Albanian Government Council of Ministers

Prime Minister Edi Rama meeting with entrepreneurs and business representatives at the weekly co-governance event dedicated to issues concerning entrepreneurship:

Good afternoon! The today’s weekly co-governance meeting is dedicated to the Platform’s novelty, a new section entirely dedicated to entrepreneurship and business community as a whole.

Taking notice of the positive effects due to the interaction with citizens and taking also notice of how through this interaction with the platform we have succeeded in producing a significant impact and effect in the citizens’ everyday life any time they have asked for the Platform’s assistance and their complaints over public services have turned out right, we decided to embark on this new experience in order to allow every entrepreneur, small and big business, to stop wasting a single minute waiting for answers or solutions to their worrier, but instead turn to the Platform. To this end, we have also created a new support network of the co-government platform with coordinators, who have been attached to the offices of the cabinet members and are tasked with addressing various problems concerning the business community.

Therefore, I am very pleased that five entrepreneurs have joined us today to help us through their experience, because it is very important that in addition to my remarks and the presentations that are about to be shortly made by the co-governance coordinators, their voice be heard by their colleagues and members of the business community too. And a simple, yet clear message is conveyed through their voice to reach out to anyone involved in business activity in Albania, telling them that they no longer need to get to know someone, or seek old-fashioned traditional problem-solving ways, when these problems are not caused by the business itself, but the public administration, and instead he or she should merely interact with the platform to have problems tackled.

So, without further wasting time, I would like to invite Etleva to take the floor and introduce the first case.

Etleva Bandula, Co-Governance Platform coordinator: The problem about which Mr. Gjergj Vucaj lodged a complaint with the Platform originated back in 2017, when this subject signed a contract with Diber Municipality on providing firewood for schools and kindergartens. After complying with the contract terms and with the contract’s termination, Mr. Gjergj Vucaj made a series of demands to Diber Municipality, which failed to settle payment, claiming that the Municipality’s bank accounts had been frozen. Therefore, Mr. Gjergj took to the Platform on September 12, forwarding his complaint and hoping for his problem to be finally solved. Following an intense interaction with Diber Municipality, entire accumulated debt was settled and Mr. Gjergj benefited a payment of 8.326 million lek. To learn more about this case, I would like to invite Mr. Gjeto ta take the floor.

The case is presented by the company’s worker, Mr. Gjet Kalusha: Hello Mr. Prime Minister! We run a Durres-based company specialised in supply of wood products. Our company supplies mostly firewood to many cities across the country as we have been awarded the contract to provide firewood for schools and kindergartens in the towns of Kukes, Fushe-Kruje, Milot, Laç, Kavaje and other cities. However, local government authorities failed to act and therefore causing delays in terms of settling payments in return for the firewood supplies. After receiving no payment, the President of our firm found himself in serious troubles. That’s why he was forced somehow to cut our monthly salaries too. He was forced to apply for bank lending in order to pay the workers’ salaries until due payments were made by the municipalities. I advised him to file a complaint with the Co-Governance Platform. He said I was right and lodged the complaint and he started to receive the initial payments just a week later. I would wish for all state institutions to work the way this platform works. I would like to thank Mr. Prime Minister and the Co-Governance Platform team for the excellent work. The Platform is a powerful tool in our hands to eliminate any hurdle.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much for sharing the story with us. It would best that every institution acts this way. The fact that this has been going on for years on  – because such problems can still be encountered although a lot of improvements have been made – it is exactly the reason why we have launched this platform. I would like to inform you that we are preparing to take another important step by creating a general system, which will include few reasonable exceptions, to make online application for a large number of public services compulsory so that long queues are eliminated once and for all and long delays and wait time are al avoided. In this way, we will provide the opportunity for everyone asking for public service delivery –  except few institutions that still have to wait for online applications due to objective reasons – will be able to file an online application and an official response will be then provided via the phone.

