AIS on the Media: The News Edition on a National TV, Top Channel reported on a Complaint made by AIS against Albania in the European Court of Human Rights.

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The News Edition on a National TV, Top Channel, reported on 3 January 2019 on a Complaint made by a Non-Governmental Organization against Albania in the European Court of Human Rights. The Constitutional Court and the High Court in Albania are affected by the Vetting and are therefore not functioning. As a result, dozens of cases are left pending. The Organizations AIS has a legal recourse pending with the High Court. On such basis, the organization addressed the European Court of Human Rights claiming that Albania is violating article 6 of the Convention and human rights to trial in a reasonable time. The European Court is asked to adjudicate the merits of the case as long as it is not yet known when the High Court in Albania will resume its work

To see the TV chronic click here and for the English translation of the Interview click here.

ASAI’s new web applications for better monitoring and increased transparency

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The Albanian Supreme Audit Institution organized for the second year in a row, in the period between October 25 – December 14, the “Open Month 2018”. During two open days, ASAI invited the Albanian Institute of Science to present the developed tools, within the framework of “Transparency in Health Engagement” USAID Albania Project.

On November 15th and 21st, in the premises of ASAI, AIS presented the four tools developed for this institution, respectively Red Flags and Open Data the first day and Data Mining and Complaint Mechanism the second day. These tools have been developed aiming to increase the transparency of the Albanian Supreme Audit and to facilitate procedures for identifying issues and publishing the results from audit reports.

These web applications aim to empower and increase the transparency of this independent institution, by giving the latter the opportunity to monitor procurement procedures conducted by public institutions; to receive real time signalling of tenders and contracts with potential exposure or risk for unlawful or unethical business conduct, mainly as regards non-compliance with anti-corruption laws; to communicate more easily and efficiently with the citizens; to publish reports in open data format (easier to read, understand, download and re-use); to create a database with media articles prepared by ASAI employees and articles with topics of interest to ASAI.

On the public’s question regarding the sustainability of these tools, the Director of the Directorate of Communication, Publishing and Foreign Relations, Ms. Islami answered that all the indications that will be received through these instruments will be included in the SAI’s audit plan and the use of mechanisms has become part of the SAI’s internal regulation, starting with the Red Flags mechanism.

Exclusive Program sheds light on MPs declared assets

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Vetting and audit of assets, wealth, and economic interests of the representatives of lawmaking politicians. This has been an issue that was discussed and translated into a draft law for the Parliament of Albania. AIS, a promoter of Open Data Albania, and the Institute of Political Studies, have made their own analysis of the representation of people of economic power in the Parliament, conflicts of interests of businessman MPs, and connection between money and politics. “Exclusive”, a TV program on the national Top Channel TV, has investigated the size of this phenomenon and the need for vetting the wealth of the MPs. The title of this investigative is “The Millionaires’ Poverty”. On the 21st of December, the Parliament voted against the draft law proposed by the Democratic Party on Vetting of the Figure of MPs.

Database of Concessionary Companies – Information on their Contracts and Performance

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A concessionary register by the civil society versus the Government register. It is 222 business companies involved in concessionary agreements or PPPs with the Albanian Government, which anyone may monitor on our database OpenCorporates.al, under the ‘Concessionary Companies’ category . It contains information for each company regarding their structure, ownership, history of ownership transfer, annual performance in terms of turnover and profit, concessionary fees, address and licenses for the activities they carry out, etc. This range of data for each passport is published in JSON and CSV as open data formats. The information passports are accompanied by links to documents like contracts, amendments to contracts, special laws, procurement acts, and other documents relevant to concessions. The Albanian Government is involved in a high number of public-private partnerships in the recent years in sectors like energy, health care, education infrastructure, road infrastructure, telecommunication, services, etc.

Raportet Gjinore në drejtimin e Shoqërive Publike

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Open Data Albania prezantoi sot në eventin Leviz Albania për Barazinë Gjinore, Raportet Gjinore në drejtimin e shoqërive publike duke veçuar ato që zotërohen nga Bashkitë. Shoqëri Tregtare, aksione apo kuota të të cilave zotërohen nga një institucion publik dhe buxhetor njihen si shoqëri me zotërim publik, në kontekstin e këtij artikulli shoqëri publike. Në Republikën e Shqipërisë janë të regjistruara në QKB (Qendra Kombëtare e Biznesit) dyqind e njëzetë shoqëri publike, nga të cilat njëqind e trembëdhjetë zotërohen nga Bashkitë. Nga këto 113 shoqëri aksionare vetëm gjashtë kanë një administrator të gjinisë femërore. Pra, raporti gjinor i administratorëve të shoqërive publike që zotërohen nga bashki është 5.3% administrator femra dhe 94.7% administrator meshkuj. Nga përditësimi i ndryshimeve kryer nga këto shoqëri pranë QKB në periudhën 2016-2017 rezulton se kanë ndryshuar administrator 21 shoqëri. Nga këto vetëm një shoqëri ka emëruar një administrator të gjinisë femërore.

