HAS SALI BERISHA PRIVATIZED STATE INSTITUTIONS? |
The International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, regularly analyses events in the Middle East and the Balkans. IFIMES has prepared an analysis of the current political situation in Albania in view of the decision of the Council of Ministers of 8 November 2010 to abolish the visa regime for the citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the conclusion of unsuccessful negotiations between the Democratic Party (DP) and the Socialist Party (PS) by the intervention of the European Parliament (EP). The most interesting and relevant parts of the comprehensive analysis entitled »Has Sali Berisha privatised state institutions« are given below. |
| ALBANIA: The EU has corrected its mistake from 2009 when it failed to abolish the visa system for the citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, although these two countries were not in a worse position than Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, which had the visa regime abolished less than a year ago. The freedom of movement is one of the primary human rights and the ambition of the EU is to become the leader in respecting and protecting human rights, so this decision basically fixes the injustice that has been inflicted upon the citizens of these two countries. However, the EU hasn’t abolished visas for the citizens of Kosovo yet and so Kosovars are at the moment the most isolated nation in Europe. The current government of Albania, represented by its prime minister Sali Berisha (PD), is by all means trying to take all the credits for the visa abolitions and, by doing so, to take any public attention off the unsuccessful negotiations between the Democratic Party (PD) and the Socialist Party (PS) that have been led by the intermediation of the European Parliament and Eduard Kukan, the President of the Delegation of the EP for South Eastern Europe and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia. INCREASED CORRUPTION Crime and corruption still represent the cancer of the Albanian society. Prime Minister Sali Berisha is attacking corruption more than others, but only as regards its consequences, not its origins. According to Transparency International for 2010, Albania’s corruption level (2010 corruption perception index) was rated by the 87th place among 178 countries, together with India, Jamaica and Liberia (in 2008 it was on the 85th place). Transparency International personally addressed Prime Minister Sali Berisha in writing concerning different forms of corruption and pressures exerted by the authorities. ERE IN HANDS OF SALI BERISHA The malfunction and non-efficiency of the institutions of the Albanian state is very illustrative in the case of Energy Regulatory Authority (ERE), which obviously doesn’t carry out its responsibilities and competencies that have been entrusted to it according to the Law with the aim to promote the free competition in electric energy sector, protection of the interests of consumers and the supervision of consistent law enforcement of all the procedures for transparent electricity purchases for covering the losses of the Albanian energy system by the recently privatized public company named OSSH (Operatori i Sistemit te Shperndarjes). Regardless of the fact that it was the Energy Regulatory Authority ERE (Enti Rregullator i Energjise) that created the legislative framework and the rules in 2008 and 2009 which shall regulate the operation of OSSH after its 76% privatization of previously state distribution by the Czech company ČEZ Group, and regardless the circumstances that all five ERE commissioners were appointed by the Albanian Parliament, especially by the members of Berisha’s Democratic Party, it is nevertheless ERE’s disinterest and inefficiency in carrying out basic functions that is the obvious example of this state institution’s malfunctioning. A very obvious case is the Electricity Supply Tender from September 2010 for covering the losses in the Albanian distribution system by the OSSH sh.a. that meanwhile renamed itself into ČEZ Distribution. After the investigation of the of the best bidder selection procedure several irregularities and infringements have been determined and also some obvious violations of the accepted Rules and procedures for procurement of electricity from OSSH sh.a., which had been accepted by the ERE in May 2009 particularly with the purpose to avoid possible misuses. Despite the fact that ERE took a clear stand during the privatization of OSSH sh.a. that all the procedures by OSSH sh.a. concerning the purchase of electric power for covering the losses in the distribution system should be carried out “fairly”, “transparently” and in compliance with applicable laws and best practices, considering in particular also the fact that the costs of such purchases are fully pass-through and charged upon final consumers by increased applicable tariff. Regardless of this duty, ERE was obviously not interested in the consistent observation of such standards in practice. Despite the fact that in this case such public tender directly affects the tariffs of electric energy for final consumers in Albania, ERE didn’t deal with the transparency of the procedure and the consistency of the before mentioned rules for such purchases of electric power irrespective of the obvious violations, but it obviously tolerated even the disrespect of its own procedure rules. According to the local Albanian media (“Monitor” magazine, November 2010, p.8) ERE approved the submitted tender results by OSSH sh.a., despite established obvious and transparent procedure violations, which creates a reasonable doubt in the independence and credibility of decisions reached by this state institution and also justifiably raises