TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
AIS Newsletter July 2018
AIS increases transparency over municipalities on the eve of local government elections, monitoring 4 years of performanceTenders and Contracts - Learn about projects and public works for each municipalityHow are taxpayers' money being spent? Payments by municipalities through Treasury Transactions
AIS increases transparency over municipalities on the eve of local government elections, monitoring 4 years of performance
AIS is a promoter of transparency and open data. Databases created and maintained by AIS enable monitoring of public expenditures, public procurement, management of the public assets and distribution of budgets by local government units. July 2018 marks exactly three years from the emersion of the new municipalities resulted from the latest administrative-territorial division. the latest administrative-territorial division. This year could be well considered the electoral year, carrying the 2019 local elections. AIS invites citizens, activists, and journalists to monitor the work and integrity of municipality leaders by using also transparent databases available in the open format opendata, which are easy to find, use, and reuse.
Tenders and Contracts - Learn about projects and public works for each municipality
From July 2015, since the creation of the 61 municipalities emerging from the latest territorial and administrative division, until July 2018, municipalities have signed more than 18 thousand contracts buying goods, services, public works, and organizing auctions or Public Private Partnerships (concesionary contracts). A passport is created in the Open Procurement Albania database for each tender accessible to the public in the OpenContracting format. In addition, the database provides well-structured information enabling search for procurement by the procuring authority, winning competitor, type of contract, date of tender announcement, etc. The system includes also an algorithm, where each contract is automatically scanned on the basis of some criteria, and marked by RedFlag when applicable. The redflag algorithm has led to 10% of the total number of municipalities' tenders marked by red flags, identifying thus the risk of lack of competition, inequality, favoritism, and economic abuse. The database is used in dozens of investigative articles in the Albanian media.
How are taxpayers' money being spent? Payments by municipalities through Treasury Transactions
Where does taxpayers' money go? For each municipality or state budget institution in the country, the well-structured database for Treasury Payments enables full transparency for every payment made to clients by the State Treasury. The system contains authentic data obtained from the Ministry of Finances, structuring them in a way that enables search by date of payment, category of expenses, beneficiary, invoice number and description, category, and value. For every municipality, taxpayers and citizens may monitor payments made by the state budget, searching by the paying authority, name of municipality, or budget institution. The data cover a period starting from 2012.
TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
AIS Newsletter March 2017 Municipality of Divjaka cooperates with AIS on its transparency program for 2017 Hackathon Albania 2017, the marathon of intelligence and creativity in TiranaMoney and Power, what are the economic interests of District Chief Prosecutors 
Municipality of Divjaka cooperates with AIS on its transparency program for 2017
The Municipality of Divjaka in cooperation with AIS established Open Spending and Open Budget instruments. The budget tables for 2017 were visualized in an open data format, making it easier for everyone to trace, understand, and reuse information. In addition to its table of incomes and expenditures, the municipality visualised also its budget by its administrative units as part of its Transparency Program. Municipalities are required by law to develop their Budget Transparency Programs.PLGP/USAID Albania in cooperation with AIS had already provided the municipalities of Korça, Elbasan, Fier, Lushnjë, Berat, and Kuçova with instruments for open expenditures and budgeting.
Hackathon Albania 2017, the marathon of intelligence and creativity in Tirana
HackaThonAlbania, the marathon of intelligence and creativity, took place on 24 and 25 Mars by AIS and the Embassy of the Kingdom of theNetherlands as the co-organizers. Fifty young people from Albania and Kosova worked for two days for innovative solutions through applications, visualizations, and maps. In the end, eight groups managed to finalize eight useful projects. More transparency, good governance, and better public services were the topics selected by the working groups. The first prize of Euro 500 euro was awarded to TraficGenius group of four members. Our partners in organizing this event included also Open Data Kosova, ICTS Media, and Oficina .
Money and Power, what are the economic interests of District Chief Prosecutors
Data regarding assets and annual incomes of 22 District Chief Prosecutors were analyzed to identify their potential interests and economic connections. The prosecutors’ self-declarations are published under the Money and Power section, and the analysis is published as a separate article on Open Data AlbaniaSimilar analysis is done earlier for high-level judges, MPs andMayors The monitoring of their incomes and their comparison with their salaries, as well as the identification of any potential economic interests is important and timing on the eve of the ‘vetting’ process in the justice system.Money, Government and Politics is implemented by AIS in the framework of the MATRA for Rule of Law program supported by Embassy of the Netherlands in Albania
Albanian Institute of Science
Supported from
