Contact Us<\/a><\/span> \u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0 Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/main><\/div><\/div><\/div> \u2022 Two open catalogues with open data on Procurement and Contracts<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Open Procurement Albania. During 2016, AIS created two new databases with data on Public Procurement and Contracts. The Open Contracting Data Standard was applied for the first time in Albania by a non-Governmental organization. Anyone may find data regarding Public Procurement and Contracts in the Open Procurement Albania <\/a><\/span>\u00a0portal in real time, including: the name and ID of the Procuring Organization\/Buyer; Estimated or Ceiling Value; procurement Method; tender status; number of Bidders; Name and ID of Supplier and Provider; Awarded and Contracted Amount; Planned Milestones of Contract; renewal of Contract; Additional Values; Actual Transaction Expenditures, and other indicators of the procuring and contracting process. The data cover two public sectors, Health <\/a><\/span>; and Local Government <\/a><\/span> The data catalogues for 2016 contain information about 5300 public procurement procedures in the Health Sector and 5900 procedures of municipalities.<\/span><\/p>\n Way forward – 2017: two new catalogues will ensure greater transparency and a watchdog process: Red Flag Index and Open Corporate Albania. A Red Flag Index will be applied to mark the level of exposure of each of the 61 municipalities to risk of abuse and corruption in their tenders. In 2017, AIS will also publish a new catalogue of open data for 3000 \u00a0companies as successful bidders and contractors of public contracts. The data will shed light on the owners of these companies and any potential connections relevant to their interests. Follow us! <\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Access to information, 245 353\u00a0treasury transactions made transparent to the public <\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n In 2016, AIS also provided the Albanian public with open data regarding the state treasury transactions<\/a>. Access was enabled to every single transaction of every budgetary organization. This includes a total of 245 353\u00a0transactions for 1660 budgetary institutions. The data were presented in such a format that they enable search filters by date of payment, value, category of expenditures, beneficiary client, and description of invoice.<\/span><\/p>\n How much do the state officials, MPs, ministers, Prime Minister, high level judges, and other\u00a0high officials\u00a0of our main institutions make? Again, this year, the Money and Power <\/a> section of Spending Data Albania portal published the annual declarations of assets and incomes. Such data encourage the publication of dozens of articles on the media as part of fact-based journalism. The annual declarations of incomes for the high level state officials are published as part of the activities of the Money, Government and Politics Program.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Investigative Indicators and Articles on Open Data Albania, the most consolidated portal of socio-economic data <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Open Data Albania <\/a><\/span> , the portal which ensures transparency through data, published this year dozens of investigative articles and socio-economic indicators. Gender-disaggregated data on the level of criminality, and data about the market and fiscal policy, were made available to the public both in Albanian and English. Various actors and interest groups refer to this portal as an open and well-structured source of information, which creates knowledge and sheds light on policies that need to be reviewed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Public officials in six municipalities trained on budgetary transparency through ICT tools<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Six municipalities applied instruments of financial transparency this year. Under the slogan \u201cOpen Government is Good Governance\u201d, USAID Albania, in the framework of its Planning and Local Governance Project PLGP <\/a><\/span> and in cooperation with our organization, the Albanian Institute of Science (AIS), worked in 2016 to enhance the capacities of the employees of the municipalities of Kor\u00e7a, Fieri, Lushnja, Berati, Elbasan, and Ku\u00e7ova in ensuring financial transparency through ICT tools. Two open data applications for budgeting, Money Mapping and spending Monitoring Treasury, were developed and placed on the official websites of these municipalities. In order to make the municipality employees capable of independently integrating and ensuring budgetary transparency through ICT tools, the project developed several IT tools for transparent spending during 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Training of journalists, capacity building on fact-based journalism and open data journalism<\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n The application of fact and data-based journalism, as well as qualitative reporting through Open Data Journalism, were part of a set of three training courses for the Albanian journalists. The use of databases of open data, the application of linked data as an element that identifies connections of interest, and the application of Google charts and visualizations, were some of the elements applied to increase the capacity of journalists. The process involved a total of 70 journalists during 2016, which\u00a0was finalized in a network of journalists named Follow the Money <\/a><\/span> The aim for 2017 is to encourage more fact-based journalism, more transparency, investigation, and media reporting of abusive and corrupt practices.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2016, AIS addressed<\/a><\/span> the Strasbourg Court, asking it to express its views on the prolonged delays with a case court in the Albanian Court of Appeal. The case consists of a violation of Article 6 and 13 of the European Convention of Human Rights. On 25 November 2015, AIS made an appeal to the administrative Court of Appeal concerning its court case, AIS vs. the three largest political parties in the country, i.e. the Socialist Party, Democratic Party, and the Socialist Movement for Integration. The case is about public information on electoral funds. The adjudication is delayed for more than a year, and there is still no date set for this case to be tried at the Administrative Court of Appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 AIS encourages the Albanian Government to commit to using the Open Contracting Standard <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Upon a request <\/a><\/span> of AIS, the Albanian Government decided to commit to applying the Open Contracting Data Standard through its two-year action plan for Open Government Partnership. This is the third time that AIS participates in consultations with the Government for the OGP action plan. This time, AIS asked the Government to apply the Open Contracting Standard for all public contracts, a request that was partially taken into consideration in the Government commitment to use such standard only for the Concessionary Register and PPPs.