questions regarding the possibility of corruption. In addition, ERE with such “paper-tiger” activity is disabling competition development on the Albanian market and is at the same time enabling the possibility for high earnings of some companies and all of this at the expense of the consumers, i.e. the Albanian citizens. The analysts are warning that the losses in the Albanian distribution network reach around 30% of the entire annual consumption and this cost is paid directly by the Albanian citizens, amounting to over 100 million € annually in absolute terms. The analysts consider, based on several negative effects on the development of Albanian electric power market, as well as consequently negative effects to the whole Albanian economy, but most of all the inadequate final consumer protection, who bear the whole financial burden because of the inefficient business activity of ERE, that a strong monitoring over ERE should be established in order to determine all the irregularities that have been present in its activity for a longer period of time. Because of the complexity of the problem and high financial funds it is crucial to assure a consistent effective fulfilment of all statutory powers and the responsibility of ERE as an independent state regulatory institution, as well as to assure a satisfactory transparency of its activities, including the fact that the impartiality and efficiency of the monitoring be controlled by the EU institutions in addition to the police and the prosecutor’s office in order to determine the responsibility of certain ERE Commissioners and the role of Prime Minister Sali Berisha. Because of the evidenced irregularities of the before mentioned Tender from September 2010, which were, as the local media reports, admitted also by ERE, it is consequently obvious that the tender should be annulled and a new one announced, which would be carried out lawfully and transparently. The Albanian parliament should be furthermore forced to initiate a procedure for the election of new ERE Commissioners. The international IFIMES institute will continue to research and analyze the work of individual institutions of the Albanian state and all further procedures which will be undertaken in ERE, and to inform the Albanian and international public on the developments. EU HAS TO INCREASE STATE INSTITUTION MONITORING At the last Parliamentary Elections the Democratic Party (PD) of Sali Berisha won most seats, promising the citizens to reduce crime and corruption, to strengthen the economy, achieve democratic development and speed up the country’s accession to the EU. However, two years after the election, the situation regarding crime and corruption is much more different. Even the analysts who are closer to the Albanian right-wing politics consider that not enough has been done. Several ministers of the Democratic Party, as well as the family members of Sali Berisha’s family were engaged in corruption affairs. If Albania wishes to become a member of the EU it is very certain that the State authorities will have to act fully lawfully, including the independent regulatory bodies being automatically excluded from the political sphere, as it is the case with ERE, which affects the reputation and position of Albania in the EU circles. LOCAL ELECTIONS CAMPAIGN HAS STARTED The current situation in Albania is connected with the announced local elections in spring 2011. The goal of the Democratic Party is to improve its position before the upcoming local elections showing the citizens its main merits for visa abolition and by that diminishing the significant contribution to the abolition of visas for the citizens of Albania that has been made by former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Premiere Ilir Meta (LSI). Also, the Democratic Party will continue to confront the Socialist party in order to mobilize their electorate before the local elections. The international IFIMES institute considers that in the politically polarized Albania (between the Democratic and the Socialist Party) the Movement for the Socialist Integration (LSI) as the third largest Party plays the key role in keeping the high political level and representing the interests of Albanian citizens at home and abroad. The analysts have emphasised that the role of Ilir Meta as the Minister of Foreign Affairs was a key one in the construction of a positive and progressive image of Albania last year in the EU and in the world. Sali Berisha and Edi Rama do not have the moral nor the political rights to destroy that image. The problem of Sali Berisha and the Democratic Party is that they don’t have a full, detailed and a coherent political platform to solve problems which Albania is facing. Instead, Berisha has offered the voters phrases that incarnate communism, but in fact Berisha is doing everything to remain in power and he doesn’t hesitate to do whatever is necessary to that end. His marketing abuses are all affecting the divisions between Albanians. Berisha is acting as if he was in a fierce battle of the dilemma: communism or democracy? The IFIMES international institute considers that it is not reasonable that Sali Berisha should spend so much energy on confronting other political parties and their leaders, i.e. on topics that no longer play any role in Albania. The changes in the domestic and foreign politics are visible. Albania is changing, only Sali Berisha (PD) and Edi Rama (PS) have stayed the same. The local elections in May 2011 will show if the Albanian citizens are tired of divisions and confrontations and if they are going to pursue their future with the political parties that offer consistent and progressive politics that can leads Albania forward, not backward. |
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