According to a report from Transparency International and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation high-level corruption and tailor-made laws have seen an increase in the past twelve years, respectively from 2008 to 2020.

The report points out several problems caused by the slow enactment of the new justice institutions following the justice reform.

“State capture in Albania has increased significantly between 2008 and 2019”, this was one of the main findings following an examination report from Transparency International and the Institute for Democracy and Mediations.

According to the report, high-level corruption continues to be amplified by the privatization of public assets and services, as well as enabled by insufficient institutional mechanisms for the control and balance of power, as well as politicization of the public administration.

These factors, the report indicates, are mainly supported by a corrupted judicial which guarantees the impunity of perpetrators.

“The last decade has seen a strengthening of the partnership between politics, business, and organized crime which has reached its zenith in the last few years. Government contracts for select businesses with ties to prominent public officials have led to gross mismanagement of public assets, loss of life and debt incurred by the Albanian taxpayer”, the report found.

In addition, the report highlights that cooperation between political parties, public officials, and organized crime groups to buy votes in the local and general elections in exchange for exploiting public institutions for personal interests has gravely damaged the integrity of the electoral process.

Moreover, the slow pace of the justice reform and the gap created by the vetting of judges and prosecutors has stalled several important investigations and delayed many others.

Apart from that, the report notes, the Assembly is not fulfilling its role as the main watchdog of the executive.

The publication of the report was supported by the European Union, but its contents do not reflect necessarily the stance of the bloc.

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