of the Netherlands to Tirana, Mrs. Guusje Korthals Altes, was also present at the presentation of the database to a group of investigative journalists.
