Leaders hold closed-door meetings on central bank governor, no results yet

TIRANA, Nov. 18 – Albania’s president and prime minister have held another closed-door meeting to discuss possible candidates for new central bank governor, however, no progress has been made public.
Prime Minister Edi Rama met with President Bujar Nishani, as part of the latter’s consultations on proposing a new governor to fill the seat left empty after former Governor Ardian Fullani was sacked in relation to the theft of about $7 million from the bank’s reserves.
This one in a series the two men have held on the matter, and as was previously the case, nothing was made public. However, sources told local media they discussed possible names for the post.
The central bank’s upper echelons are currently operating under a skeleton crew, as several seats in the its governing board also remain empty.
First the parliament must fill the bank’s empty board posts and the president will select one of the board members to nominate as governor.
The bank’s, deputy governor, Elisabeta Gjoni, is currently serving as acting governor.
In September, Albania’s parliament fired the country’s central bank governor, following his recent arrest for dereliction of duty, after millions of leks in cash in the bank’s reserves went missing.
Fullani was fired after the bank’s executive board argued he had “posed a grave threat to the bank’s interests.”
Fullani, who had been serving his second, seven-year term since being appointed in 2004, was charged with abuse of office after 713 million leks of the bank’s money was discovered to be missing in July.
He was jailed in September and later moved to house arrest. Earlier, this month the Supreme Court released him from the arrest order and said he will be investigated as a free person.
Seventeen other central bank employees have also been arrested.
Fullani denies any wrongdoing, and has not been accused of personally profiting from the theft.