TIRANA, June 23 – The Democratic Party threatened to file a lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior for impeding the implementation of the decriminalization law. During a meeting of the Inquiry Committee for Appointments of Public Administration, opposition members said that Ministry of Interior has not provided the complete questionnaires for 130 public officials who allegedly have suspicious records.
Earlier in May, the Democrats demanded detailed information on these officials but the Ministry only sent data on 21 of the suspected civil servants. On Wednesday, the opposition submitted a similar request for information to the Ministry of Interior, warning that if no information is provided, a lawsuit would follow.
Members of the opposition claim that the ministry’s decision to deliver incomplete information proves that accusations about people with criminal records appointed in public administration are accurate. According to the opposition, a high number of public administration employees have resigned since January, and have been reappointed to other offices in order to escape the decriminalization check.
Hundreds of Albanian civil servants are obliged to declare all charges and convictions with the Central Election Commission under the Law “On the Integrity of Persons Elected or Nominated in Public Offices” approved in late 2015. It took Albanian officials almost two years to discuss and approve it. The law forces nearly 1836 officials, politicians and civil servants to provide information about their criminal past and authorizes the General Prosecutor’s Office to check their statements with the authorities of other countries. The law stipulates that if politicians are accused of serious crimes or if they lie in these questionnaires they must resign. Mayor of Kavaja Elvis Rroshi was the first official to resign and arrested after failing to reveal his alleged criminal past in the questionnaires delivered in the framework of the decriminalization bill.
