"Ghost" political parties, audit fails for most, they do not have correct addresses

The audit of the majority of political parties registered with the Tirana Court has failed as most of them do not have correct addresses.

The State Election Commissioner appointed 12 licensed accounting experts to audit 132 political parties registered in the registry of the Tirana Judicial District Court regarding their activity in 2023.

In fact, the data shows that it has not been possible to audit the majority of parties.

The reports submitted by the statutory auditors showed that:

– 5 political parties were certified with reservations due to irregularities in the declaration of income and expenses, and they did not present the value of employees' gross salaries as an expense in the financial report;

– 81 political parties were not audited due to incorrect addresses;

– 9 political parties declare 0 income and expenses;

– 9 political parties have passive status;

– 6 political parties have not submitted their annual financial report to the CEC and for this reason, the audit was not conducted by the appointed auditors;

– 2 political parties were not audited, as they did not pay for the services of the statutory auditors.

In its annual report, the Central Election Commission highlights that after verifications conducted on reports submitted by political parties themselves, as well as reports submitted by legal auditors, it is in the process of taking administrative measures for political parties.

Regarding the activity in 2024 related to funds as financial assistance, the State Election Commissioner distributed with Decision No. 20, Date 20.2.2024 to political parties, the fund in the amount of 345.6 million lekë. The political parties that received funds as financial assistance for 2024 were 11.

/MONITOR