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Amendments to Electoral Code, AIS publishes its recommendations and conclusions <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The Albanian Electoral Code must be amended in order to introduce stricter rules regarding the financing of electoral subjects. As part of the Electoral Situation Room, AIS prepared a draft policy paper <\/a><\/span> with recommendations for improving the articles regulating the financing and auditing of electoral campaigns. Such recommendations aim at encouraging control and transparency over electoral donors, better auditing standards for the sources of financing, prevention of the conflict of interest for donors who are consequently awarded public contracts, etc. The draft was submitted to the Parliamentary Committee working on the Electoral Reform.<\/span><\/p>\n On 9 May 2016, the Constitutional Court abrogated the mandate <\/a><\/span> of Ko\u00e7o Kok\u00ebdhima, a Member of Parliament. While MPs are not allowed to benefit from contracts and payments using public money, a company established by Kok\u00ebdhima had benefitted from more than 200 financial transactions with various public institutions. The data about such transactions were published by AIS’ portal, Spending Data Albania. The publication encouraged public debate and the initiation of a court case. Two years afterwards, the court decided that Koco Kok\u00ebdhima should no longer be an MP, and his mandate was therefore revoked.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 DiploHack Tirana A\u00a0Voice for\u00a0Civil Society <\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n A voice for civil society. This was the slogan of an event held for the first time in Tirana. DiploHack <\/a><\/span> Tirana was organized by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Albania in cooperation with AIS. What happens when a programmer, a civil society representative, and a diplomat solve a problem together?! Thirteen teams composed of a mixture of diplomats, programmers, and civil society representatives worked together on ways to use open data and technology to strengthen civil society advocacy. In the end, the teams presented thirteen applications<\/a><\/span>designed to raise the civil voice. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Abusive Procurement prevented. Impact of the watchdog process and Open-LGP <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n On 19 April, the Open-LGP program published a problematic call for a tender made by a local government unit, Tropoja Municipality, inviting the interested agents\u00a0to submit offers for renting Valbona tourist center <\/a><\/span>, one of the most visited tourist centers in that area. The center, including the building and the outdoor part, covers an area of 4118 m2. The municipality set a minimum acceptable price of 430 Euro, giving those interested 48 hours to prepare and submit the required documentation. Following the publication of this call, the media investigated the value of the asset, and reported an obvious clientelist and abusive tender. There were also reactions from many citizens on the social networks. This monitoring process and public pressure forced the contracting authority to cancel the plan of renting this public space. <\/span><\/p>\n Finally, we would like to thank our donors and partners, who enabled the implementation of our programs in 2016: The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands<\/a><\/span> in Tirana, The US Embassy in Tirana Democracy Commission Small Grants<\/a><\/span>,the National Endowment for Democracy NED<\/a><\/span>, LevizAlbania <\/a><\/span>Local Democracy in Action Program financed by the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency, USAID through PLGP <\/a><\/span> Program, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n In addition, we ensure transparency over our expenditures, and the budget of the organization, including the values of grants, donations, and funding of our contracts by publishing such data and making them available on our portal Open Data Albania<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ais.al\/new\/imazhe\/4.gif\")
\u00a0TRANSPARENCY THROUGH OPEN DATA<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n![](\"http:\/\/ais.al\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/opa1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"1vit-img1\"](\"http:\/\/ais.al\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/CW1C5rQU4AEyyGe.jpg\")
<\/a>\u2022 Money and Power, structure of wealth and economic interests of high level officials <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0CAPACITY BUILDING FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND JOURNALISTS<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n![\"zabaner\"](\"http:\/\/ais.al\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/klasifikimi-ekonomik-i-shpenzimeve-faktike.png\")
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\n\u00a0ADVOCACY AND POLICY MAKING<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n![\"1vit-img3\"](\"http:\/\/ais.al\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/15111103_10210776349345998_973356602634366134_o.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0 \u2022 AIS addresses the Strasbourg Court. Albania does not guarantee trial within a reasonable time according to Article 6 of the European Convention <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\n SUCCESS STORY <\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n![\"1vit-img3\"](\"http:\/\/ais.al\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/kocofoto.png\")
<\/a>\u00a0\u2022 An MP mandate is revoked, Open Data identifies a case of incompatibility of MP mandate<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0DONOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND FOUNDRAISING<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
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