TIRANA, April.9 – A regional conference on the most effective practices and initiatives in fighting corruption was organized in Tirana by the OSCE and the Regional Secretariat of the Stability Pact at the beginning of April. Experts in the region shared their experiences in order to help improve Albanian legislation pertaining to anti-corruption efforts, the head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Pavel Vacek, said. “This conference is a positive step in the region’s attempts to fight corruption with practices and instruments that are in line with UN conventions. It is important to strengthen co-operation at a regional level,” he added. According to Veselin Sukovic, executive secretary of the Stability Pact’s anticorruption initiative, meting participants agreed on the need for co-operation among governments, political institutions and NGOs. “The fight against corruption should be concentrated on specific cases, in order to see the results,” Sukovic said. USAID representative Bruce Kay said it is important not only to adopt measures, but to enforce them. “Fighting corruption takes a long time,” he said. “Apart from drafting of better laws, implementation is especially important.”
A common problem
The two-day event brought together participants from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Kosovo. The Convention against Corruption was adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 2003, and came into force in December 2005. So far, it has been signed by 140 countries and ratified by 88. Albania, which ratified the Convention in May 2006, ranked 111st out of 163 countries on the most recent Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. “Despite slight progress, Albania remains in the zone of countries where corruption traps millions of people in poverty,” Transparency International said, adding that the judicial system has a poor record when it comes to punishing violators.
The role of the government
Speaking at the Tirana conference, Deputy Prime Minister Gazmend Oketa insisted that the administration of Prime Minister Sali Berisha has been taking rapid action to address the problem. The government has not only drafted anti-corruption policies but has sought to bolster the institutional instruments needed to ensure greater accountability, he said.