With this new system in place, hopefully to become operational starting from January 1, each state institution will be obliged to fill any documents included in an application file for licence, authorization or registration of an enterprise. The public administration will then no longer complain it lacks this or that, or about any deficiency that is related to the state itself. The institutions themselves will collect these documents on the citizen’s or the institution’s account. For example, citizens will soon no longer need to file paper documents in person when applying for registration of a business with the National Business Center. This means that any business registration application will be made online.

The process will also include the Co-Governance Platform as a monitoring structure that builds a whole database, with all applications registered on a certain date and an official deadline will be set for the official response. Any employee or official responsible for any possible delay will be then punished. I am confident, the new system will facilitate and help people a lot during the application process or request for a certain public service.

On the other hand, today is still very difficult, even almost impossible, to take to the court in order to solve a certain problem. The country’s justice system is being completely cleansed and the process will take its time, but many of those still part of the system and who are aware of the fact they won’t make it through the filters of the vetting, are now furiously acting to seize and catch whatever is up for grabs.

“Catch whatever is up for grabs” is the most dangerous criminal organization currently operating in Albania, because this organization still wears the law vest and operates as an organization of ordinary plunderers. To deal with this ‘Catch what you can” organization, in tandem with the special law to take the fight against the organized crime to an unprecedented level and with absolutely guaranteed results, we will forward to the Parliament a set of special measures against members of such organization. I can’t provide more details, but one thing is for sure that sooner rather than later, everyone will see for himself the results of a frontal offensive that the government will undertake both against organized crime and this organization.

Myrteza Braha, Co-Governance Platform coordinator: Another case that has been tackled through the Co—Governance Platform concerns the private enterprise ‘Slaughterhouse Emi’, which is represented by its administrator Ervis Cena. Ervis Cena has filed a request with the General Taxation Directorate demanding VAT reimbursement, but the request, though approved by the Directorate, was not reimbursed for nine months and therefore Ervis was running into deep problems and was about to bankrupt. For this reason, Ervis Cena decided to lodge a complaint with the Co-Governance Platform. Once the complaint was received by the Platform, it was seriously handled by the Platform coordinators and the respective directorate, successfully tackling the problem and avoiding the company’s bankruptcy.

Mr. Ervis Cena: Thank you Mr. Prime Minister! I am very glad to be here today, because the Platform team has helped me a lot to address this problem, because the slaughterhouse was about to close the shutter. I am really very happy. I would like to express my appreciation to the Co-Governance Platform that made it really easy for us to solve problems we face.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: I am very pleased that the case has been solved and this is another reason to issue an appeal to any entrepreneurs and tell them it is time for them to see the Platform as their strongest friend within the government. I avail myself the opportunity to thank the Minister of State for Entrepreneurship Eduard Shalsi, who, together with us, has done a voluminous job and involved in an intense communication with enterprises, because it is not easy at all to tear down the walls of prejudices as people are often influenced by their personal prejudices. Business should also overcome their prejudices regarding interaction with the government and certainly with the Platform. So, your accounts help us a lot to highlight through concrete examples the fact that the Platform works without filters, without need of influential friends and people, without offering bribes, and I am confident that the Platform represents the basis of not a distant future, when all public services will be available to any citizens through their smart phones and it would merely take to download the respective application.

Fatmir Shehu, Co-Governance Platform coordinator: The business complaint case is handled by the co-government platform and concerns the private entity “Endi sh.pk”. The property owned by this entity had been placed under conservative seizure by the Regional Cadastre Agency in Durres pursuant to a request made by the bailiff service. The problem was created due to a mistake of the business address, because another entity operating in Fier bore same name. Once the complaint was filed with the Co-Governance Platform, the case was handled by the business coordinator attached to the State Agency of the Cadastre and the sequestration was removed and the entity was allowed to develop its property.

Mr. Samir Pistolja: I work as administrator of “Endi sh.p.k”. Our company encountered a problem with the Cadastre Agency in Durres, as my property was mistakenly sequestered. We provided documentation and forwarded complaint to Durres regional Cadastre Office and the State Cadastre Agency, but no response was ever provided. Therefore, we decided to ask for the Platform’s assistance. The problem was solver within ten days only. The sequestration was lifted and I restored my property. Thank you very much.

