TIRANA, Sept. 17 – Only three days after taking up his post as Minister of Interior, Fatmir Xhafaj made good on his promise to start the vetting process towards all ranks of officials working for the State Police. The vetting process, following in the steps of the judicial reform, will focus on ensuring the credibility and trustworthiness of police officers and verifying the wealth and professional capabilities of all State Police, Guard and the Service of Internal Issues and Complains’ employees.
During the previous years, high-ranking police officials and employees of the Ministry of Interior were constantly targeted by opposition members, who accused them of participating in the development of the cannabis cultivation in Albania and also of collaborating with members of organized crime cellules.
Even though these accusations were never based on hard evidence, or investigation, they certainly served the purpose of denigrating the image of the State Police. Thus, Xhafaj’s opening parliamentary remarks a few days back referred to this issue, by saying that “we cannot talk of success, when there might be people working for the State Police who are more dangerous than the criminals themselves.”
According to the Minister, the vetting of the State Police will be executed after a thorough analysis of the situation in Albania and in accordance with a legal model, which will be ready to use by the end of this year. The vetting process, Xhafaj said, will be assisted by the EU’s ‘Pameca V’ and the US’ ‘ICITAP’ missions in order to enable the development of a technical process which will be professional, transparent and trustable.
The decision was met with various expectations and concerns. Dritan Demiraj, Minister of Interior for the last four months and member of the Democratic Party, expressed his confidence to local media that if executed honorably, the vetting of State Police could be very beneficial and relevant to the political needs of Albania.
Unlike him, there are those who believe the vetting is just an excuse to replace employees in accordance to the Socialist Party’s needs. Osman Levanaku, removed from his policing post in 2014, said the following: “Obviously, it is not only aimed at those connected to crime, or who cannot justify their wealth, but also at the removal of the people they do not like.”
Despite all varying opinions on the matter, the vetting process will not just be assisted, but also monitored by foreign officials and is expected to begin as soon as the analysis of the most pressing issues the police is facing is conducted.
