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Audit: Millions of euros for arbitrations without clear rules at the State Attorney's Office

2026-02-09 10:15:49Biznes SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The State Supreme Audit Office's report on the State Bar has found that the process of contracting law firms for international arbitration during 2023–2024, worth millions of euros, was conducted under unclear procedural conditions and without well-defined standards.

According to data, the State Attorney's Office has developed three procedures for contracting foreign law firms, with the aim of representing and protecting the interests of the Republic of Albania in international arbitration matters, engaging the studios "C. Ch", "Wh & C" and "A & O" in processes with high financial and legal weight.

According to official data, the contract with the studio "C. Ch" had a value of 1,790,000 euros, of which 156,867.52 euros were paid, while the arbitration procedure was discontinued after the plaintiff's withdrawal and was concluded by a tribunal decision on 11.12.2023, without creating further financial obligations for the state.

In the second case, the contract with “Wh & C” was worth 1,999,998 euros, with payments made in the amount of 1,050,000 euros, while this procedure was also closed after the lawsuit was withdrawn, with a termination order from the tribunal in August 2024. Unlike the first two cases, the contract with “A & O”, worth 675,000 euros and payments made up to 130,000 euros, continues to be active, as the international arbitration case against Albania is still in process.
However, the audit of the procedures followed for these contracts has identified serious problems in the legal, administrative and financial aspects. The report finds that, although the process is based on VKM no. 893, dated 18.11.2020, the State Attorney's Office has not drafted internal by-laws, such as instructions or regulations, that clearly define the functioning of the committees, the duties of the members, the decision-making method, the complete documentation of the procedures, and the rules on confidentiality or conflict of interest.

As a result, the process of evaluating and ranking the bids was developed without an officially approved methodology, relying on a formula similar to that of the economic bid, which was not expressly foreseen for qualitative criteria such as professional experience, successful cases or staff experience.

The audit also noted that the committee members did not declare the absence of conflict of interest at the time of opening the bids, in violation of the relevant legislation, while the evaluation minutes lack detailed explanations on the method of scoring the subjects for the professional criteria.

Another important issue is related to the legal form of the contracts, since, although the procedures were conducted in Albanian and English, the contracts with international studios were drafted only in English and without a certified translation, jeopardizing compliance with the requirements of the Constitution, the Civil Code and the Code of Administrative Procedure.

According to the report, these shortcomings constitute a violation of the principles of financial management and control, undermining transparency, accountability and legal certainty in an area with a direct impact on public finances/ ekofin.al .


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