The Money and Power Database enables the public control-verification of the phenomenon of nepotism.
Media reports that such phenomenon affects 70% of Senior Officials
Brahaj: The appointment of family members risks escalating into Structured Corruption
The Inside Story Program by journalist Luljeta PROGNI brought an Investigation Report during the month of November, with evidence on concrete cases of employment of politicians’ family members in State Institutions.
The report entitled “Political offsprings, coveted institutions transformed into nurseries of nepotism” provided evidence extracted from AIS Money and Power database to illustrate Ministers, MPs, Mayors having more than one family member employed in public administration as in Ministries, Independent Institutions, Publicly Owned Companies (SOCs), and Local Government Units.
Analyzing the data from the asset declarations of 50 MPs, the program found that all of the MPs (subject to analysis) had close family members working in the Public Administration, with none of them standing apart in this regard.
Inside Story is a series of investigative documentaries aimed at transparency and identifying mistakes in governance.
The documentary and journalist Progni revealed that “…the road paved for high positions for the heirs of politicians is not only a phenomenon of the totalitarian regime, but often a project adapted to the rules of the game after the 90s.” The documentary features Politicians and officials, biological heirs of important people with “ready-made paths and no public merits”.
Evidence Based Approach and databases owned by AIS. The Money and Power database was created as an instrument that guarantees public scrutiny of the integrity and interests of high officials. This enables public control of cases of Conflict of Interest, Nepotism, Economic and Family Interests of Politicians. The database enables the public to access asset declaration and encourages investigative journalism to create evidence-based reports on cases of abuse, conflict of interest or nepotism. The documents and information of this database contain consistent and online data for more than 1500 subjects from 2003 when the Albanian Law forced its officials to declare.
Inside Story also interviewed the director of the program, Aranita Brahaj, providing thus an opportunity to emphasize some serious consequences of nepotism and favoritism. Thus, favoritism-based appointments have also affected the promotions made by the Parliament in Independent and Constitutional Institutions, where the ones promoted are always the politicians themselves, former MPs or people close to them. Besides, family appointments in political administration have also created ground and cases where the parties in close relation with each other create a structured corrupt circle.
Thus
Aranita Brahaj, Project Director: It is like a chain: Those promoted to the Central Election Commission become candidates for the People’s Advocate, from the High Court to the High State Audit, and from there to the Central Bank or Financial Monitoring Institutions. MPs going to the Bank’s Board. What do you expect? If you start to make the chain of names, you realize that the ones who dare to run for office or promotion are only “those” with political connections.
Aranita Brahaj, Project Director: – We see that nepotism results not only in discrimination, inequality, missed opportunities, wrong quality in public administration, but also in some of the most serious consequences, i.e. structured corruption groups.
Money and Power is part of the activities of the Open Data Access and Transparency program in sectors exposed to the risk of corruption, activities for which funding is closed in February 2024.
