Prime Minister Edi Rama at the weekly meeting with common citizens sharing their accounts on how through the help from the online platform Albania We Want they have solved various personal and community problems:
PM Edi Rama: Good afternoon everyone! Thank you very much for being here at this weekly meeting as part of the online platform shqipëriaqëduam.al. Egesta will refer the first case of today’s meeting.
Egesta Ahmetaj, co-governance office coordinator: Two Dibra residents are attending the today’s meeting. Allaman Çira, who has been working for a long time in the chromium mine in Bater, has asked for the Platform’s help after the Regional Social Insurance Directorate in Dibra set a minimum pension payment. The complaint was handled via the Social Insurance Institute and after a recalculation the monthly pension payment that Mr. Cira will now receive has doubled. He has also received a compensation pay-out.
Mr. Allman Çira: I have been working in the chromium mine since 1974. Upon retirement, I was entitled a very low monthly payment of 133, 000 lek. I lodged my complaint with the regional Social Insurance Institute in Peshkopi twice but nothing changed. I then decided to address the co-governance platform and now I receive a two-fold increased pension payment. I would like to thank Mr. Prime Minister and the co-governance platform team.
PM Edi Rama: Thank you very much for taking the trouble to attend this meeting. I have constantly reiterated and it is worth repeating it frequently that one of the best things the platform does is that it provides instant assistance to the retired people, who have been unable to solve the issue of pension miscalculation prior to the platform’s launch, mainly because of an irresponsible administration on one hand and due to a failed system of handling the citizens’ complaints over the past 30 years. The system had failed because hundreds of thousands of letters were sent to the Prime Minister’s office, without taking into account the letters forwarded to the ministries and various directorates and it turns out that a reply was provided to only one percent of these innumerable letters. What the platform has already done is that it has transformed the complaints system into a modern, accessible and direct system, ensuring that every complaint forwarded by the citizens is carefully read and addressed.
On the other hand, it is worth highlighting that the new complaints system helps towards constant improvement of the public administration. Many still keep saying why the platform is needed after all? Why should we send text messages to the Prime Minister, the cabinet members when the public administration is tasked with delivering public services and things like that? The truth is that more developed countries around the world have launched similar complaint systems, because the most developed countries with their modern public administrations haven’t yet reached, and won’t never reach a stage of progress where no complaints exist. After all, the public administration is a system that is made operational by people on daily basis. If this was the case, as many like to think, then it would suffice to look at the number of complaints that the U.S. citizens send to the Congress, the Senate and the White House, expressing their concerns, mostly individual ones, and sometimes community problems that are then properly addressed after a high-level official acts to provide a solution to them.
Of course, improving the public administration remains a challenge. Of course, it is a challenge to sort the things out in the public administration. This straightforward communication between the ordinary citizens and the government also helps in this respect, not only address the citizens’ problems, but also to identify the troublemakers and generators of the problems. As many as 800 individuals, ranging from heads of institutions, senior officials to specialist employees have been handed out punishments, including penal charges and warnings to terminate their employment after having been found responsible for dragging the citizens’ problems on.
Egesta Ahmetaj, co-governance office coordinator: Same kind of complaint has been forwarded by Mr. Ismail Dalliu. I have been working as mine car pusher for over 20 years, which is considered a difficult and dangerous job, but the pension payment was not allocated fit to this job category and his contribution. Once the complaint was received, we found out that the pension payment Mr. Dalliu received had not been set in accordance to the law provisions on the “Social Insurance Contributions.” The pension was recalculated and a compensation pay-out was provided, while an administrative probe has been launched to look into the violations.
Mr. Ismail Dalliu: I would like to thank Mr. Prime Minister and the employees in this administration for helping the retired people like no public administration before.
