September 8 (SeeNews) - Albania remains vulnerable to corruption due to political interference and lack of independence at key oversight institutions, as gaps and flaws in the country's legal framework explain only partly failure of practice, corruption watchdog Transparency International has said.
The National Integrity System Assessment - Albania 2016, the first-ever in depth assessment of corruption risks in Albania, published on the website of the non-governmental organization on Wednesday, seeks to identify priorities for an anti-corruption reform agenda.
"Albania falls short of the European Union requirements on anti-corruption and unless it introduces key reforms this could derail EU accession," Cornelia Abel, Coordinator for Southeast Europe and Western Balkans at Transparency International commented in a statement accompanying the report. "It is troubling that institutions that are set up to ensure decision makers act in the interest of Albanian citizens are not given the strength, impartiality and resources to do so."
According to the assessment, key Albanian institutions for fighting corruption, such as the Prosecutor’s Office, the High Court, the Central Election Commission (CEC) and the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets and Conflict of Interest (HIDAACI), are subject to political pressure and interference that undermines their ability to fulfil their role to stop corruption. Albania’s legal framework does not guarantee the independence of these key institutions from political power despite the recent reforms designed to meet a key EU requirement for starting accession negotiations.
In December 2015, after several months of debate amongst political parties, Albania's parliament adopted the constitutional amendments and legislative framework necessary to introduce a clear discipline for the exclusion of criminal offenders from public office, or the so called "decriminalisation" law.
In July the parliament voted unanimously a crucial judicial reform package making amendments to 46 articles of the constitution. The so called "judicial reform" has been discussed since 2014 and aims to fight political appointments in the judiciary.
"Albania’s recent judicial reform was a good start, but now needs to be implemented," said Abel. "Several laws of the justice reform package remain to be adopted by Parliament, and all eyes are on the government and the opposition to work together to make this reform real. Much more needs to be done if Albania aspires to start accession negotiations with the EU," she added.
Transparency International has formulated a number of recommendations for Albania to tackle the high levels of corruption. Under one of those recommendations the parliamentary ad-hoc committee must assume full function. Another one requires the country's parliament to urgently establish an ad-hoc committee on conflict of interest and lobbying regulation, which will have the right to propose changes to the legal framework. The watchdog also believes that political parties have to adopt higher standards when they choose electoral candidates and public functionaries in order to ensure professionalism and higher levels of integrity in the public sector.
Albania ranked 88-th out of 168 countries in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perception ranking published in January. The country has improved its standing compared to the 2014 ranking, when it came in the 110th place.