Counters of the Albanian state will be providing citizen services according to a new model. The Delivery Centre of Integrated Public Services, ADISA, has started managing the Tirana IPRO counters according to a completely new model, with standards and procedures clearly defined and high quality service. The presentation was attended by Prime Minister Edi Rama and Minister of Innovation and Public Administration Milena Harito.

The management of the Tirana IPRO counters by ADISA is an important step in the reform of public services that the Albanian government launched more than a year through the program “Innovation against corruption – Establishing a citizen-cantered services model.” This reform, which has already received financial support from the World Bank, aims at modernizing public services in the country, according to the principles of customer care applied by the largest companies in the country.

The core of the reform is the separation of the counters providing services from the institutions that produce the services. All state institutions counters will now be managed by ADISA. This standard will be achieved through simplification and standardization of administrative procedures, digitalisation of services and the establishment of systems of information technology, the expansion of areas for getting fast and accurate information on services by citizens, and launch of mechanisms for collecting citizens’ opinions and feedbacks on services to ensure ongoing improvement.

In addition to considering it as a reform that radically transforms service model offered to citizens by the state, Prime Minister Rama highlighted some of its fundamental aspects:

“This reform has two aspects. One is visible and the other one is invisible. The outward aspect is what you see today, a service structure of European standards. The invisible aspect is behind these walls, where work continues intensively to open all channels of communication and to transform the entire database in an integrated, stable and reliable digital database.

Part of this reform are 9 ministries and 20 dependent institutions that interact with each other, in order to transform the entire structure of counters of the Albanian state, to transform the service delivered by the Albanian state in an integrated service with standards, criteria and unified rules. So, it will make no difference whether you are at the counter of the mortgage office, or the HCII, or at another counter.

One of the basic principles of this reform is to come as soon as possible to the point where citizens will not be asked to submit documents that the state can issue in order to have a certain service delivered. So, citizens who need a document, won’t have to go to 21 different locations to get another 21 documents, and then come and take the document they need.

We want to undo this practice thoroughly, and reach in a reasonable time, and we will do it, the moment when every document that citizens need and which the state issues, will be peremptorily prepared by the state. The same for the enterprise. This means saving billions of hours to the Albanians who have been wasting time for over 20 years going from one door to another, from one counter to another.

We have radically transformed online services. The portal of state services e-albania has today 167 services from 12 it had two years ago. The centre providing integrated public services, ADISA, will manage 128 offices and 177 services.”

Minister Harito said that reforms launched by IPRO Tirana to be extended to counters across the country will create a new culture of citizen service.

“Reform is not an invention we have made. Reform is an adaptation of the international best practices, as well as of the best practices of the private sector. We have created ADISA, an agency providing public services to citizens, which is implementing these standards in the counters of the Albanian state, starting here in Tirana with IPRO. Procedures have been clearly defined for the first time, along with clear standards, precise forms informing citizens on rights, terms, on the time they will be answered, thus creating the necessary infrastructure to deliver timely services to citizens, in addition to creating a culture of citizen service. This reform will be extended across the territory, and I take this opportunity to congratulate the agency, which in 10 months has built capacity and adopted all these new methods with the help of our international partners.”