METASTASES OF CORRUPTION

Albania:

Alfred PEZA (AIM Tirana)

In 1997 the World Bank ranked Albania among countries with the highest corruption level in Europe. Asked whether the corruption was detrimental to post-communist democracy, the Former Prime Minister of Albania in the 1992-1997 period, Alexander Meksi answered that "Corruption is a greaser of capitalism". Nevertheless, during the rule of Sali Berisha's Democratic Party, which is today in opposition, a long list of Government officials, high public servants and legislation employees were fired or ended up in court on charges of corruption. It seemed at that time that the international community did not feel particularly strongly about this level of corruption in the country that has just emerged from the phase of the harshest dictatorship in Eastern Europe. In the 1995-1996 period, the International Monetary Fund even considered Albania a model of economic development in the former communist East, with the annual growth rate of gross domestic production (GDP) of 10 to 13 percent.

The reality was, nevertheless, quite different. According to the World Banks' report published a year after Berisha came to the helm in August 1998, Albania was among the first countries on the European continent regarding the level of corruption. According to that study, private firms had to give 8 percent of their income for bribing public sector officials. Since 1999, practically one half of citizens admitted having bribed public sector officials, while two thirds of them said that bribe-taking was very present in Albania. The then Government of Prime Minister Fatos Nano, which had inherited this problem, took things into its hands.

Nevertheless, even at that time the problem of corruption in Albania was not a priority issue for the international community. A country which several months before that had recovered form a collapse caused by the disintegration of fraudulent pyramidal saving scheme in which over 90 percent of Albanian families lost USD 1.2 billion in savings. Simultaneously with the reconstruction of the country and the economy, the level of corruption dropped. According to the World Bank's report for 2000 Albania ranked seventh in Europe regarding corruption.

In the last ten years of transition corruption has permeated practically all levels of the executive authorities, local governments, as well as the judiciary. One of the most common forms of corruption at these three levels of authorities is the theft of public funds, securing of state positions and benefits by means of bribery, payment of favours in customs, telecommunications, building licences and medical services.

Corruption if often justified - even by Government officials - by low salaries of public servants in state, local and central administration, as well as the judiciary. A minimum salary of budget-financed employees is USD 55, and that of the President of the Republic USD 1,050 a month.

During the election campaign for Albanian general parliamentary elections of June 24, 2001, the victorious Socialist Party had announced the fight against corruption as one of the main items of its Government programme in the next four-year mandate. Irrespective of the promises made in the political pre-electoral propaganda, the new Government in Tirana would have to start fulfilling its promises, mostly because of its obligations towards the Euro-Atlantic organisations, which the country would like to join.

As a result of pressures of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other organisations, as well as major donor countries for infrastructure projects and administration reforms, the Albanian Government has recently established an Albanian Board for Anti-Corruption Monitoring, which in a study published this month came to a conclusion that "Albanian institutions have entered a new stage in the fight against corruption - the stage of intensified preparations for the implementation of adopted laws and by-laws in order to achieve concrete and tangible results". The formation of control structures in various Ministries is a part of this endeavour. The Government Committee also demanded amendments to and improvement of Anti-Corruption Action Plan for the Ministry of the Interior and the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Nevertheless, it seems that with services which are part of that same Government it is hard to control and fight corruption as a form of the abuse of a governmental, judicial and state office for the purpose of securing personal gain, especially financial one. They are run by a state Minister, who is expected to uncover the abuse of power of political officials, which mostly belong to nomenclatures which are higher ranking than him, such as the President, Prime Minister, Parliament or their appointed officials. The Government itself was often enough a subject of criticism of international organisation for corruption in its ranks and structures.

The High State Control, a kind of accounting court, occasionally publishes reports about the level of corruption in state institutions. However, these reports do not have punitive character, but only propose measures to the Government and judicial authorities, which is why the role of this body is rather negligible. Under the Constitution, once a year the President of the High State Control - elected from among the opposition ranks - reports to the Parliament on the annual budget and his work. During 2000, this "court" proposed the passing of disciplinary and administrative measures against 349 persons and instituting of criminal proceedings against other 10.

For their part, some Ministries have in the meantime taken certain measures in that direction. Thus, in the judiciary in the first half of this year 14 judges have been relieved of office on charges of corruption and disciplinary measures have been passed against another 8 judges. Chiefs of 5 Executive Offices of First Instance Courts, as well as 12 of their subordinates were dismissed, while 13 were warned. 20 officials of the General Prison Administration have been dismissed, including 2 Directors General, whereas lighter punitive measures were passed against another 27 workers.

In the past year, on charges of corruption Ministry of the Interior dismissed 140 of its employees, including two Police Commissioners in districts in which the country's main customs offices are located - Korce and Gjirokaster. On the other hand, in the 1997-2001 period the Prosecutor General relieved 12 district prosecutors of their office. Five of them were criminally charged for "the abuse of duty, bribe-taking, violation of investigation proceedings and abuse of office".

On the other hand, in the last year and a half the Albanian Customs Service has realised 100 percent of its projected revenue, which greatly influenced the Albania's reputation in the international financial institutions. Since May 2000 till today, 39 of its workers, including several chiefs of customs offices, have been dismissed on charges of "having participated in the smuggling and violating customs procedures by failing to perform physical inspection of goods".

During four years of Socialists' rule, the Albanian Public Prosecutor's Offices have instituted criminal proceedings at the highest levels of Government, against several high-ranking officials in the Ministry of the Defence on charges of corruption and abuse of tenders. However, in most cases, charges were dropped and criminal proceedings were either suspended or ridiculously mild sentences were pronounced.

In the name of anti-corruption fight and increasing the efficiency of the privatisation of large enterprises and strategic sectors in the country, Prime Minister Meta has lately relieved of office the Director of the Savings Bank, which holds the greatest number of deposits, as well as the General Manager of "Albtelecom", the strongest firm in Albania. However, these decisions were considered part of the fight of political authorities for securing greater influence in the privatisation process, since the Bank has to be privatised by the end of the year and "Telecom"

• the only cable phone company in Albania - has just embarked upon the privatisation process.