Press statement by Minister of Justice Etilda Gjonaj:

I stand in front of you once again today clarify the testing and recruitment procedures for Prison Police officers, an issue I consider very important and which I am determined to defend it with the utmost responsibility because, I emphasize, it has been and remains the most meritocratic, transparent and qualitative process ever carried out in the country’s penitentiary system throughout its history.

Yesterday evening, the Voice of America did not take into account the Ministry of Justice position and arguments I provided about this process, but on the contrary, in a statement it reconfirmed a totally wrong approach regarding the investigation file data.

The Voice of America reported over alleged evidence found in the investigation file, but without considering that the evidence were merely indications that will allow prosecutors to further look into what has emerged from the recorded conversations. Just like I explained yesterday too, the evidence is not about the recruitment process of the prison police officers.

I believe it would have been correct for the Voice of America that, based on these indications, it verifies the prison police testing procedures to find out whether the legitimate interest of the members of the parliament on certain prison staff issues has been translated or not into violation of the rights of those who participated in the testing and who have been hired according to the law and their merit.

Regardless of what these persons talked about in the intercepted conversations, MPs’ interest has nothing to do with the process and results of recruitment of prison police officers.

I would like to reiterate: The process has been completely transparent and open to every interested citizen.

Procedures are implemented strictly and rigorously and every step is easily verifiable even today, when more than 8 months have passed since testing day.

Each element of this process, since the joint agreement between the ministers, the normative acts in cooperation with the Security Academy on the conduct of the theoretical and physical testing, the results of each applicant, up to the assignment orders by the General Directorate of Prisons according to the results of applicants, are found in a complete file that is available to the media and the public.

Therefore, I would like to emphasize once again that we are open to anyone who wishes to verify the recruitment file of new prison police officers, or any other relevant information they think would help to reveal the truth and not to drag through the mud the good work we have done to date.

We are aware that there is still much to improve in the penitentiary system and the functioning of the Prison Police personnel, but on the other hand we are working hard to change the situation every day and have already made a big step in our goal to leave behind the nepotism, party and corrupt past in the prison system.

We have organized a model process and all participants can testify to this. It is a first yet very important step towards separation of the party and the state once and for all.

Of course we don’t expect others to understand this, or worse yet, or enjoy support from those who have ruined the public administration, opening its doors to their political party militants, but we expect more professionalism in the media which we urge to investigate in depth and reveal the truth about this issue. And I’m calm and confident that the truth is on our side.

I hope that the Voice of America ​​will publish our stance and assure all citizens that war with the past is real, a battle of its kind, just like the battle for every institution to separate the party and the state once and for all.

To this end, it is exactly the latest initiative we have launched to recruit excellence students in the public administration, another evidence that we want to build a state and break away from the past once and for all and give everyone the opportunity based on merit.