PM Edi Rama: I want to reiterate it for every retiree who face similar problem and invite them to waste no time, but immediately access the online platform. Not only the pension payment has been recalculated and the people’s pension rights have been restored, but they have also been entitled to benefiting a compensation pay-out for the delayed payments over years due to the miscalculation cases. An amount of 188, 000 lek has been provided as a compensation to Mr. Allaman and amount of 244, 000 for Mr. Ismail in compensation for the miscalculation and debt accumulated by their own state. I have nothing to add to what Mr. Ismail already said about the public administration, because it still encounters problems that especially emerge in the cases concerning people coming from remote areas of the country and who enjoy no support. But, on the other hand, I would like to point out that through this system we are helping the process of improving the public administration. The today’s public administration is much more efficient than it used to be just few years ago, but no comparison can be drawn with to where the administration should be taken in the future.
Lediana Allka, co-governance office coordinator: As part of the efforts to meet the demands tabled by a miners’ delegation during an interpellation with the co-governance platform, a law was adopted in 2018 to provide for every former political prisoner, who have been working in the mines benefit social insurance coverage for this period. This is the case of Mr. Sehit Spahiu, who has lodged a complaint, demanding to benefit pension payment as a former political prisoner, who has been working in the mine. Mr. Spahiu had applied for pension payment, but his application was turned down because he had to provide a certificate proving he had received financial compensation as an ex-political prisoner. After confirmation was issued by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, the Regional Social Insurance Directorate in Tirana granted Mr. Spahiu the pension right, providing also a compensation.
Mr. Sehit Spahiu: After unsuccessfully knocking on the doors of state offices for six consecutive months, after facing long delays due to failure of incompetent employees in those offices, I finally decided to access the online platform and file my complaint with it. I did so five months ago and in three days’ time only, the problem was resolved and the pension right was granted. I thought everything was settled, but I was denied the pension payment just two months later. Who retaliated about this, Mr. Prime Minister? Is it because of the employees’ incompetence? I am afraid party militants have been hired, not by you but by others, to work in those offices. I have been incarcerated for 15 years. I would like to thank you all for this. I expressed my appreciation to the co-governance coordinator too. Thanks God this office has been launched and our problems are being constantly solved by the public administration. I am grateful, but you should always bear in mind that a lot remains to be done. People in the trade union’s offices keep joking around with the former politically persecuted individuals. I beg you to tackle these problems, although a lot of things need to improve. Many incompetent people work in the social insurance offices.
PM Edi Rama: With respect, we welcome your straightforward remarks. I would dismiss none of your statements, so to say, because, I believe, what you say is true and this is our daily fight we have already waged. We really want to build a perfect public administration, but we should all bear in mind that such a process takes a lot of hard work and time. The countries we admire for their administration, have worked for hundreds of years to build an administration totally available to the public and I am confident that a lot of things have been improved over the past six years following a previous catastrophic situation. Of course, a lot remain to be done, but this is not a matter of party militants, but an issue of delivering public services to the citizens. I am a party militant, but I reply to everyone and to every text message sent to my phone. Normally, I don’t have to, but I feel obliged to reply and do whatever I can to help when I figure out that someone needs someone’s help and when such assistance should be provided by the state. The other side of the coin is what I have repeatedly stated that by having active citizens who act in their own interest they can also help us to improve the public administration. Because, by looking into your individual cases we are able to identify the responsible state administration employees who should no longer remain there. For example, we will immediately probe into the case about the individual you just mentioned and if it turns out to be true, then he will no longer hold that job position. The message everyone should receive is that every citizen, who might have been treated badly by public officials and employees, now can become a reason for the punishment of these officials, because the ordinary citizens now have direct access to the government, just like every lawmaker or influential people.
This is a battle taking place on daily basis, my dear friend. We do as much as we can, and not as much as we want to do. We would like to do a lot more, but the opportunities are limited and we just take another step every day, just like we did today.
