Speech by Prime Minister Edi Rama at presentation of the findings of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) on the fight against corruption as pertaining to Albania:
Thank you all for your presence and for the helpful example of wearing face masks, which will be mandatory in any open-air space starting Thursday. I hope this most recent measure is going to be taken very seriously by all our citizens, because it is really up to each individual to do his or her small part to avoid the worst case scenario, which would be another total lockdown if this treacherous virus spreads uncontrollably.
I’m pleased that today we are talking about corruption based on independently drawn facts and findings by a leading organization renowned for its integrity and skills in identifying the problem of corruption in all states and in assessing the situation in each state.
The fight against corruption is essentially a fight for the modernization of the state. Corruption is the alternative to the state, when the state is absent in delivering public services to citizens, when the state is unavailable to deliver what everyone is entitled to and when the state is powerless to place the public interest above any private vested interests.
Of course, the difference between developed and developing countries in terms of corruption is actually not a difference between peoples, it is not a genetic difference, but it is precisely a systemic difference. The developed countries are not immune to corruption, because corruption is like the demon sleeping inside living human beings, is part of the human life, yet developed countries have built systems that make corruption penetration very difficult and such systems are hard evidence proving that it is not people who corrupt the system, but the system who corrupts people. And this is a fight to build immune systems and build conditions that would make it impossible for individuals, people, organizations fall prey to the temptation of corruption.
I think that the fight against corruption and the effort to build systems against this phenomenon has started along with the justice reform in the country. Prior to the justice system reform, the fight against corruption was a sort of a partisan-like combat against windmills doomed to merely recycle new and various forms of corruption. The beginning of justice reform and its ongoing implementation form the basis for a modern state in the future, a functioning state with stronger institution than the temptation of corruption and stronger than the efforts of individuals to corrupt the state, to corrupt processes.
We must all be aware that this is neither a simple nor a short war, it is a long war. The United States, – I am very pleased that the Ambassador noted that virtually every country has its own vulnerabilities, certainly to an infinitesimally small extent than the less developed countries – has not built their system in neither a year nor a decade. Indeed, if you look at the past of the U.S., you would find corruption has flourished in all its forms in the past and with all the explosions of talent that have come together from all over the world and made the United States of America what it is today.
I am saying this to put the fight against corruption in perspective and bear in mind that Albania is still in a growth process, it is still a fledgling democratic state and even though 30 years are a lot in a person’s life, in the state-building process, taking notice of where did Albania started this process from after the overthrow of a communist system and a regime that was absolutely unique in its brutality in the whole sphere of the communist empire, then, we definitely have many reasons to be encouraged and optimistic about the future.
Going back to the justice system reform, I believe it is key step in our history and despite all difficulties, despite all vulnerabilities and despite all discouraging moments, the aggregate is absolutely historic and it is a guarantee for the Albania of our children that this is right where the future of a state begins, that will be a state immune from the endemic corruption disease, which distinguishes between developing and developed countries.
If we are to look at the today’s justice landscape, it is dynamic; it contains a large number of black and white elements. White is highlighted and black is highlighted too. There is much hope, but there are also many reasons for sadness. Of course, the white will keep expanding, black will keep shrinking on its surface, but in the meantime it is necessary to put emphasis on a point, in my opinion, that as vetting process wreaks the right havoc on all the wickedness accumulated over the years, there will be – nobody should have any illusions – a fight against the high-level corruption, if high-level corruption within the justice system is not combated.
If judges and prosecutors, who have been caught red-handed with incredible wealth, are not sent behind bars, let us have no illusion that this will happen to very high-ranking officials.
If the judges and prosecutors that as we speak, I am convinced, are committing a crime in the meantime in courtrooms where catastrophic rulings are rendered, even more catastrophic than the rulings they use to make before the vetting process, primary affecting public and private properties with the idea that they will not pass vetting, so it is time to do everything and earn a bag of cash money, if they are not sent before justice and if not an example of them is made as they are committing crimes even today as we speak, then the day to fight high-profile corruption will be a far distant one.
This is the premise on which, in my view, the whole effort of the new justice institutions should focus on. This is the premise which would make SPAK the institution we all have wished for and all Albanians have wished for when we started talking and fighting for creation of SPAK. Otherwise, SPAK will turn out to be the biggest disappointment of Albanians from justice reform, it will be the biggest moral blow that will be dealt to the Albanian people after all this great commitment and after all that great support for the Justice Reform. It will be the biggest failure of all the friends and partners of Albania, who in one way or another are directly involved in this process.
