TIRANA, March. 14- Competitiveness authority has publicly declared that some of the main sectors of Albanian economy use illegal practices quite common that hurt the free market regulations hence act as monopolies reporting to an hearing with the Parliamentary Commission of Economy, head of the Authority, Lindita Lati, said that the government stand behind some of these monopolies fork their very start. Lati has warned the government to be careful over the privatization of strategic public assets because these ‘natural’ monopolies would be harder to control and the damage done to consumers in that case would be higher. LAti said that such a problem was noticed with “Albtelekom”-and could be repeated in the case of energy. Lati said that the authority should be supported in drafting contracts for the buyer of the distribution unit of KESH
Problematic banks
“Only to transfer a check form one bank to the other the waiting period is one month and the commission fee is too high, reported Edmond Spaho who leads the Committee. SP’s Arben Malaj, also raised similar concern. The authority said that it has undertaken several steps to investigate this sector along with energy and telecommunications and as verified some abuses which they are due to make public soon. The banking sector has been so far free form any allegations.
More authority
Lati sought from the MPs to grant more authority to the institution she leads by proposing a practice close to the fines law. The decisions of the institution could translate into taxative practices and the subject to pay before they appeal in court. SP member Ermelinda Meksi asked for more concrete measures and legal initiatives from the institution to strengthen itself.
