TIRANA, Feb. 2, 2015 – Albania’s government has introduced an internet portal where everyone can offer tips, including anonymously, on corruption in public institutions.
“Fear protects the vineyard,” Prime Minister Edi Rama, said, quoting an Albanian folk saying, and urging people to report all types of graft through the portal.
The portal, stopcorrupsionit.al, is now live, and a couple of low level officials have already been fired or suspended due to tips channeled from the portal.
Corruption is a main obstacle in the country’s efforts toward democratic processes and in its long road of post-communist transition and integration into the European Union.
Despite many measures taken by all governments in post-communist Albania, corruption remains a big shortcoming with all the layers but especially the judiciary focused in all the international reports.
Corruption was also one of the main political offers that the political parties make to their electorate every time they are in the campaign ahead of the elections.
The government said that the new portal will bring together all complaints so authorities can take quicker action and channel concerns to the proper institutions.
Last week Bledar Cuci, Minister of State for Local Issues, said during the presentation of EU project “Assessment of the Anti-corruption Framework in Albania” that more than 500 officials were under investigation for corruption.
He urged the prosecution to accelerate the work, adding that that the government would undertake very soon the anti corruption reform.
The new portal may be part of the move. But for the moment none of the 500 accused officials has been found guilty or sentenced on corruption charges.
Albanians had already started using social media to denounce graft, but the petty nature of the a case of a nurse receiving a $2 tip and being suspended raised questions whether the new method will simply affect small-time acts while alleged hundreds of thousands go to corrupt judges, prosecutors and top officials.
Corruption remains a major problem for Albania and the countries of Eastern Europe, as shown by the results by a report published last week, Assessment of Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Southeast Europe.
The report which included nine countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia and Montenegro.
The report shows that Macedonia and Albania are less successful compared to other regional countries in implementing anti-corruption policies.
The report said that 45 percent of the respondents in Macedonia said that they were corrupted through various forms, while among the other countries, the higher percentages are in Montenegro and Albania with 47 percent and 51 percent, while the lowest is in Croatia with 23 percent and Bosnia and Herzegovina with 19 percent.
Albania leads the pack in perceptions, with residents believing strongly that corruption affects their daily lives.
