Annual progress report 2015 albanian contribution – input I september 2014 – may 2015 table of contents
The National Coordinator against Corruption
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- Developing the Electronic Online System of Corruption Cases Statistics and Track Record
- Awareness campaign unified procedures for the corruption complaints/denouncements
- Unit on Internal Administrative Control and Anti-corruption
- Launched efforts to prevent corruption through economic measures
- The reform of the police
- Drafting of the new whistleblowing act
- Launched efforts to improve public procurement
- 969 disciplinary processes
The National Coordinator against Corruption (NCAC) has pursued with the anti-corruption reforms and has continued its work in leading and coordinating the RoadmapKey Priority 3, the fight against corruption. His role has been key not only in managing and streamlining information coming from different stakeholders but also in terms of assisting relevant institutions in fulfilling the obligations stemming from the roadmap. Regarding the implementation of recommendations stemming from the 4th round of GRECO evaluation for Albania, the office of NCAC has sustained the process of advising the relevant institutions in undertaking the necessary steps to comply with the recommendations and fulfill them within the compliance report phase which is within 2016. Developing the Electronic Online System of Corruption Cases Statistics and Track Record Taking stock of the work being carried out by the Working Group on Harmonized Statistics on Corruption and Organized Crime Cases led by the Ministry of Justice and recommendations and findings from relevant reports on this issue, the National Coordinator on Anti-corruption, with assistance by UNDP, is developing a web based system that will ensure collection, processing, and analysis in real time on corruption cases against public officials brought to prosecution and relevant administrative measures taken. The system will generate analysis on trends of corruption cases among sectors and cases being tried. The system is currently being designed and tested and will be fully deployed in June 2015. Following to that, training of relevant officials that will use the system is planned to be carried out from May-June 2015. This web-based system beside providing a full picture of relevant corruption cases, initiated, prosecuted and tried, will also greatly enhance the data-driven policy decisions on anti-corruption efforts based on the statistics generated by the system itself. Awareness campaign & unified procedures for the corruption complaints/denouncements –On 2 February 2015, the Government started a nationwide campaign to address the issue of corruption. One of the components of the campaign is the launching of the unique portal to denounce corruption cases, a novelty that brings all the portals to denounce corruption in the institutions of the executive to one, www.stopkorrupsionit.al. The novelty with the unique portal is that cases are diligently followed by the responsible officials in the institutions within the timeframe of 30 working days and feedback is provided to the citizens on the status of the case. Citizens can remain anonymous while declaring cases of corruption. Furthermore, the whole process is monitored by an operation room which guarantees that all cases are followed and investigated within the set timeframe and with professionalism. On monthly basis, statistics of the cases denounced, closed, investigated and resolved through the unique portal will be made public. The unified procedures for handling corruption complaints, which have been drafted and approved with the council of ministers decision No. 30, 5 May 2015, aim at further building public trust, increasing transparency and ensuring accountability. The launching of the unique portal will be accompanied by an awareness campaign with the slogan “Show the real face of corruption – Denounce the invisible so visible”! Alongside with this initiative, on March 2015, an SMS feedback mechanism was introduced in the hospitals and immovable property registration offices around Albania. This activity will serve at collecting citizens’ satisfaction about the services provided by the public institutions and if there are cases of bribery being requested by public officials. On 10 December 2014, the National Forum on Anti-corruption took place in Tirana. This annual activity was a showcase of the achievements and challenges encountered from a number of ministries delivering public services and tackling corruption issues. The forum served as a platform of public accountability, so that the ministers could publicly report on the actions they have undertaken in order to fulfill the commitments declared in the previous Anti-corruption Conference that was organized on 13 November 2013. The actions that every ministry has committed to undertake in the framework of the Anti-corruption Action Plan will be presented and discussed in the upcoming forum that will take place in December 2015. The Unit on Internal Administrative Control and Anti-corruption has continued its work, conducting an increased number of administrative investigations compared to previous years, with 8 investigations having been ordered by the Prime Minister only within the three first months of 2015, and with 2 cases filed at the prosecution within those months. Several administrative measures have also been recommended to institutions. In function to the increase of work quality and strengthening the investigative capacities of HIDAACI, the organizational chart was amended by the Decision of the National Assembly no. 55/2014 entered into force on September 2014. HIDAACI is composed of 57 employees in comparison to 53 employees in 2013, including administrative staff. Under the recent review of the organizational, the Cabinet of Inspector General is part of it, as it was not before. The budget of HIDAACI for 2014 has increased approximately 15% with the value