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!
9:53 am
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.
12:33 am
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!
11:57 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dy Rame Per Tirane

I was watching Top Channel last night, first the news, then Fiks Fare. According to them Tirana's citizens now have a choice not only between Rama and Olldashi, but also between Rama and Rama. A minor right-wing faction, Parti 'Balli Kombetar' , submitted papers to the election authorities registering their candidate, Akile Rama. The people on Fiks Fare got hold of the papers and sent a reporter and camera team to the address listed for Mr A Rama. After much ringing of the bell the gate was reluctantly opened by a middle-aged woman who refused to speak to the reporter and tried to close the gate on her. Back in the studio Saimiri and Doctori - the two presenters of Fiks Fare - revealed that Mr Akile Rama was 73 years old, in hospital, and did not know he was now a candidate for mayor. They also compared two documents - the papers submitted on his behalf, and a genuine document he had signed. The signatures were not even remotely similar. There was an interview with the lea
4 comments
Read more

Albania and the Perils of the 21st Century

Another article on religion in Albania appeared yesterday. Patrick Poole, writing in the American Thinker , argues that Saudi funding for the construction of mosques and the training of imams is a threat to Albania, since these mosques and imams reflect the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia.
34 comments
Read more

Guide Turistike

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council , the future is bright for Albania. The Council ranks Albania ninth out of 174 countries for tourism growth over the next ten years. A summary of the Council's report is available, as is the full report complete with many pages of graphs, charts and spreadsheets. This summer I have seen a number of tourists on the streets of Tirana. Some of them may well be Albanian expats, or people of Albanian descent returning home to visit family, but others are genuine 'foreigners'. Judging from their appearance, they are probably best described as 'independent travellers' - the kind of people who are not interested in luxury hotels or crowded beaches. This is a good start, but independent travellers are not the kind of big spenders that the tourist industry likes. In the longer term, if Albania wants to bring in the kind of free-spending tourists who currently holiday in Croatia or Slovenia, there will have to be a huge invest
12 comments
Read more