TIRANA, March 15 – The ruling Socialist Party has fired with its own votes the head of the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority citing violations in the management of the country’s second most important financial institution that oversees the insurance, investment fund and private pension markets. In a secret ballot vote in Parliament on Thursday at a time when the opposition Democrats and their allies continue their parliamentary boycott and indefinite protest over free and fair elections and a caretaker government to oversee the upcoming June 18 general elections, the ruling Socialist Party-led majority was divided over its decision to fire Shehi, the wife of an opposition MP who has been heading the Financial Supervisory Authority for the past five years.
Securing the voting quorum with only 75 MPs out of the 140-seat Parliament, Shehi was fired by 55 votes while 20 MPs of the Socialist Movement for Integration, the ruling Socialists’ junior ally, voted against Shehi’s dismissal, maintaining their stance after Socialist MPs of the parliamentary economy committee had ruled in favour of her firing a few days ago, but not boycotting the session.
Shehi’s dismissal was also favoured by the opposition’s boycott, whose presence in the 140-seat Parliament would have made her dismissal impossible with the SMI vote against.
The Financial Authority’s board and the ruling Socialist claim Shehi failed to implement a Parliament resolution on working relations in the institution, hired employees in conflict of interest, signed contracts and appointed an audit firm without the board’s approval, was engaged in unethical communication with staff and had been appointed for a third time as a Financial Supervisory Authority board member in violation of the law that envisages not more than two terms.
In a hearing with the parliamentary committee, Shehi described the claims in the report accompanying her dismissal as illegal and ridiculous and politically motivated.
Shehi, the wife of opposition politician Dashamir Shehi, the head of the National Movement for Development Party, an ally of the main opposition Democratic Party, had been heading the Financial Supervisory Authority since 2012. She was voted in consensus by Parliament for a five-year term in December 2014.
