TIRANA, April 4- Illegal work dismissals are still a pursued habit which continue to drag down the state budget. The Ministry of Finances has paid over 100 million dollars in this category in the past five years. The data was collected and published by the non-governmental portal “Open.Spending.Albania,” which show that 2595 transactions were made by the State’s Treasure to pay off these persons.
Expenditures belong to state institutions and local government units and are responsive to payments to officials who have won trials at Tirana’s Administrative Court of Appeal for unjust dismissal. For 2018 there was an overall amount of 13.8 million dollars paid from taxpayer money to persons unjustly laid off, marked by slightly lower paid reimbursements than 2017, when the state budget paid off 600 thousand dollars more.
According to the 2018 Report of the newly-published Civil Service Oversight Commissioner, the overwhelming majority of court decisions have not been implemented, although the law provides that each institution is obliged to take the necessary measures for the immediate execution of the court decision. The Commissioner’s report estimates that in the state administration institutions” have been appealed to the Administrative Courts 609 administrative acts through which civil servants were dismissed or released, of which only 389 cases were resolved by a final decision, out of which for 80 cases have been overthrown annihilation. The report estimates that only 100 court decisions or 32 percent are currently executed, while there remain 209 more final court decisions or 68 percent of them to be yet executed.
Even in the local self-governing institutions, which involve 61 municipalities and 12 county councils, according to the report 323 administrative acts have been appealed to the Administrative Courts, out of which only 214 cases have been solved with a final decision, while 62 have been dismissed. The report estimates that only 62 court decisions or 41 percent were executed, while 90 final court decisions or 59 percent of them remain to be yet executed.
The report estimates that “from a comparative point of view over the years, the largest number of appealed administrative acts that are the subject of undecided judicial decisions have emerged in the period 2013-2015.” This period coincides with the 2013 parliamentary elections, when in Albania the Democrats left the country to the country’s socialist party.
The report estimates that the trial of appeals for unfair dismissals has resulted to last for over 3 years. According to the report “this situation is also considered as one of the main causes that has carried this problem over the years and complicated it, as it has made it difficult to find ways to resolve it, in the conditions where the high dynamics of movements and developments in administration are recognized.”
The Civil Service Oversight Commissioner’s report also talks about recruitment processes in the administration. According to the report of 1592 supervised work positions, 960 cases of assignments in office were found in accordance with the law requirements and 357 cases of irregular appointments, accounting for 22 percent of the civil service work positions.
Independent analysts find that there is still a gap between the legal and political framework and its implementation in the public administration. According to analysts, Albanian public administration continues to be characterized by ineffective careers, high rates of change reflected in the limited experience of civil servants, and from time to time appear bad practices such as bribing for jobs, abuse of power and influence of party politics in appointments from the simplest clerks to senior officials.
While ongoing court processes are expected to make the situation worse, economy experts have suggests law amendments which would hold the employer accountable for signing employees’ dismissals. Expert from the Center for Economic Research Zef Preci considers this an abuse, considering all the investments in schools and hospitals this amount of money could lead to if it wasn’t for its mismanagement.
“It is a violation of the constitutional rights of the individual, it is a violation of the families, at the same time it is a completely unnecessary cost on Albanian taxpayers. There is an absurd situation in which there are three parallel administrations, two effective and another waiting,” Preci told local media in an interview.
Among the ministries, the one with the highest number of transactions is the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, with approximately 466 transactions, followed by the Ministry of Agriculture with 79, Ministry of Energy and Transport with 66 transactions, the Ministry of Defense with 61 and the Ministry of Healthcare with 56.