Lezha Citizens’ Initiative published the corrupt contract.

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Lezha Citizens’ Initiative published the corrupt contract. Money spent for missing services. Citizens have no water. The database of Open Procurement Albania includes information about a fictitious tender, including unequal treatment of participants and manipulation. Where does citizens’ money go? Why expensive contracts do not guarantee even basic services? What happened with the water supply plant of Troshan in Lezha? Lezha Citizen’s Movement advocates for solving the problem. Open Procurement and Spending Data Albaniapublish the history of corrupt contracts, where money is spent in a fictitious way.

Such citizens’ reaction and protest was covered by both local and national TV stations.
Ora News  
 Report Tv

THE INFAMOUS TENDER

The tender for the water supply of Troshan village was not very timing in the first place, as it took place exactly before the implementation of the Administrative Territorial Reform, i.e. when Mayors of Communes handed over their ‘keys’ to the Mayors of the emerging municipalities. It was exactly on 20.03.2015 when then-Commune of Blinisht announced a call for tenders (open tender procedure) on its website for the construction of the water supply system of Troshan village. The fund limit for the project was 83.146.690 lekë (VAT excluded) or 99.776.000 lekë (VAT included). About one month from the date the call was announced, the Commune of Blinisht opened the offers, and disqualified seven out of eight companies that participated in the process, accepting only the only and highest offer by “Alb Tiebfau” shpk.

Here is the offer made by each participating company:

1. “Kevin Construksion” sh.p.k. 52.612.453 lekë, disqualified
2. “Geci” sh.p.k. 63.496.191 lekë, disqualified
3. “Ndregjoni” sh.p.k. 65.398.597 lekë, disqualified
4. “Gjoka Konstruksion” sh.p.k. 69.920.900 lekë, disqualified
5. Joint offer by these economic operators “B – 93” sh.p.k. & “Be – Is”sh.p.k. 72.533.982 lekë, disqualified
6. “Alko Impex General Construction” sh.p.k. 75.638.592 lekë, disqualified
7. “Alb Tiefbau” sh.p.k. 82.946.690 lekë, qualified
8. “Gjergji” sh.p.k. 83.057.628 lekë, disqualified

Several complaints were made against this allegedly corrupt procedure, but they were all disregarded. One of the companies, the most ‘combative’ one, “Be – Is”sh.p.k, was actually disqualified for having a bank account balance of 18.522 lekë less than required, a criterion introduced by the Contracting Authority, the Commune in this case, for participants to have no less than 4.165.649 leke in their bank account. This falls contrary to the law, and the company complained to the public procurement commission, but its arguments were ignored. following the rejection of all complaints made, the contracted company started to build the plant, which, according to official records, finished in 2016. The municipality reports in its actual expenditures that the contracted project was more or less implemented for what was panned, i.e. a budget of 42.5 million lekë”. On the other hand, the Municipality emphasizes in its declaration that the supervision and final inspection of the plant, which was estimated to take 0.4 million lekë for that period, was not actually done, i.e. no money was spent on supervising and inspecting the implementation of the project. However, even though the Municipality spent no money on supervision of works and inspection of the final plant in 2016, it did contract two companies for exactly these services, one on 12 October 2015, with PALMA CONSTRUCION SHPK for 245 thousand lekë for the supervision of works for the construction of the plant (no payment seems to have been made, though, to the company so far), and another one for the final inspection of the completed plant on 2 December 2016 for 1950 lekë.

MONEY PAID IN YEARS

So far, the Municipality of Lezha does not seem to have made any payments for the supervision and inspection of works, but it has now taken over the plant, for which the state budget paid almost 70% of the total amount of money allocated to this project. According to the official documents, about 3.5 million lekë were paid during 2015-2016 to “Alb Tiefbau”, while 2.9 million in the first quarter of 2017, and there is a remaining 2.5 million leke to be paid.

WATER SUPPLY PLANT – OUT OF ORDER

If you look at the official documents, everything seems to be in order, and no one would know anything if it was not for the local people, who raised their voice about the plant being out of order. they first protested in January, and asked for an explanation for the lack of water. They even met the Mayor of Lezha then, Mr. Fran Frrokaj, who promised that he would solve the problem.