PM Edi Rama: Thank you for attending this meeting, although you poured sault on an open wound, just like it is the case of Durres Cadastre Directorate. However, I am confident that the special bill against the organized crime and the special measures against the so-called “Catch what you can” organization will ultimately free the regional Cadastre Directorate in Durres just like we will free every other Cadastre Directorate all over the country from the criminal siege that has been laid for many years and which have succeeded to break only a small part of it, especially in the areas that have untapped tourism development potential, where the organized crime is seeking to launder its dirty money. However, they won’t succeed.

Emiljano Gjika, Co-Governance Platform coordinator: The case I am about to introduce concerns company “R.B.H. BELINË” sh.a, operating in petroleum refining sector and the company is represented by Mr. Rebani Likometa, a shareholder and CEO. The petroleum refining process needs solar oil to be used in refinery. The solar oil cost should be reimbursed by the General Directorate of the Customs Administration, but Mr. Likometa’s company had not been reimbursed since September 2018. Therefore, he took to the Platform to file his complaint on September 23 and the problem was partly solved on October 10 and then it was fully tackled on October 18.

Mr. Rebani Likometa: Our company has been facing a similar problem since it started its operations. However, we had been always reimbursed despite constant delays. But Even the nicest person’s patience has a limit when you are consistently insulted. This is the real problem. They insult your dignity and you are denied reimbursement for a year long. I have always resorted to institutional means. I have reported at the General Directorate of Customs Administration and I have also forwarded my complaint to the Minister of Economy. She charged a coordinator. I have no idea who this guy is, but I was really impressed by the way he communicated. But things should now work this way, because the Platform should only be used as a last resort. What are other institutions doing? None of them is working.

PM Edi Rama: You are right. The institutions should not work this way, but luckily we help each other. I have repeatedly happen to hear people even here in this very saying that things should not work this way. But indeed, in order for the things to work properly in all its links a modern European state should be built. But such a state cannot be built in the blink of an eye and moreover rebuild it over the inherited ruins. To demolish in order to repair a structure is harder than building something new from scratch. I agree on what you said, but I want to assure you that nobody will enjoy what they have plundered.

Flavia Dulellari, Co-Governance Platform coordinator: The case I will introduce concerns the Shkodra-based private entity “Stone-Alb”, involved in limestone and minerals extraction activities. The company had applied with the National Business Centre to obtain a Type B environmental permit that had been automatically approved by the National Environment Agency, but had been blocked for a while in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, causing serious problems in the company’s activity. The case was pursued by the business coordinator at the Ministry of Tourism and the Environment and, after continued communication with the cabinet and the Minister himself, this permit was finally granted on 1 November 2019.

Mr. Renato Isufi: I represent the Shkodra-based company “Stone-Alb”. I had applied for an environmental permit and I have been waiting for more than two years to obtain the document. The Ministry of Environment declined to issue the permit and that’s why I decided to address to the Co-Governance Platform. The permit was then issued within 10 days only.

PM Edi Rama: Thank you. What is about to change soon and what I said earlier and I reiterate now is that, hopefully, starting from January 1, all applications will be filed online. By building a web-based system everything will be transparent. So everything will be published online.

Of course, we will keep investing step by step to make sure that official replies are also provided online, but this requires building a whole system. We have begun modernizing our systems to make a great step towards online service delivery without need to contact employees tasked with service delivery in person. Today, there are about 350 services provided online and besides it, the digital signature is now a reality, make it worth the same as signing on paper.

You have already solved your problems, but anyone in need for same service will not face same problem in the near future.

To conclude, I would like to highlight the fact that since the Platform’s new section was launched, we have received a significant number of complaints from the business community and I am really pleased that the number of solved cases is also considerably high. But, above all, I am always grateful to each and every one of you for taking the trouble to come here and share your experience with the Co-Governance Platform. Your accounts are absolutely key to conveying the message to other people.

Many thanks once again and many thanks to all those who contributed and continue to work on daily basis to tackle countless problems facing citizens and the business community.

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