Corruption Charges Arrest Senior Officials

TIRANA, Sep. 18 – The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that an Albanian deputy minister, six other senior officials of the Transport Ministry and two owners of private companies were arrested on corruption charges. They become the first high-level officials of this government accused of corruption causing millions of dollars of damage to the public budget.
Vice Minister Nikolin Jaka, 35, head of the road department Ilirjan Berzani, Bashkim Kamberi of the procurement department and four other officials of the Ministry of Public Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications were arrested late Monday evening for illegally favoring private companies in tender projects.
Corruption and abuse of post charges carry sentences of up to ten years imprisonment if proved true, according to the Albanian Penal Code.
During a two-month investigation police had collected enough proof of abuses and corruption in many road tender projects planned for the second half this year that would bring the accused an illegal profit in the millions of dollars, according to vice Interior Minister Genti Strazimiri.
Three other officials of the same ministry, including a former vice minister, have recently been charged for abusing his position in another road project.
The opposition said the arrests are an attempt by the government to distract attention from the Rreshen-Kalimash project, in which the opposition has accused the former transport minister Lulzim Basha, now foreign minister, of corrupt behavior.
Fighting corruption has become a top priority for Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s government, in power for the past two years. It became clear after the Democrats came to power that fighting corruption was the main reason why many Albanians voted for them.
Albania is among the most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International ranking. In the 2006 report Albania was ranked 111th out of 163 countries worldwide for corruption.