CURRENT PROJECTS

• Justice for All (March 2016 through March 2021)
• Planning and Local Governance Project (January 2012 through September 2019)
• Transparency in Healthcare Engagement (March 2017 through March 2019)
• Transparency in Political Party Finance (October 2016 - November 2018)

BACKGROUND

Corruption continues to be a complex and pervasive challenge in Albania, impeding economic growth and damaging the faith of citizens in government. While the legal framework and inter-agency structures to reduce corruption are in place, including the recently passed judicial reform, implementation remains uneven. The 2014 Worldwide Governance Indicators for Albania (the most recent available), collected by the World Bank, show that the country ranks very poorly in terms of government effectiveness (51.9 percentile), rule of law (40.9 percentile), and control of corruption (35.6 percentile). Further, government officials are rarely charged or held accountable for crimes.

USAID/Albania projects work to improve government and judicial accountability, transparency, and efficiency. We partner with government institutions, the media, and civil society organizations to support transparent and efficient systems that hold public officials accountable to its citizens and minimize corruption in government, the judiciary, and financial sectors.

PROGRAM AREAS

USAID supports improvements to rule of law and judicial reforms to build an ethical, transparent and efficient justice sector by:

• Supporting the Government of Albania to realize the 2016 constitutional amendments and implementing laws. Through the USAID Justice for All project, we assisted with the establishment of the High Judicial Council, including planning, budgeting, and organizational chart and trained professional and lay members on responsibilities and execution of duties.

• Facilitating efforts to make court practices and proceedings more streamlined, expeditious, and transparent. With the OSCE, USAID is improving courtroom efficiency by deploying a courtroom scheduling system and case management software, and increasing transparency through the use of digital audio recording as official court records.  USAID Justice for All project also strengthens the ability of civil society organizations (CSOs) and journalists to improve investigative journalism and crime reporting, and monitor the government’s claims of addressing corruption.

• Assisting in the vetting of justice officials. USAID Transparency in Healthcare Engagement, in partnership with the Council of Europe, is assisting the development and deployment of an electronic asset and conflict of interest declaration system (EACIDS) with HIDAACI. The system will enable the online submission of declarations, the conversion of paper records into electronic, and the searching of archived records for in-depth analysis over time.

USAID supports Albania’s attempts at improved governance through technical assistance and training by:

• Providing technical assistance to the Government of Albania and Albanian local government institutions to successfully implement decentralization legislation, policies and reforms. Through the USAID Planning and Local Governance Project (PLGP), we work with the Government of Albania to develop and adopt a Local Government Finance Law (LGFL) to strengthen local public finance management, accountability and transparency, and enhance intergovernmental consultation.. We have assisted five municipalities to establish a transparent land development process, by drafting and adopting urban plans and policies that reduce opportunities to issue illegal construction permits and to follow corrupt practices.

• Working to improve the efficient, transparency, and accountability of local government operations through technical assistance, new technologies, and new practices. We have assisted the computerization of financial and tax systems in 11 municipalities to improve tax collection, increase tax revenues, and reduce the number of one-on-one interactions with tax officials, who are cited as a source of corrupt practices. USAID also developed a “Fix My City” application in six cities, enabling citizens to monitor actions taken by municipalities to address their concerns. 

The PLGP project established One-Stop Shops in 5 municipalities that offer more efficient and responsive administrative services to citizens through a single service point that reduces corruption, time, and effort to the public. PLGP also organized Citizen Advisory Panels in 13 municipalities, enabling citizens to participate in local budget and planning meetings with municipal officials. USAID also developed a “Citizen’s Guide to the Local Budget” allowing citizens to effectively participate in policy making while simultaneously increasing the transparency and accountability of local governments. 

The USAID Transparency in Healthcare Engagement project has developed and launched a mobile application to report rights abuses directly to the Office of the Ombudsperson.

• Increasing the transparency of government activities through technical assistance to journalists and media outlets. The USAID supports the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN):

• to investigate and report on political party spending
• to investigate and report on instances of abuse and possible corruption in the health sector
• to improve court reporting and investigative journalism

USAID program assistance also helped to create Faktoje, an online fact-checking portal for statements and claims made by political figures.

• Promoting fair and transparent elections for the expected 2019 municipal elections through potential electoral reform, voter outreach, technical assistance (as needed), and observer missions. USAID Transparency in Political Party Finance project trained political party financial management staff on reporting requirements and compliance. In partnership with the Albania Central Election Commission (CEC), USAID developed a common reporting format that all was adopted as the only approved format for reporting.