About $1.3 billion left Albania between 2005 and 2010, according to anti-corruption advocacy group
TIRANA, Dec. 20 – The economic and political elite in Albania sent more than $1.3 billion out of the country between 2005-2010, according to a recent report of the Global Financial Integrity, GFI, a Washington-based anti-corruption advocacy group.
The report notes much of the money has flown illicitly out of the country because of corruption, tax evasion, and other illegal activities. They say that 60 percent of this money is believed to have resulted from tax evasion, 35 per cent from criminal activity and 5 percent from corruption.
GIF has used official World Bank and IMF data to support its report. It continues in detail to show that in 2008 alone $405 million were transferred illicitly out of Albania, while an annual average of $131 million moved into offshore tax havens.
For the tiny western Balkan country such figures are an enormous amount of money and if they had stayed inside the country, it could have been used to improve its infrastructure, education and fight poverty.
Experts: Fighting corruption a priority
Fighting corruption should be the primary task for Albania, no matter which government is in power international experts say, or the country will remain backward with no tangible results in its progress towards European integration.
Fighting corruption was the main issue that brought back the Democrats led from Prime Minister Sali Berisha to power in 2005, when the administration of former Socialist Prime Minister Fatos Nano was widely seen as corrupt.
Seven years later, the Democratic Party -led government of Sali Berisha is just as corrupt, according to the perceptions survey published by Transparency International.
The 2012 Transparency International corruption perception index describes Albania as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe, lowering its ranking to the 113th position out of 176 countries down from 95th place a year earlier.
Adriatik Llalla who has explicitly said that he will start with fighting corruption. Llalla has said that he knows very well who the corrupted prosecutors are. Llalla before led the transparency institution checking the officials’ income and that means he is deep in knowledge of many things.
The new prosecutor general also said that his predecessor Ina Rama had avoided prosecuting public officials from the cases of how they have become rich so easily or fast.
