UK, Netherlands help public administration

TIRANA, Feb 10 – British Ambassador in Albania Fraser Wilson took part at a workshop of mayors, city councilors and civil society representatives entitled “Local Government Transparency in the Provision of Services” organized by “Partners Albania,” a nongovernmental organization funded by the UK together with the Netherlands.
The project aims at increasing good governance and building capacity in local government public administration, and at tackling corruption in municipalities across the country, objectives to help Albania make real progress towards meeting the conditions for EU integration.
“These are areas where more progress is needed before Albania is ready to take further steps towards that integration,” said Wilson. “Rooting out corruption in local government is vitally important for Albania’s Euro-Atlantic integration.”
At last year’s report the European Commission said that “ƣorruption remains a particularly serious problem in Albania” adding that “implementation needs to start and monitoring mechanisms remain to be assessed. Much work is still needed on changing behavior and procedures in the public administration.”
“Now is the time to introduce new local tools to fight corruption,” said the ambassador.
Continuing on the ambassador stated, “Corruption is bad for Albania because of the impact it has on ordinary Albanians, being an obstacle to economic development and investment, leaving people poorer than they would be in a system free of corruption.”