TIRANA, Oct. 12 – Albania’s government has announced it will increase the salaries of most civil servants next year, with police officers seeing the highest increase — 17 percent.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said at an event in Tirana this week the new pay rates will take effect on Jan. 1, 2017, benefiting about 81,000 civil servants and 600,000 pensioners nationwide.
The increases come as Albania heads to general elections next summer, and Albanian governments usually increase salaries and public investments during electoral years. However, government officials say the increases will not contribute to the public debt, but are a result of higher tax collections and more profitable state earnings from sources like energy production.
Police to see greatest increases
The large increase for police officers is in line with the “strong state” approach touted by Prime Minister Rama — which has largely resulted in having a better paid police to target offenders with arrests, property confiscation and fines, increasing income for state coffers.
“Police officers have been betrayed by their own government in the past, but today they are our priority. This is the second pay increase in the last three years,” said Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri, who spoke at the Police of the New Generation event held in Tirana.
Tahiri said wages of police officers were first increased in 2013, when the Socialist Party-led government scrapped the flat tax rate and applied progressive taxation instead. In 2013, the net wage of first base police officers increased by 2.3 percent whereas the gross wage increased by 5 percent. In 2014, wages of police officers increased by 25 percent and their wage jumped from ALL 45,600 to ALL 57,100.
With the latest increase in 2017, once taxes and social security contributions are taken out, a basic monthly take-home salary for a police officer working the streets will be about the equivalent of $450.
Opposition targeting police, says Rama
In his address at the event, Prime Minister Rama said the government’s reform of the police force had been successful. He also criticized the approach of the political opposition against police officers.
“Nothing can justify the attacks of the opposition against the institution,” Rama said.
Albeit, he added efforts were underway to make sure to weed out police officers who break the law.
“Unfortunately, the opposition is not an alternative power that pushes us to do more. Instead, the opposition is a negative energy force that is attacking the morale and passion of every police officer,” Rama said.
He added that in 2013, the Socialist-led government increased wages of police officers, although International Monetary Fund told them not to do so due to the budget shortcomings.
“Three years ago we rebuilt the State Police, which had been transformed into a union of [Democratic Party] activists, relatives of politicians and people who paid a lot of cash to become officers,” Rama added.
According to Prime Minister Rama, the State Police is now the most trusted institution in Albania.
New rates will not contribute to public debt, gov’t officials say
The new rates are the result of recommendations from Ministry of Finances, which conducted consultations with International Monetary Fund and World Bank to include a wage and pensions increase fund in the next year’s budget.
World Bank and International Monetary Fund have approved the government’s plan for an increase in pensions and wages as well as on financing the Justice Reform with funds from the 2017 budget, according to Albanian officials.
During his meetings with representatives of World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, Minister of Finances Arben Ahmetaj said that the two institutions have confirmed Albania’s consolidated trend of economic growth. He said that the increase of wages and pensions will not increase the country’s public debt.
“In the eyes of World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Albania’s economy has walked out of the 2008-2013 crisis and has entered a consolidated trajectory of growth” Ahmetaj said.
President Bujar Nishani and Prime Minister Rama will also see a pay rise of less than 1 percent whereas employees in the education sector, police, health sector and EU integration departments will have a higher increase.
