Chaos with former-owners' cases

Chaos with former-owners' cases The Property Return and Compensation Agency is in a real chaos, since the 7000 applications submitted by citizens have created a large pile of documents and no solution has been found so far.

For the last three years, the applications have been staying in the shelves of the Agency.

“The situation is very critical, because all the applications are at the same progression level. There are 7000 applications and the number hasn’t changed even today”, declared Sonila Qato, Director of the PRCA.

The law obliges the agency to answer within three months to every application.

“The files have been staying there for years. You can find them from 1995, together with more recent ones”, Qato declared.

The delays and law violations have not only created a chaos, but also a financial damage that is paid by the citizens’ taxes. The government is losing each day more cases in Strasbourg, making the country’s already weak finances even worse.

Qato says that the government is preparing some measures that will start with the reformation of all responsible institutions.

“First of all, we need to create a map for all the decisions taken during the years. We don’t have a digital map yet, which should show all the decisions taken by the agency.W e should also identify the decisions that have been made twice on the same property, with people asking for a recompensation”, Qato declared.

The World Bank and other institutions have appealed the Albanian government for years to resolve the chaos with the properties, which, according to them, discourages the foreign investments and stops the country’s economic development.