ISP Study: The Assembly in Albania does not fight the conflict of interest of the MPs

The Institute of Political Studies emphasizes in a report on the integrity of the Assembly, that the parliament does not have functional mechanisms to avoid and prevent the conflict of interest of the deputies.

The director of this Institute, Dr. Afrim Krasniqi, says for the Voice of America that the Assembly is one of the least transparent and least accountable institutions in Albania. One of the main concerns of the ISP monitors remains informal, non-transparent talks between legislators and private companies for laws and commissioned decisions, related to projects of millions of euros.

Contrary to what the Assembly declares, that it has accepted the standards of the open parliament, the experts of the Institute of Political Studies find that in their concrete implementation as far as the conflict of interest and extra-parliamentary actions are concerned, the parliament is practically one of the least transparent institutions and less accountable in the Republic of Albania.

The director of this Institute, Dr. Afrim Krasniqi, says for the Voice of America, after the publication of the Report "For a Parliament with integrity, the Code of Conduct and the Rules of the Assembly", that this type of behavior contradicts the needs and challenges that Albania has, and emphasized that this is part of critical international reports on Albania, including the EU report last year and the Freedom House report.

The main concern, according to Mr. Krasniqi, remains abusive practices, where deputies negotiate with informal parties, who earn millions and use the parliament for their financial purposes, while deputies see this negative practice as a normal behavior, but on the other hand, there is no mechanism in the parliament, to tell them "Stop!" these actions.

"Secondly, we have seen that there is a massive use of informal talks and consultations with interest groups, with private firms and companies, which are in violation of the conflict of interest law. Leaders of parliamentary committees, which must judge and approve a law or an agreement, meet with individuals who benefit from these agreements, and all these meetings are not documented. The Parliament does not possess any document of these talks, while it is publicly declared that a compromise has been reached with them and a solution has been found, such as gambling or strategic investments and other topics with great financial impact", says Mr. Krasniqi.

The ISP calls the acts of the deputies that are seen in the media, such as numerous incidents, unethical behavior, exclusions, arrogance and insulting and derogatory language of politicians towards opposing parties, disturbing.

But beyond these, during the monitoring on the conflict of interest, says Mr. Krasniqi, the ISP found that the parliamentary mechanism for the prevention of the conflict of interest is non-existent, it does not work, while the ILDKPKI (High Inspectorate of Declaration and Control of Assets and Conflict of Interest) trusts this institution to do preliminary investigations before the case goes there.

"If you constantly look at public meetings, meetings of commissions on large financial values, and in the statements that are made there, it is said that the law has been consulted, agreed, etc., and if you ask: Where are the talks? Where are the negotiations? Who were the requests and why was this request tolerated or not? How much has the government and independent institutions been asked? How much has the law been respected? - there is no answer for these things, but it is said that these are personal negotiations. The lack of documentation for these issues will make it impossible to investigate the cases tomorrow", says Mr. Mr. Krasniqi.

To be distinguished is the fact that it is the same MPs who judge in ethics on reported cases of conflict of interest, the same ones who lead the commissions, and the same ones who make decisions for themselves at the conference of presidents and at the Bureau of the Assembly , says the ISP executive, and that in itself is another conflict of interest.

Parliament says that these practices are prohibited, but then it must create mechanisms for these behaviors to be investigated and prevented, emphasized Mr. Krasniqi, recalling that even parliamentary groups do not have a mechanism to control their internal regulations, where individuals who violate the law to some extent prevented within the group.

"Third; we have seen the concept of commissioned legislation, which is influenced by third parties and imposed through the parliamentary route, violating all parliamentary procedures. Fourthly; all that is called the declaration of conflict of interest by the MPs themselves, the declaration of the gift system, the declaration of participation in third party activities, which is a legal obligation and should be on the parliament's website, does not work. During the last year, none of the deputies has declared. In the meantime, we have reported numerous cases when there have been such violations", says Mr. Krasniqi.

In this legislature, there are two or three alleged cases of incompatibility of the deputy's mandate, he adds, and this fact means that the abuse of the principles of the code of conduct has progressed to extraordinary levels and is incomparable to past legislatures.

ISP has brought 3 cases to the Assembly, where certain deputies have been in open conflict of interest, or commissions have been in conflict of interest, (the case of the election of an official by the parliament, when the parliament itself admitted that he is in a conflict of interest).

"Not only did we never receive an official response, but the message that the individual was still elected means that the individuals who sponsored the conflict of interest were more powerful than the principles that the law provides. At the moment when the parliament has these data and cannot investigate, the hope that the ILDKPKI will do this tomorrow is almost utopian because this parliament is at the end of its mandate and the procedures of the ILDKPKI can be concluded after the individual close the mandate and disable the investigation. This happened to us in several other cases, when we complained about individuals in a conflict of interest, the ILDKPKI took action, the case went to court, and the process was so long that the individual is no longer a member of parliament", detailed Mr. Krasniqi.

The ISP has proposed a package of standard technical amendments to the regulatory acts of parliament and legislation in force, to be adopted with transparency and understanding by parliament, which will come into force in the new parliamentary legislature next year, leaving behind the amendments one-sided of the regular.

This, according to the ISP, is the best case for the Assembly to prove true political and institutional will to fight corruption, starting first the investigation of the conflict of interest in the parliament, of the participation of deputies in third-party sponsored activities in Assembly, of the use of the Assembly for personal purposes and for personalized laws, as well as abusive practices that, according to the monitors, occur in the Assembly of Albania.