As for the former political prisoners. I think we have done more than ever before for this social category. We have pledged to provide financial compensation for every living political prisoner and not for their descendants and we are about to complete this entire process. Indeed, the process will then continue to provide compensation to other former political prisoners, however it is unforgivable that many have passed away without benefiting a single penny in compensation although they waited 10 t0 15 years for such compensation to be provided following the collapse of the communist regime. Meanwhile, there are many others who haven’t spent a single day in prison, yet they have received such compensation as relatives of the former persecuted people.
Juela Selimi, co-governance office coordinator: The today’s meeting includes a case forwarded through “My Business” section and that has been handled by the platform. This case concerns the private company “Vllaznia Ndërtim”, which has failed to receive financial liquidation from the Municipality of Klos, Dibra district. After having completed the construction works commissioned by the Municipality of Klos, the latter has failed to settle the accumulated arrear for public works. The case was handled in collaboration with the Minister of State for the Entrepreneurship and the Albanian Development Fund, as well as with the Municipality of Klos, in order to settle the debt to this firm.
Administrator of company “Vllaznia Ndërtim, I.S”: Expressing first gratitude for settling the financial liability the Municipality had to deliver for more than seven years, I hope and strongly wish that an end is put to such problems as soon as possible, as it, somehow, exists even today.
PM Edi Rama: I am very glad that we have already moved to another stage, featuring a new potential in terms of the local government’s reaction to the address the many problems concerning common citizens and the entrepreneurship. The interaction with the local government authorities belonging to another political party has been almost zero, but today the recently elected mayors now receive a weekly report from the platform on the cases that need to be reviewed and addressed within a certain deadline. Any other case that has exceeded any deadline is treated personally by me in collaboration with mayors. This would bring about a significant change in terms of the relation with the local government authorities and the citizens who have complaints to file. In the meantime, we are creating another team to join the co-governance office team and it will be tasked with handling the complaints forwarded by business so that clearing the way to every business people to stop wasting more time and instead address to the co-governance platform for every problem concerning them. The platform is a kind of complaints office, but a centralized one, quite different from what it used to be to date, with every state institution housing a complaints office, but where everybody took a deaf ear to your complaints. Today, a centralized and digital complaints office has become operational and it forwards every complaint that is sent to the right address and every complaint leaves traces behind so that nobody can pretend like “I didn’t notice it. I didn’t read it!”
We are currently engaged in an internal discussion on the need to escalate the fight against corruption and there is no doubt that the link of tax inspectors is the weakest link that should strengthen. Yesterday I shared an idea with the public, proposing an additional scholarship worth 10, 000 lek as an incentive for every student, who, by providing real evidence and not speculations, would report any suspected case of corruption practice and abuse by university professors and administration officials. They will be also offered a zero tuition fee rate for a whole academic year.
Likewise, we are also thinking about incentives for business and we will soon announce the new measures, with every business, starting with the small business which is often subjected to pressure and corrupt practices, and we will offer incentives to small business operator to report and punish any individual or tax inspector who enters their shop and exerts pressure violating any code of ethics and violating the law.
I am confident this will help business community a lot, but at the same time it will help the government and state institutions in identifying inept people. Let identify them as quickly as possible in collaboration with each other and send them before the law, so that everyone finally comes to the terms that nobody can play with the citizens and entrepreneurs just because you are a white-collar worker.
Fatmir Shehu, co-governance office coordinator: Among the various cases we review concern citizens who complain about performance of the State Cadaster Agency and the case in question concerns Mr. Bujar Allmuça. Mr. Allmuça had filed a request with the agency for the Delivery of Integrated Services ADISA vis-à-vis the Immovable Property Registration Office in order to register his property located in Vaqarr, Tirana. Mr. Allmuça applied for the property ownership certificate in November 2018 and in the meantime had filed an administrative complaint in a bid to resolve his problem. However, he failed to reach a solution and therefore he finally decided to ask for the Platform’s help. We handled the case and Mr. Allmuça has been already provided with the due property ownership certificate that has been issued by the local directorate of the State Cadaster Agency, “Rural Tirana 2.”
