But are vamped as political instruments or as a revenue source
In the last four years parliamentarian inquiring commissions have only caused commotion and swallowed a lot of money but not brought any tangible result, according to local Albanian press reports (Albania, 4.08.2009).
During the period of the former Parliament, in the previous four years 2005-2009, the Parliamentarian inquiring commissions raised on 9 different occasions have cost the Albanian state nearly 7 million Albanian Lek (ALL), according to H. Hasani in the pages of a local daily.
On the pages of Telegraf (4.08.2009) Izaura Ndoj details that a Member of Parliament (MP) is paid 2000 ALL for participation in the commission’s meeting. The president and the vice-president of the commission receive 2500 ALL. This is a way to make extra money and multiply their revenue sources, highlights the newspaper.
Out of the 9 Parliamentarian inquiring commissions have come contradictory conclusions or unsettled inquiries. The majority of the inquiries have ended with a pair of conclusions instead of a single one. Though it may sound strange, Albania announces that two different sets of conclusions have been handed in the majority of the cases, one from the “ruling-parties” MP-s and the other from the “opposition” MP-s. Other inquiries have either been paused or delayed beyond reason.
The inquiry on the monopoly of the mobile telephony in Albania is the only one that is reported to have gone to the end and to have ended with a single conclusion. But even in this case, there has been no action taken resulting from the workings of the commission, reminds Hasani, who highlights that no one and no case has been taken to the court. Some commissions have started while there was already a judiciary process in process. Others have not handed their conclusions for legal action, reminds the daily.
Out of the nine listed inquiries, some of the parliamentarian inquiring commissions have touched on political issues, while some others have concentrated on major economic issues, such as the tender on the Durr쳭Kuk쳠highway or the application of the law on the concessions, as well as the inquiry on the monopoly of the mobile telephone industry in Albania, or the privatization of Albtelecom, the national telephone operator.
