“SPAK is necessary, but it is not sufficient,” said Arben Malaj during an interview for Euronews Albania.

In addition, he said that we need a real strategy to prevent any violations from happening, because, by the time they have happened, the damage has already been done.

“I believe we needed it but it is insufficient. We need a general preliminary culture. In a good element of the government, you have to prevent things from happening because if they happen they have already done the damage. You don’t feel good when you are a politician that even in 2023, the economic freedom report shows the lack of integrity of the government as the country’s weakest point. For us as researchers, if an indicator of economic freedom is below 50%, instead of being a driving force for all reforms, it is a hindering factor. Low level of government integrity makes citizens less obedient, it lowers expectations, increases informality, non-payment of taxes and other negative factors.

The government, before replacing this factor, imposes punitive measures and penalties and aggravates the relations between the government and the state”, former Minister of Finance Arben Malaj told Euronews Albania.