SPAK is tasked with completely overhauling what the vetting process just removes from the justice system. SPAK should remove them from the field of social life and send them prison for everything they have done to this country by using the gavel in the most barbaric ways. This would mark a great and final turning point that will make European Albania here, regardless of the Brussels’ decisions on whether to call the first conference, the second or the seventh conference, or to open chapters 24, 36, or 276. This is a completely different issue.
The issue here is to launch battle the right from the head and the head of corruption in Albania, let me say it to the end, are not politicians, politicians have not been the heads of corruption, in spite of the fact that they have certainly been involved.
The head of corruption in Albania has been the corporation of these judges and prosecutors, which has guaranteed impunity in the system, which has used the punishment of justice to settle scores that very often had nothing to do with state interest. Had it not been for them, there would not have been spectacular and even deadly corruption of politicians.
If the sacrifice of the 30-year-old corruption, which is precisely the corporation being dismantled by the vetting process though still insufficient, is not laid on the foundations of the justice system then the new justice building would collapse and history will repeat itself badly.
I believe that there is no other way and that this will happen, but what is important is that this happens sooner rather than later.
Albanians have invested all their hopes in the vetting process. But they are somehow disappointed today, because they haven’t fully realized that the vetting process cleans the system. Vetting doesn’t prosecute and doesn’t judicially punish those it removes from system. This should be done by the overhauled system resulting from the vetting process. This is what SPAK is about, this is what the National Bureau of Investigation is about, and this is what the new justice bodies are about. The peaceful coexistence between the new system and the absurd sharks of corruption within the justice system for them to keep sailing in the form of lawyers, legal counsels, politicians or lawmakers, this would then mark the end of this whole great endeavour in the next one or two decades.
I am saying this is because today is the right time when slogans, the recommendations for fight that always imply and blame politicians should end. No one would be a winner; no society would win from the discrediting of its representatives en bloc.
Things must be separated from justice. The fact that today we have new and completed justice bodies shows that people with a strong moral integrity have been already part of the justice system, so I mean that they have been not all the same in that system, and not all are the same even in political life. Separation of the wheat from this centennial chaff of integration should be done by the new justice bodies, which in a way or another are connected to all of you here, as this table includes also the European Union and the United States. Without the EU and the U.S. we wouldn’t have succeeded in doing this, because it would have been impossible to secure the Parliament’s backing. This is a fact.
It took the brutal U.S. intervention for the reform to happen and should continue to happen, because the interests of the US, the EU and the Albanian people are perfectly matched in this reform and politicians simply have to decide which side they would choose.
In addition to the justice system, another fight against corruption goes on every day in Albania and which unfortunately occupies little place in the overall consideration, even of those who draft reports on corruption. What do I mean by that?
How can a comparison can possibly be drawn between the present and the past regarding corruption and by past I don’t mean 70 years ago, but just a few years ago, as people now demand what they are entitled to according to a merit-based system.
It was just few years ago when someone could not be hired as a teacher under a merit-based system in the Republic of Albania in terms of taking up a job in the education system based on your skills and education. And this is because in order to become a teacher you had to be a member or enjoy the support of the ruling party, pay bribes or enjoy those magical kinship ties, a feature we generally share with our Italian and Mediterranean brothers.
This is no longer the case today or even if it happens to be the case, it is very sporadic. In order for you to become a teacher, it just takes sitting an exam via the digital platform and you can fail or take up a job in the education system based on your performance scores.
It was just few years ago when someone could not become a nurse. It was impossible for someone to put on the white coat without having the support of the political party, without having enough money to pay bribes, or without the help of influential people. Whereas nurses are now recruited via a digital platform and they are ranked by computer based on their performance scores.
Nobody was able to enter the faculty he or she deserved if the son or daughter of an influential person was seeking to take your place. The university admission system is completely digitalized today and no son or daughter of any politician, judge or businessmen can outdo the son of a driver or a farmer if the latter is ranked higher on the winner list.
These are just a few of the examples, including the one that, fortunately, the Progress Report goes on to point out, which is the increase in the value of merit in public administration recruitment that was just unimaginable a few years ago, including here the special program for the best performing university students who are granted direct access to the system.
