This week, the Albanian government announced it will install new prepaid electricity meters across Albania, removing the risk for state-owned electricity companies that people will not pay the electricity they consume and making the electricity cutoff automatic and conflict-free.
It’s a technological solution that not only would make sure people pay for what they consume, but also serves to remove human meter readers from the equation. These company employees in charge of going to personally read the electricity meters have often been at the root of the problem in the system — often misreading meters and overcharging citizens or asking for money under the table to undercharge consumers.
In a country where more than 80 percent of cell phones are prepaid and people in all corners of the country are used to the concept, the system should catch on easily.
This is one way to tame those in this country who get annoyed with doing things by the book — and instilling a sense of full obedience to the laws and obligations modern citizens of a modern country should must have.
However, the government should expand the use of technology in other areas to monitor individual-state transactions and remove as much human contact from the equation as possible. While more developed countries are doing this as a cost-saving and efficiency tool, in Albania it would help to prevent small-time graft where it exists and improve perceptions about corruption in the country. It will also likely increase efficiency.
For example, recently, several police vehicles have been equipped with dashboard cameras, and those officers have been found to be far more effective and far more by the book in approaching policing, because they know that everything is on camera and verifiable.
As the price for cameras, other technological tools and connectivity to the web have rapidly decreased, the use of such technologies could expand and could help Albania’s graft and poor state services problems. There is no reason, for example, why every police officer stopping vehicles cannot wear a body camera to make sure that a) the rights of the driver are respected and b) that the driver does not try to pay his/her way out of a ticket or other penalties. The general perception in the past has been that small-time corruption of traffic cops was pervasive. Body cameras could help prevent it.
But technology could be used — and there are certain elements of its already in place — to streamline Albanians’ interactions with state institutions as well.
Trying to navigate Albanian bureaucracy can be a nightmare. From getting a driver’s license renewed to dealing with any office where you need to obtain any sort of document, as long as you have to deal with civil servants, the process will likely be disorganized, lengthy and unclear. Whether it is lack of proper training or lack of tools and resources, despite advances in previous years, the situation remains problematic.
No wonder, many Albanians believe civil servants purposefully make things difficult so they can get money out of people in the form of bribes. Technology could be a solution if it creates an environment where people-to-people contact is kept at a minimum and is technologically monitored and documented at all times.
Of course, there might be privacy advocates that would not support this “big brother” approach to policing or providing state services. In addition technology can fail. Both legislative and maintenance safeguards must be in place to prevent abuse.
But, at the end of the day, technology could help Albania and its people make a big leap into a modern, law-abiding and efficient society.
