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Corruption in Albania, ACER assistant: Institutions suffer politicization, government to increase cooperation with citizens

Politiko 2021-10-06 11:13:14

Corruption in Albania, ACER assistant: Institutions suffer politicization,

Although Albania has undergone significant reforms in recent years, corruption is still a concern. Many are still unresolved as the part of the citizens who have lost faith in the government and their policies is already growing.

In an interview for European Western Balkans, Research Assistant at the Albanian Center for Economic Research Ervi Kosta, spoke about the causes of corruption in Albania and the challenges of the government to fight it as soon as possible.

Among the main causes of corruption, Costa ranked first the political influence on the institutions, to continue with the lack of transparency on their part towards the citizens, which has caused their trust in political opponents to decline significantly.

"In Albania, the fight against corruption remains one of the main challenges of society and governance. For years in Albania, corruption in all its forms has been an influential factor in the lives of citizens, the functioning of institutions and the implementation of economic and legal reforms. Some of the main causes of corruption in Albania are political influence on institutions, low public awareness and participation, lack of accountability by public institutions, high level of informality, use of political parties as intermediaries in the usurpation of institutions by business lobbies and the oligarchy, and the backward culture or mentality of the Albanian society, ”said Kosta.

Civil society in Albania, Costa sees as problematic as society, listing among its main deadlocks the lack of influence in the community, politicization or insufficient public trust.

"Civil society in Albania suffers from the same problems as Albanian society, such as fragmentation, lack of influence on the community and stakeholders, politicization, limited resources and conditionality by donor priorities, insufficient public trust in society actors civil, limited expertise in governance relations. Although there have been co-operation efforts between CSOs and state institutions in Albania regarding the fight against corruption, their partnership has not been fruitful. I believe that some CSOs in Albania play a role in the fight against corruption, raising their voices on issues suspected of possible corruption, ” added the research assistant at ACER.

Regarding the most challenging areas to fight corruption, the research assistant ranks first the consolidation of judicial reform, continuing further until the reconstruction of public trust.

"The main challenging areas in the fight against corruption are the consolidation of judicial reform, the extension of the principles of verification in the state administration and political parties, the building of public trust in law institutions," said Costa.

Ervi Kosta underlines the cooperation between law enforcement institutions and the active participation of citizens as an opportunity to reduce the phenomenon of corruption in the country.

"The solution to reduce corruption is closely linked to respecting the free vote of citizens, increasing the transparency of every agency and public institution, with the legal punishment of every responsible individual in the state and political administration. In this process, the role of international partners remains irreplaceable as long as for current interests, these partners do not create the stability of institutions and the economy over democracy but contribute to their parallel progress. "The following important challenges for Albania in the fight against corruption are the increase of cooperation between law enforcement institutions, the promotion of corruption reporting and the promotion of the active participation of citizens in the fight against corruption," concluded Kosta.