Millennium Challenge projects will not cease until January

TIRANA, Nov. 1 – Projects funded by Millennium Challenge Corporation have not ceased and will continue until the end of January 2010, USAID says. It made the clarification after comments by the local media referring to its projects, following the cancellation of the administrative courts project funding which came as a result of the Albanian parliament’s failure to vote on it.
The Administrative Courts Program was terminated effective Sept. 30, 2010, USAID says in a statement.
Other programs — not related to the Administrative Courts — under the MCC Threshold II Program will continue until Jan. 31, 2011.
According to Bruce Kay, director of Threshold Programs for the Millennium Challenge Program, “it is unfortunate that the Administrative Courts Law was not passed by the required deadline of Sept. 30, 2010. As a result, all Administrative Courts Program activities have concluded.”
Kay made a five-day visit to Albania to assess the programs of Albania’s MCC Threshold Program.
The law on the administrative courts was not voted by the parliament following the boycott from the opposition Socialist Party, which claimed the government would exploit the courts.
That followed the political fight between the opposition and the governing Democrats which has been ongoing since last year’s parliamentary elections.
The law needed three-fifths or 84 votes in the 140-seat parliament, which could not be done without the opposition’s presence.
The Socialists have been boycotting any voting in parliament since July to press their request for transparency of the parliamentary vote, asking for a partial recount.