Mr. Bujar Allmuça: I am short of words in praising the Prime Minister and your whole administration that did whatever it took to provide the property ownership certificate. I had applied for the document back in 2008. In 2014, I was granted the property ownership for my dwelling only and not the land around the house. Therefore, I addressed to the co-governance platform and the certificate was provided in three days only.
PM Edi Rama: Thank you very much. No matter where people live, either in big cities, towns or in most remote areas of the country, they can all access the co-governance platform and lodge their requests and complaints.
Juneta Duni, co-governance office coordinator: One of the problems that has been recently tackled through the co-governance platform is that concerning Mr. Kujtim Mema, a Fieri resident. In a complaint about the Power Distribution Operator (OSHE), Mr. Kujtim Mema demanded cancellation of the electricity bill for March 2013, an arbitrary accumulated fine imposed by the then power distributor CEZ. Once the complaint was forwarded to OSHE, the case was verified and the fine was nullified.
Mr. Kujtim Mema: The problem originates back in 2013, when the then power distributor CEZ imposed a collective fine of over 96, 000 lek on all families living in our condominium. We failed to solve this problem since 2013, but it was swiftly addressed thanks to the co-governance platform two weeks ago.
PM Edi Rama: Once again I would like to thank each and every one of you for attending this meeting, because it is very important that people learn about your accounts on the experience with the co-governance platform and these are stories involving ordinary citizens who enjoy no political backing, the support of influential people or money to bribe their way into finding a solution to the problems they face over years. This is the platform’s power as it doesn’t ask who are you, in terms of your biography who you vote for, or what is your wealth. The platform treats every citizen equally.
As far as the power distributor OSHE is concerned, I can affirm that significant progress has been made, yet problems remain when it comes to certain irresponsible electricity billers, just like there are irresponsible postmen in the country’s postal system, who deliver pensions to villages and ask for reward from retired people. These too will be included in the incentives we plan to offer as part of the escalated fight against corruption and we are currently mulling several ideas about this fight. The postal service, the power distribution operator and other utilities should offer incentives and bill discounts to everyone who give their contribution to separate wheat from chaff and dismiss everyone who receive monthly salary from these institutions and yet they seek to steal people too. There is no other way but close cooperation between the government and every common citizen of this country in order to speed up efforts to build proper public administration and escape from pressure exerted by predators and parasitic individuals within the administration. There is no other way. Everything else is just fairy tales. If it were otherwise things would have been done long time ago. The reason why things have not been done is that this cooperation was inexistent and because no previous government in Albania has ever cared about the common citizens, not just as a subject to meets its obligations, but also as an ally to identify all those who accumulate wealth the people’s expense, certainly eroding image of the government itself. After all, why it would be so important what I do state whenever I appear or deliver a speech on TV, if an ordinary citizen appears at the state offices tasked with delivery of public offices and instead, as he himself said, finds there “a donkey”, and not a dedicated official or employee. Why it would matter if, while I am speaking here, that very “donkey” still works there, claiming that he represents me and the government and indeed he represents the state itself, no matter which government or Prime Minister is in office. This is actually what we need to jointly address and that’s why we want to further strengthen this alliance with the citizens.
Many people ask me why do I publish the text messages I receive from the ordinary citizens. Indeed, I have been publishing a very small number of the text messages I receive and few of the cases that have been resolved. I am not publishing to boast “how good I am,” since, for the sake of truth, I am not that bad as I seem to be seen from a distance, but to insist that we should be together and communicate intensively in order to identify those who are a disgrace to us and those who torture you all. This is the very essence. This is a daily fight.
I am very pleased you all lauded the whole co-governance office team. It is true they are all in good form and will continue to be so, but I believe the more our shared pressure increases – which means that more citizens should access and seek the platform’s help – the more we will be able to take more steps forward.
Thank you very much!
