Skip to main content

Corruption in Albania - Perception and Experience

The Institute for Development Research and Alternatives recently published the results of their survey into corruption in Albania. According to their research the most honest institutions or groups in the country are the President, religious leaders and the military. The most corrupt are customs officials, tax officials, doctors, judges and parliamentarians.

One of the most surprising - to me - of the many findings from the survey was the extent of corruption in the health sector. Around 40% of those interviewed said that they had given bribes to medical staff in the previous year. That makes the health system the most corrupt public service insitution in the country.

More information on the survey can be found on the IDRA website and a summary of the many findings from the survey is also available there in English and Albanian.

Comments

Selfmaderadio said…
Smbody I know, working for an italian NGO, told me that she has seen terrible things hapening in Shkodra hospital. Doctors would not touch, anyone, even a little child about to die, if they didn't get money. Big shame!
ITS said…
I think corruption in Albania is a big plague that affects every sector.

The reason why the military isn't corrupt is because they haven't figured out away to make personal profits out of it.

Religious leaders are most definitely corrupt, with Janullatos doing the dirty work for the Greek shauvinism. And the muslim leaders for the most parts give me the heebie-jeebies. The catholic leaders, oh well, you know whose pawns those are.

The president I belive not to be corrupt. But he's just one old guy, so it doesn't count for much.

Anyway, they forgot to mention the bus attendants (faturinos) who will take the 20 leks without giving you a ticket. I think they are the root cause of corruption evil in Albania.

And what about the traffic cops who will whore themselves out for 500 leks? Very disgusting species. I will never pay a bribe to those suckers. I would much rather pay a fine ten-folds.
olli said…
ITS - So it looks like your mum and the President are the only two honest people left in the country.

I can only imagine the howls of outrage if I had written what you have!

Popular posts from this blog

Miss Globe 2007

On Saturday, we were at the Rogner meeting with an expat friend who was leaving Tirana. It was breakfast time, and as our friend was finishing his tea the breakfast room started to fill up with over-dressed (or under-dressed) young women wearing blue sashes. These were the contestants for the Miss Globe 2007 beauty pageant being held in Tirana tonight at the Palace of Congresses. High heel boots and mini-skirts - or in a couple of cases micro-skirts, or possibly just belts - have never struck me as obvious breakfast attire, but the girls seemed happy enough tottering and wobbling around with their tea and toast. I'm not sure why they were wearing their sashes - perhaps in case they forgot which country they came from. As we were leaving they were boarding a large coach which I had seen a number of times around the city in the last few days for their next trip. I'm not sure how some of them made it up the steps, or how they managed to sit down, but perhaps these are the ki...

Big in Albania

Ask me how much I knew about Albania before coming here and my list would be a short one: Enver Hoxha, bunkers and Sir Norman Wisdom. I have no idea when or how I acquired this extensive body of knowledge, but the association of Norman Wisdom with Albania was by far the most interesting part of it. I remember watching Norman Wisdom's old films on British television. My parents were fans of his wholesome, slapstick comedy, but apparently missed the ideological significance of Pitkin's relationship with Mr Grimsdale. Pitkin, the downtrodden and oppressed representative of the workers, triumphed every time over his capitalist oppressor, Mr Grimsdale - and he got the girl. It took a theorist of Hoxha's insight and profundity to discern this deeper political message. It always seemed tremendously unlikely, yet the story of Sir Norman's fame in Albania has been reported in worthy sources like the BBC , the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph . According to the Guardian, when Wi...

Whimper

And now the end is near and so i face nanananana... Never did like that crappy song. But it's true nevertheless. Tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning we will be heading for the airport for the last time. I suppose it was too much to expect that I could have kept this going while getting ready to leave. So apologies for the lack of postings over the last weeks. This is post number 380 something so I suppose one post every two days is not a bad average. There were probably 380 more in my head or scribbled down on scraps of paper, but many of them are perhaps best left there. I suppose I should be penning - or typing - my final thoughts and reflections on two years in Tirana, but right now I don't have any. Maybe in a month or two though I might come back with something. Thanks to all of you who have read this blog - especially those of you who have become regulars. Thanks also for linking and thanks to all who left comments. As for the other stars of the blog, Bella now has h...