of 107.000.000ALL in comparison with the year 2013 with 93.000.000ALL. During 2014-2015, several bilateral or multilateral MoUs have been adopted between HIDAACI and the Anti-corruption Unit within the Council of Ministers (dated 14.10.2014) Taxes and Customs General Directorate’s (dated 16.1.2015), Commissioner on Access to Information (dated 8.4.2015), multilateral MoU on Prevention of Money Laundering (dated 8.4.2015), aiming to speed up the exchange of information and to foster cooperation between state institutions in order to prevent and fight against corruption, money laundering and organized crime. Launched efforts to prevent corruption through economic measures- The National Coordinator against Corruption in cooperation with the National Economic Council (NEC) is spearheading an initiative to curb informal economy in Albania, a source of economic stagnation and fertile ground for corruption and money laundering. The initiative will start with a study that will baseline the status quo and provide recommendations for legal and management reforms to cover the decrease of cash transactions and the improvement of local financial reporting by strengthening adapt institutions through legislative accommodation of best practices and new technologies now present in all developed economies. With the assistance of EBRD, a dedicated Investment Council was established in April 2015 to support the National Economic Council with the aim of improving the development of the private sector, strengthening the business and investment climate, lead efforts to strengthen the rule of law, prevent corruption, reinforce mechanisms of dispute resolution, enhance transparency, address the issue of informality in the economy and promoting good governance. During September 2014-April 2015, HIDAACI deposited with the Ministry of Justice 4 cases of judges as it observed irregularity in the verification of their assets. Concerning these measures, Ministry of Justice initiated the respective legal procedures. In December 2014, 2 judges were punished for committing the criminal offence of passive corruption. One of the judges is punished by the Serious Crimes Court. This case is tried by applying the anti-corruption package adopted by the Parliament in March 2014, in which the criminal offences of corruption committed by judges, prosecutors and locally elected persons, are tried by the Serious Crimes Court. Regarding the Right to Information, in 2014, legal amendments took place replacing the older legal framework on access to documents. The approval of Law No. 119/2014 “On the Right to Information” on 18.09.2014 aims to guarantee information to the public relating to the exercise of the individual rights and freedoms in practice and shapes as well the public views on conditions of the State and of the society. It also promotes integrity, transparency and accountability of public authorities, increasing the powers of the Commissioner’s Office giving to it the opportunity to play a key role in two important pillars, such as in the right to information and in personal data protection. Another innovation regarding the reporting period is the approval on 30.10.2014 by the Assembly of Albania of the Law No. 146/2014 “On notification and Public Consultation.” This Law provides appeal to the Information and Data Protection if interested parties estimate that the public body has violated their right for notification and public consultation. The General Prosecutor Office has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Commissioner on Data Protection and after consultation with the latter, it has issued in 2013 the regulation for the protection, processing, storage and security of personal data by the prosecutors. The Commissioner was also consulted in the process of drafting the memorandum of cooperation regarding taking access in state online databases. Regarding the confidentiality of investigative information, the Penal Procedure Code has provisions for its preservation and the Criminal Code criminalizes violations of this obligation. The Inter-institutional Working Group is set-up and will start the work to improve data sharing among law enforcement agencies in fighting organized crime. It will perform the review of legal framework and the assessment of existing databases.
It has registered 3 prosecutions for the offense of passive corruption of senior state and local elected officials. It has also registered 8 cases for offenses of active and passive corruption of judges, prosecutors and other judicial functionaries and sent for trial 3 prosecutions. 104 prosecutions for corruption offenses of persons exercising public functions have been registered, and 32 sent to trial. For the offense of illegal exercise of influence 24 cases were registered and 15 sent to trial. During 2014, the Joint Investigation Units as specialized structures on prosecution, in the field of corruption, economic crime and money laundering have handled 2476 referrals, compared with 2013, during which there were handled 1646 referrals and resulted an increase of the workload with 50.4%. For 2014, there were investigated 2337 criminal proceedings, which constitute an increase of 57% over 1493 criminal proceedings investigated a year ago. With an increase of 98% results also the number of proceedings sent for trial in 2014, where were recorded 463 proceedings sent for trial over 234 proceedings for 2013. An important indicator of investigative activity performed is the punishment of the defendants sent to trial. The data indicate that is given the guiltiness for the 89% of the defendants and only for 11% of them is decided the innocence or the termination of the trial. Criminal Offences in Police recorded for the period September 2014 - March 2015 The objective was to increase the number of proactive investigations and the number of police operations in the field of corruption and crimes of officials on duty by 5%. The total increase realized was 51.6% with regard to all offenses, 43.6% regarding