So that the action against informality is not sabotaged, a case from Kukës comes to our aid!

2024-10-29 14:42:18Investigim SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Pensioners/ Hasan Halilaj/ Edi Rama

The Albanian government has launched an action against informality, non-declaration of real salaries and non-payment of social security on time.

In the meetings organized with businesses, state institutions implementing the legislation in force in this sector and pensioners, Prime Minister Edi Rama emphasized the importance of paying social insurance, not only in full and real, but also on time.

"Pension is based on social insurance and unlike salaries that are financed from the budget, pension is provided by social insurance. The pension fund is based on the capacity of social security to respond to the need for pensions. For various historical reasons, we have inherited a difficult situation when it comes to pensions, there has been a lot of avoidance of social security", said Prime Minister Edi Rama during a meeting with pensioners in Fier.

Rama blamed businesses that hide real salaries, or that do not declare the correct number of employees in taxes, as part of the responsibility for why his Government cannot raise pensions to a satisfactory level for the elderly.

Entrepreneurs have their share of the blame, but the blame is doubled when social security for employees is not paid by the state institutions themselves, or worse still when the social security fund is diverted for other purposes, including corrupt ones.

To illustrate the risk of sabotaging the government's actions, it is enough to recall the case of the Municipality of Kukes, which for 12 years has not paid social security contributions for its 350 employees.

It is about the period 2006-2014, when this municipality was led by Hasan Halilaj of LSI.

So that the action against informality is not sabotaged, a case from Kukës
Ilir Meta/ Hasan Halilaj

A criminal investigation was opened against former mayor Halilaj and 14 other people in 2015. During the investigation, it was found that Hasan Halilaj donated the social security fund to the football team of Kukes, where the municipality itself was a minority shareholder.

The expertise of the prosecution estimated that the damage had reached about 400 million ALL, where the vast majority of the amount was for late interest.

Halilaj's flagrant violation of the law at that time was supported by tax officials and the Treasury branch in Kukës, also co-defendants in the case against them. The investigation revealed that it was a silent institutional consensus, that with inaction the social security funds were diverted to the football club every year.

The file went to trial, but with the intervention of Ilir Meta, the investigations were sabotaged, the evidence was alienated and manipulated and the process dragged on.

Today, Ilir Meta is in prison for other charges, while Hasan Halilaj moved from LSI to the Socialist Party, while the social security of that period is still unpaid.

Is there a risk today that the next initiative of the central government will be compromised by narrow local interests and silent consensus at the expense of the insurance fund?

This is the reason why, before the 'retaliation' against businesses, the action against the non-payment of social contributions, or their concealment, should be initiated by the state institutions and by the managers and holders of these institutions that have violated the law.

This is now in the hands of the new justice.

With the old justice, Hasan Halilaj escaped unpunished, since according to the law, when the employer keeps the social and health insurance contributions of the employees and does not pay them to the tax authorities, he is fined 50 percent of the amount of the unpaid contribution.

When these contributions are not paid to the tax authorities three months after the date set by law, the employer is criminally charged.

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