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GOVERNMENT DECISION/ Secret expenses of Edi Rama on trips outside Albania revealed

2025-10-08 20:42:18Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Prime Minister Edi Rama during a plane trip

With the justification of personal data protection, Edi Rama has put a lock on transparency on his invoices, itineraries or flight agreements abroad.

The decision was approved at a government meeting led by Rama himself, which sanctions that his flights abroad should be considered "confidential."

The official document (CLICK HERE ) adds an essential detail to the functions of the Directorate of Government Services, according to which: "DSHQ negotiates framework contracts with airlines, hotel chains and travel agencies and signs confidentiality contracts, in order to preserve the mandatory information between the parties within the framework of the protection of personal data, according to the relevant legislation. With each institution, which will receive the service according to this letter, DSHQ signs cooperation and confidentiality agreements, in order to preserve the mandatory information between the parties, within the framework of the protection of personal data, according to the relevant legislation."

With this act, every itinerary, flight schedule or travel expenses of Edi Rama outside Albania passes into the category of protected information, to be stored under the guise of "personal data".

Essentially, the decision is a lock on what has long been a silent practice: the lack of transparency about the prime minister's travels.

But while for the ordinary citizen the protection of personal data is a fundamental right, for the head of government such as Edi Rama, who travels with public funds, flights cannot be treated as private matters, as they are a pure public interest.

The history of Rama's charter flights is a chapter that long precedes this decision. According to documents published by Lapsi.al, in October 2022, the Iranian hacker group "Homeland Justice" published Edi Rama's entries, exits and flights abroad from the TIMS system, revealing a surprising number of trips on private jets made available by Air Albania.

According to data published by Iranian hackers, Prime Minister Edi Rama had traveled 134 times by charter until September 2022. What stood out was that the number of flights had increased year after year and the figures spoke of frequent and expensive trips to the heights of government luxury.

The lack of transparency was related to the agreement with Air Albania, the company that for many years was presented as a symbol of successful cooperation between the Albanian state and Turkish Airlines, and which was used to justify most of Rama's flights.

The prime minister himself, in his reaction, had relativized the issue with the words: “It is not as it seems.” Rama claimed that his trips were billed at a promotional price as they were made to promote the new airline with the Albanian flag.

But in February 2023, it emerged that the contract between the Directorate of Government Services and Air Albania did not contain any clause linking the use of the aircraft to the promotion of the company. "So, the prime minister's claim that the charters were "for advertising" turned out to be unsupported.

However, after years of travel covered by the same company, Air Albania has found itself in trouble. Its balance sheet is hidden, international flight contracts are being canceled, and employees are complaining about unpaid salaries. All of these are signs that the company is heading towards bankruptcy, with suspicions of tens of millions of euros in unpaid debts to the Albanian state.

Rama is forced to no longer use the Air Albania charter to contract other flight lines. In these circumstances, today's decision by Prime Minister Edi Rama to declare trips abroad "confidential" also comes out. And although the government justifies it with the protection of "personal data", in practice it is closing another window on information that the public has the right to know, while the government has an obligation to be transparent.

Ultimately, Rama can travel as much as he wants and wherever he wants, but the fact that he declares his expenses secret shows once again how high the level of luxury of our government officials soars./ Lapsi.al


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