corruption offences and 41.2 % for proactive investigations and 39.4% for police operations. During this period, corruption units identified 477 offenses and discovered 458 of them, processed 686 perpetrators of whom 145 were arrested and 53 were detained, 476 offenders were prosecuted while free and 12 authors are wanted. In comparison with the September 2013 - March 2014 period in total for corruption and crimes of officials on duty 112 more offenses were recorded, implicating 88 more suspected offenders, and 82 more arrested and detained offenders. For corruption offences alone, there were 55 cases more, 44 more alleged offenders and 41 more offenders arrested. An important aspect related to law enforcement is also the work of the Internal Control and Complaints Service by the Ministry of Interior which has sent to the Prosecution 124 cases and treated 695 reports from citizens by conducting also 29 inspections. Regarding the capacities of the law enforcement, two more TAIEX missions (on intelligence led policing and proactive investigations as well as on knowledge management, information exchange and coordination mechanisms among law enforcement bodies) are scheduled to take place in coordination with the EU delegation in Tirana. The prosecution has started to implement the Case Management Project (Case Management) in January 2015; the initial implementation on the module registers in the whole system of the Prosecution Office. Meanwhile, in some Prosecution Offices the Quality Management System is implemented in all stages of their procedural activity. IT staff have been also appointed and budgeting provided to work on the system. The serious crimes office dealing with corruption has also been staffed with experienced prosecutors appointed by the Prosecutor General. In order to increase the role of coordinator and controller at the General Prosecution Office, the control of the investigation of the prosecution of offenses on corruption and economic crime, is made by the Directorate for Investigation Control of Economic Crime and Corruption. This directory is serving as an efficient structure for standardization of investigative actions and analysis of the cases of investigation of corruption in the Albanian Prosecution Office. Legal framework The reform of the police was finalized through the drafting, approving and entering into force of the law no.70/2014 for “The Internal Affairs Service and Complaints, at Ministry of Internal Affairs”. Through this law the Service as a law enforcement agency will fulfil highest standards of democratic functioning, transparency, through a controllable and accountable service for the citizens. The following decisions of the Council of Ministers were adopted in implementing this law:
Regarding the law on the State Police and the creation of the NBI, deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court ruling in March 2015, following to the publication of the decision, the government has committed to amending the law appropriately to ensure the compliance of the law with the Constitution. Drafting of the new whistleblowing act – In May 2014, NCAC and the Ministry of Justice, with the assistance of the Dutch government that is channeled through Utrecht University, began drafting the Whistleblowers Protection Act. This act will serve to increase transparency of public and private institutions by creating a better environment for employees to step up and denounce corruption cases. The first draft law was discussed on 9 June 2014, in a roundtable where representatives of the central and independent institutions as well as international actors attended. Feedback collected from several rounds of consultations with relevant stakeholders and written proposals received further improved and shaped the proposed initial draft. The improved version of the draft bill defines the scope of the law on corruption related offences, delineates the competences of the internal mechanisms, and pinpoints which body should serve as the external reporting mechanisms and how the protection of whistleblowers should be ensured. In addition, the draft legislation foresees that it will apply both in the public and private sector. Following to the roundtable with interested actors in end of February 2015, the draft law has been further improved and reflects not only suggestions coming from the best international examples and Albanian counterparts but will also is aligned with the Albanian legal and institutional framework. The draft law is expected to be adopted by the Parliament in July 2015. Launched efforts to improve public procurement- In April 2014, the Government set up the Working Group on Improving the Public Procurement System in Albania. The Working Group was comprised of line ministries and procurement agencies’ representatives (Public Procurement Commission and Agency) and was supervised by the National Coordinator against Corruption. The Working Group has conducted an assessment of the public procurement processes from the perspective of bidding companies, as well as from the monitoring perspective of supervisory bodies, such as Public Procurement Agency and Commission. Following the assessment, the working group proposed a number of amendments to be introduced into the public procurement law in order to avoid existing bottlenecks and shortcomings in Albania’s public procurement system thus increasing transparency and ensuring fairness and inclusiveness in the bidding processes. These amendments were adopted on 24 December 2014. There is a clear definition of corruption offenses including active and passive corruption as specified below in the relevant article of the Criminal Code:
Intimidation made to the aggrieved from the criminal act, in order for him not to report the act or not to complain or to withdraw the report or complaint made, is punishable by imprisonment from one up to four years. The Criminal Code specifies the offenses in the field of corruption in the private sector and the public sector, as specified below.
