Press statement by the Minister of Justice Etilda Gjonaj on the weekly results of the anti-graft fight:

The anticorruption mechanism set up by the government in an increasingly closer cooperation with the citizens via the online platform “Albania we want.al”, as well as with other law enforcement agencies, is growing stronger day by day, yielding tangible results in identifying, documenting and cracking down on corrupt practices all levels of public administration across the country.

In my capacity as the National Anticorruption Coordinator, I am here to today to provide information on the anti-graft measures and results achieved by the Anticorruption Task Force over the past seven days.

But let me first underline the latest successful operations by the Prosecutor’s Office and State Police, which led to the arrest of an unusual numbers of state officials and individuals on suspicion of involvement in grave corruption affairs.

The State Police structures have detained and arrested 23 individuals in the districts of Elbasan, Korça, Kurbin, Lezha and Tirana for abuse of public office, exerting illegal influence on individuals exercising public functions and passive corruption of senior state officials.

As it was publicly reported last weekend, the former Director General of the Prison System was arrested on passive corruption charges.

At a time when we are preparing to publicly announce the crucial property reform, the latest crackdown operations on anticorruption practices related to property and land appropriation mark the beginning of a major effort to sort out through the property titles in the coastal areas.

We appreciate, voice support and encourage the Prosecutor’s Office to continue to crack down on the corrupt practices in the Immovable Property Registration Offices.

The Anticorruption Task Force has continued its direct inspection actions, seriously considering at the same time every complaint or denunciation filed via the platform of co-governance with the citizens and the media reports.

Task Force has carried out inspection in the Immovable Property Registration Office in Durres and has found out a string of various violations.

Because of the violations of administrative procedures pursued by the Immovable Property Registration Office in Durres, the Task Force has recommended disciplinary actions against 18 officials and public administration employees, warning notice of termination of employment for the head of the office and 17 employees working in this institution.

Meanwhile, conclusions from the inspection procedures in a series of other institutions, including hospitals, regional tax administration offices and immovable property offices, are to be produced in the coming days.

Likewise, as part of the administrative investigations in several prisons, the Task Force has identified a number of officials and employees involved in law violation cases and corrupt practices.

As a result, abuse of office charges have been raised against three employees at the prison in Burrel, whereas administrative actions have been recommended against 23 prison administration employees and the Prison General Directorate personnel.

As the abovementioned results clearly show, the coordination between the law enforcement institutions in the fight against corruption has kept growing significantly stronger and is being finalized with the arrest of a large number of individuals involved in this criminal activity.

We are deeply convinced that we are on the right track and that our commitment is yielding its long-awaited and much desired results for the Albanian citizens.

Cracking down on any action of corruption at all levels of the public administration, regardless of political colours of affiliations, is the motto of our government. The citizens are our best allies in this uncompromising fight.

That’s why we won’t cease repeatedly renewing our invitation to citizens to support and assist us in this brad action by reporting any case of suspected case of violating the law and corrupt practice by any employee or official of the public administration and the state institutions.

Thank you!