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

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

Kamëz Part 3

For those who want a lengthy detailed report into the election there will, undoubtedly, be a range of them to chose from. In the meantime, here are my brief reflections on the last few weeks. At the heart of the problems around this election is the unwarranted influence of political parties on all aspects of the electoral process. Every institution responsible for organising and facilitating the election is under the control of political parties. The Electoral Code itself was heavily revised only days before the original date for the elections and only weeks before the actual date (Law 9676 13 January 2007). It was these revisions, specifically Article 181/2, that created the overly complicated identification requirements that caused so much confusion, and undoubtedly disenfranchised some voters. Let's be clear though: these revisions were not designed to protect the interests of the electorate. They were drafted primarily because the political parties do not trust each other. The ...
27 comments
Read more

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...
22 comments
Read more