Strategic framework In March 2015, Albania passed the most important anti-corruption policy documents – the Inter-sectoral Strategy on Anti-Corruption 2015-2020 and the Anti-Corruption Action Plan 2015-2017. They were based on a detailed analysis of implementation of the previous policy documents as well as a review of recommendations from previous projects. The National Strategy has a three-pronged approach: prevention, repression and education (awareness raising). The process of drafting the main anti-corruption policy documents was accompanied by a series of consultative meetings with relevant institutions and interested actors, including here the NGOs and business community. The inclusiveness of all stakeholders, the independent institutions and the local level, was crucial to ensure the multi-dimensional response to this cross-cutting phenomenon. The 2015-2017 Action Planis a living document that will be updated every end of the year following to the monitoring of its implementation. The Action Plan contains concrete/realistic and measurable indicators for evaluation of its implementation. It also has been budgeted with a value of about 12.4 mil EUR, 49% of which is covered by the state budget, 10% from IPA funds, 19% from foreign donors and 23% of which is in need of financing. The Secretariat of NCAC will monitor the implementation of the Action Plan on quarterly basis and at the end of each year will publish the annual report. The National Consultative Forum on Anti-corruption will be established to ensure a broad participation and decision taking on anti-corruption policies with active and meaningful involvement/representation of the civil society. This Forum will be composed of anti-corruption coordinators (deputy ministers of line ministries involved), contact points at independent institutions, a selected number of contact points at local level, as well as representatives of NGOs and business community. A European Commission Project on Anti-corruption Assessment Framework in Albania (ACFA) took place from April 2014 to January 2015, providing insightful analysis on the current set up of Albanian institutions working in the anti-corruption area. Recommendations stemming from the ACFA project provide a very good basis for the Albanian institutions in delineating concrete anti-corruption measures most of which are already included in the Anti-corruption Action Plan 2015-2017. Compliance with international and EU law Provisions of the Convention of 26 May 1997 on the fight against corruption involving officials of the European Communities or officials of the Member States of the EU are adequately covered in the Albanian Criminal Code as specified above in articles 244/a and 259/a. Relevant provisions on jurisdiction, extradition and mutual legal assistance are provided for in other legal acts including Law 10193 “On jurisdictional relations with foreign authorities on criminal matters”. Article 11 of Penal Code specifies that “Extradition may be granted only when explicitly provided for by international treaties in which the Republic of Albania is a party. Extradition shall be granted when both Albanian law and foreign law provide for the criminal act, which constitutes the object of the request for extradition, as such simultaneously.” Given that Albania is party to the UNCAC, extradition for corruption offences is possible also as required by the Convention.
Moreover, the adoption of law No. 9754, dated 14.06.2007 “On the Criminal liability of legal persons” fulfills the requirements set forth in articles 5-7 of the Framework Decision regarding the liability of legal persons, penalties to be applied, and issues of jurisdiction.
According to article 257/a of the CC the refusal of declaration, failure to declare, concealment or false declaration of wealth, or private interests of the elected persons and public officials is punished with fine until 3 years of imprisonment. Moreover refusal to comply with the declaratory obligation entails disciplinary measure until the loss of the function. Sanctions implemented are very clear as they are defined in both laws, in accordance with the gravity of the infringements. However, the level or the amount of administrative measure/ fines applied is still considered to be low. There are legislative plans to further increase these sanctions. In the General Directorate of Albanian State Police a Sector for corruption has been established (part of Directorate on Financial Crimes) consisting of 5 (five) police officers that deal with corruption offences, and in the Police Directorate of Tirana District, a Corruption Section operates consisting of 8 (eight) police officers that deal with corruption offences. In other Regional Police Directories, specialists for Economic and Financial Crimes deal with corruption offences. Undoubtedly one of the innovations in the fight against corruption is the establishment of new structures, special, specialized against it. Law no. 108/2014 "On the State Police", which provides the establishment of the National Bureau of Investigation (articles 27 to 36) was adopted this past year, reforming the police and providing for the creation of the NBI as a unique structure that deals, among others, with corruption offences at the highest levels. The Sector of Discipline in the Directorate of Professional Standards for the period 01 January to 31 December 2014, has verified a total of 969 disciplinary processes. During this period, after administrative investigations were conducted, the following disciplinary measures were implemented: 1. "Expulsion from the Police", 200 cases, 2. "Layoffs", 28 cases, 3. "Downgrade for up to 12 months", 51 cases, 4. “Downgrade to a lower duty (civilian)”, 2 cases, 5. "Suspension without pay for up to 30 days", 350 cases, 6. "Deferment of grading for up to a year", 102 cases. A total of 733 police officers were punished with measures for serious violations. 165 cases (for minor offenses) were recommended to the regional police offices and the border and migration directorates. Directory: files -> documents files files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations documents files -> Report: Shelter Support Mission to Afghanistan documents files -> Information and Communication Technologies for Reconstruction and Development Afghanistan Challenges and Opportunities documents files -> Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination in Emergencies: Towards a Predictable Model documents files -> Rapid Education Needs Assessment Report documents files -> H Report of a Workshop on Coordinating Regional Capacity Building on Gender Responsive Humanitarian Action in Asia-Pacific documents files -> Arizona Department of Administration Risk Management Statewide Motor Vehicle Safety Policy Download 3.84 Mb. Share with your friends:
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