US-Albania anti-corruption partnership enters a new stage

TIRANA, March 18 – Albania has begun a second two-year anticorruption partnership with USAID under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold Program. The bilateral agreement with USAID commits Albania to undertake specific reforms with US assistance as a means of reducing corruption and strengthening the rule of law.
Over two years, the Threshold Program will streamline licensing procedures in a one-stop-shop National Licensing Center; establish Administrative Courts; create a National Planning Register to make building permit procedures more transparent; and expand and consolidate tax administration reforms (like e-filing and audit) begun under the first Threshold Program.
The U.S. Department of Justice OPDAT Program, also a partner under the Program, will work with the Prosecutor General’s Office to establish six more Joint Investigative Units outside Tirana.
Albanian officials and lawmakers met Wednesday with US officials to discuss Program goals and strategies.
Deputy Prime Minister Genc Pollo expressed confidence that Albania would make visible and tangible improvements in its business and legal environment under the Program.
In her remarks, USAID Director Roberta Mahoney underscored the role the Program will play testing Albania’s resolve in continuing reforms, noting that “as Albania receives NATO membership next month, Albanians assume a greater responsibility to deliver efficient, transparent governance backed by a rule of law that does not allow corruption to go unpunished.”
Mahoney said that success in Stage II will help qualify Albania for Compact Status, the larger MCC bilateral assistance program.