They waited for 6 months, but nothing changed. Today, tens of families from the village of Troshan protested in front of the municipality. “Even one year after 100 million leke paid for the construction of a water supply plan we do not have any water”, they say, because the construction does not comply with any technical parameters. They expect the state authorities to give a verification and solution. “The water depot they built could be anything but a depot. It could be for animals, but not for humans. More than 70 cm of its height is sludge”, said an inhabitant of Troshan. Another inhabitant said that the plant is built three times, and there is still no water.

DISCREAPANCIES BETWEEN OFFICIAL RECORDS AND REALITY

So, it turns out that the plant is built according to the official documents, but the inhabitants do not have any water. The responsibility falls on the Municipality, which took over the plant. This is even confirmed by a statement made by Municipality representatives.
“The municipality is not going to take over the new water supply plant of the Administrative Unit of Blinisht without first making sure that it does supply water to all the intended families”, said the Mayor of Lezha, Mr. Fran Frrokaj at a meeting with some representatives of the village on 31 January 2017. According to Frrokajt, the Municipality would establish a working group to verify the implementation of the project.

The Deputy Mayor, Mr. Enver Hafizi, confirmed today, on the other hand, that the Municipality had taken over the plant even though the implementation did not comply with the plan. “There might be problems with the project implementation, but as far as I know, the plant is taken over by the municipality against a one-year guarantee, a time within which we may intervene”, stated Hafizi. Next, he tries to blame illegal water connections. “One of the main reasons for the lack of water is the illegal water connections’, said the Deputy Mayor, promising that the municipality would intervene, sth that the Municipality must already have done by January this year.

NO WATER, AND WATER BILLS ARE STILL PAID

Nevertheless, this is not the end of this tragicomedy. Regardless of the municipality excuses, people say that they have never had drinking water, and that claims about illegal water connections are not acceptable as long as it was the municipality itself which inspected the construction before taking it over. What is even more tragic for them is that they are still charged for the water that they do not actually get.

Fact-Based Journalism – MGP, an influential project

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Our Money, Government and Politics Program, supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Albania, in the framework of the MATRA for Rule of Law Program, has significantly contributed to fact-based journalism over the last two years. Upon completion of the first phase of the program, one may see dozens of topics and articles on the front pages of newspapers, and headlines of TV programs. AIS has disclosed, well-structured, and analyzed data about the budget spending, economic and social trends, as well as data about the annual declaration of the high officials and judges, taxes, and public finances. Such range of information, which is easy to understand and use, has triggered the publication of hundreds of fact-based articles on the media.

Follow the Money – Financing of Electoral Subjects and Electoral Corruption Workshop on ScanTV

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In order to strengthen the role of the media in issues of transparency, accountability, and anti-corruption, AIS organized Follow the Money – Financing of Electoral Subjects and Electoral Corruption  Workshop Decriminalization, standard and audit rules of electoral finance, misuse of public sector were topics addressed by expert participants in the workshop :

Mr. Afrim KRASNIQI,  Executive Director AIPS
Mrs. Eleonora OLLI, Vice-Chairman IEKA
Mrs. Manjola NAÇO, Audit Director, ALSAI

and discussed with journalists.

Mrs. Dewi van de Weerd, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands attended the event and highlighted the important role of media on  regular processes and shrinking electoral corruption cases.

Below chronicle prepared by ScanTV for this workshop.


Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tirana invited in “Tonight Ilva Tare” program speaks on the EU presidency and the country’s integration process

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Invited on the “Tonight Ilva Tare” TV program, Mrs. Dewi van de Weerd, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Albania, whose country holds the EU Presidency during these six months, said that non approval of the justice system reform means great sufferings for Albanian people and obstacles standing in the way of the country’s integration process.

However, dedicated people are working hard for this reform and according to the Ambassador finding a consensus to adopt this reform will be a turning point for the Albanian politics.

As regards the fight against corruption and organized crime, the Ambassador said that she was surprised by the fact that the chief prosecutor reorganized anti-corruption structure, given that it is one of the priorities for Albania.

Albanian asylum seekers in the Netherlands have 0% chance to obtain asylum and according to the Ambassador all the Albanians should try to build the future in their own country.

She further underlined, that as holder of the rotating EU presidency, the Netherlands will play the role of impartial mediator with Albania and that Albania should focus more on the work than on words.

In Tonight Ilva Tare television program in Ora News, there were also presented several programs supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including the AIS organization’s program titled Money, Government and Politics. This program aims at creating tools for civil transparency and control over government with the aim to empower citizen’s participation and reaction.