Two staff members have been arrested and charged with the theft of massive amounts of Albanian currency over four years. BoA governor, questioned by parliamentary commission, says system is safe and that human failures, not procedures or technology, are to blame.
TIRANA, July 30 – In what constitutes one of the largest thefts in the history of Albanian state, authorities are investigating the illegal removal of more than $7 million in Albanian currency from a transfer area of the central bank over the past four years.
Two staff members have been arrested and charged with the theft. Some of the stolen cash came from piles that were destined to be destroyed as part of the bank’s currency replacement program, the bank said.
One of the central bank’s staff members has confessed to stealing the cash over four years to feed his gambling addiction, prosecutors said.
But prosecutors are not convinced that all the money was gambled away and are looking at bank transfers and property transactions to determine if any of it is was transferred outside the country or whether it can be recuperated through property confiscation.
The theft has sparked concern over the security measures at the central bank and has led to parliament members calling for an investigation of the independent institution.
Following a special internal audit, Bank of Albania announced Tuesday that evening that the amount of money stolen from its treasury was Lek 713 million – that’s about $7 million or Euro 5.2 million.
In a statement, the bank explained that its regulations, procedures and technology for managing hard currency are up to the best international standards, but the theft occurred due to failures by bank employees to go through the proper checks and audits.
“Because of state secrecy and investigation detailed information about the event is classified,” a bank spokesman said.
A Tirana court held arraignment hearings for Ardian Bitraj and Mimoza Bruzia, two economists that worked at the bank and who are accused the theft. They are to stay in jail while the investigation continues, the court ruled.
The bank said the theft did not did not occur in the safe warehouses of the treasury, where most of the cash is stored, but “in the intermediate link that has the same nature as an operational window where daily cash transactions take place,” akin to a bank’s teller window.
“At this link, disregard for strict procedures by some employees created opportunities for abuse,” the bank said in a statement, limiting the responsibility to a few employees.
However, the Parliamentary Commission of Economy called in BoA Governor Ardian Fullani to quiz him about the theft and investigation.
During the hearing, Fullani informed the committee members about the measures taken by the institution to address the theft.
During this session, governor responsibly answered deputies’ questions on the event “and assured them that the Bank of Albania, in fulfilling its legal obligations, has taken all appropriate administrative actions to ensure the continuity of its daily activity,” the bank said in a statement.
Committee Chairman Erion Bra襠said the parliamentary commission would get to the bottom of the issue because the country’s image was at stake.
“Obviously, we analyzed the fact that this event is severely undermined the image of the Bank of Albania, but also the state itself,” Bra襠said. “We wanted zero tolerance for anyone who is involved in criminal activity at the Bank of Albania.”
He added special prosecutors must be assigned to the case.
But Bra襠said the commission would not ask the governor or members of the supervisory board to resign.
“We are not at that stage yet. Currently we are at the stage of obtaining information and analyzing who is responsible,” Bra襠told local media.
In a media appearance after the hearing, Fullani repeated the same points the bank had earlier issued in a statement and indicated the institution he directs has launched an administrative investigation to find out more about how its systems failed.
Parliamentary Speaker Ilir Meta said the matter was worrying and “unpleasant”.
“We should not forget that the [the theft] was first identified and reported to prosecutors by the BoA itself,” Meta said.
He added the crime “does not in any way hurt BoA’s role in keeping the country economically stable.”
The news of the theft first broke after the bank announced a week ago in a short statement that two of its employees had been charged for pocketing currency after internal auditors found some cash missing.
The bank took eight days to find out exactly how much money was stolen, prompting speculation in the media about how much was missing and raising questions about the security of the financial institution when one or two employees could repeatedly walk out with cash over four years.
