She paid herself 15,000 euros a month, the director of "IdentiTek" is dismissed

It has taken about a year and a half for Loina Prifti to be appointed head of the state company for the production of biometric passports and identity cards.

Lapsi.al learns that the "super director" with a salary of 15,000 euros per month has been dismissed from her position by the Minister of the Interior, Ervin Hoxha. Her subordinates, who are suspected of abuse in the management of the state-owned company, left with her.

A few weeks ago, the Ministry of the Interior had sent an audit group to "IdentiTek" and a number of violations in the management of funds and legal practices for storing sensitive data were found. For the latter, other institutions in the country have even been notified.

Until a year ago, Loina Prifti was an anonymous young woman in Germany, where, as mentioned, she worked in the field of Artificial Intelligence. She was brought from there by the former Minister of the Interior, Bledi Çuçi, and was quietly catapulted to the head of the state company that succeeded the concession of "Aleat" for the production of passports and identity cards.

There was not even a presentation ceremony for him at the time when the transfer of the company from the concessionaire to the Albanian state began. And as usually happens with such catapults from the Renaissance, the avarice often pushes the leaders to abuse their office.

A few months after the appointment, Loina Prifti launched a wide-ranging purge in the company she led, dismissing many professionals who had worked there for 15 years. It also created a high climate of mistrust and pressure towards the employees of the suppliers. The source of Lapsi.al indicates that in some cases, Loina Prifti has allowed the entry of unauthorized persons into strictly prohibited premises of the company in violation of the law.

Likewise, the new people she brought into the company were through fictitious competitions and nepotistic appointments mostly connected to various clans in Durrës, the city where the Priest came from. The IT director, Sara Zalla, is meanwhile the daughter-in-law of Loina Prifti's first cousin. Eda Harizaj, the director of Human Resources is also a close relation of hers. Harizaj himself hired a first cousin in an important position at "IdentiTek". Like these, there are many other nepotistic appointments in the company's key positions, such as the Director of Operations.

In addition, Loina Prifti rewarded herself with a salary of 15,000 euros per month, and has often been denounced for dubious tenders, among them the one worth 1 million euros for the internet service.

However, the full report of the audit group of the Ministry of the Interior is expected to shed more light on the abuses of Loina Prifti and her subordinates in the "IdentiTek" company. It is of fundamental importance to learn whether there is a breach of sensitive and biometric data stored by this company or not? We recall that a month ago the scandal of tampering with the TIMS system data broke, a scandal that is being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office of Tirana.

It is also not known whether or not there is an investigation by the justice institutions in the country. It would not be surprising that the abuses would be stopped or closed only with her dismissal, as we have often seen with other officials of the "Rama" government./Lapsi.al