I say this for all the propaganda, which certainly has its legitimacy, for the young people who do not find space here, because in fact the space for young people today is much bigger today. It is not as big it should be, yet it is bigger than it used to be in the past.
And our progress in all these areas is relative. It can’t be absolute. If we were to tackle everything over these past seven years, then the U.S. or the EU wouldn’t surely face any dilemmas who to elect as president. Instead, they would have hired me and the government of Albania to solve their problems, because you are magicians. But we are not magicians. We are modestly the leaders of this country currently and we are doing what we can.
In Albania – and this is pointed out by the EU report and the OECD report – a revolution that has never taken place before and is not happening in other countries in the region but is taking place now in Albania and the digital revolution in all public service delivery. International reports rank Albania today as the country with the highest e-governance level. Around 95 of public services will be delivered via online platforms by December.
How could possibly the corruption index – according to the data of some who conduct these surveys and denigrating presentations for certain countries – remains unchanged compared to a year or two years ago given that the online public service delivery has spared three million physical reports to public administration officials in order to benefit a public service! Because three million is the total number of requests and applications filed via the online platform with the state institutions tasked with the delivery of public services, which should otherwise be reported in person, while around 2 million documents have been delivered to applicants, who would have to report in person and receive them after waiting for hours on long queues or after having paid a bribe.
I am talking about 2 million stamped documents provided online.
This is all a considerable amount of physical interactions, which have been now transformed into virtual interactions and virtually corruption-free interactions in a country that doesn’t have 200 million inhabitants.
A total of 60 million interactions have taken place between citizens and the state institutions tasked with public service delivery since January, as we have moved from a phase when for a citizen to obtain a document he had to report at 17 service windows, wait for hours on long queues and pay countable bribes into a system where the state and its institutions are tasked with completing the file of every applicant.
Imagine if we were to be forced to impose the total lockdown while not having this level of digital services!
As many as 3. 214. 744 online services were delivered during the total lockdown, including the permissions for people to leave homes. How would the possibly be supposed to obtain such permissions if not the online services system was not in place? Would they crowd in front of relevant institutions and spread the virus uncontrollably during the lockdown?
A total of 15.890.671 of interactions have taken place in few weeks only in view of delivering public services to the citizens during the lockdown. This shows that modernization is the alternative to corruption and corruption is the alternative to regress.
A whole new level is in place today. But just like it is the case with the justice system and the justice system reform, with its white and black colours, the same goes for this state modernization process. We still have a lot to do in the fight against corruption so that the fight is neither temporary, as it is the case in some countries that have been applauded by the EU and the U.S., nor a witch-hunt. Why? Because they have been unable to eventually build the system, which has divided history between the past and the future, giving people the opportunity to be served by an incorruptible structure.
Swedes are not more honest than Albanians by genes, but they cannot imagine how you could pay in exchange for public services, because the system is completely operational and makes it totally impossible to imagine. Germans are not genetically more honest than Albanian. They are neither less corruptible. You may bring 40 Germans and appoint them to the immovable property registration office in Vlora and 40 days later we can discuss together their moods and their relation to the temptations of the prophet who resisted them for 40 days.
We need to build due systems. Why the immovable property registration office in Vlora, which is a symbol, remains a problem and how long it will continue to remain a problem? This is not because Vlora citizens tend to be more corrupt people than Germans, let alone Italians. But this is because if today we are dealing with the property registration process after having adopted the law and sub-laws and this process will lead to creation of the system with defined digital map of all properties, then it will be impossible to take another’s property and make other owners of the sea. All of these definitely take their time.
There is only one way for us to continue to make all these efforts, given what we need to do more. The anti-corruption network has been taken to a whole new level now in all institutions tasked with delivering public services and where we have a struggle to continue, we will have members of this network at the highest level of management, who will be there only for this task.
While the corruption of facts, corruption of truth is an illness we will fight together and we must all contribute together to save the facts from corruption and save the truth from the constant corruption, which is done for many interests.
I do not want to engage in debates here, but I mean you have been very sensitive to the anti-defamation law. All those working in the team tasked with drafting the law beg me “please do not say anymore that the law is to fight slander, because our international friends become very upset.” This is as if saying that slander is a word we should be ashamed to use and as if the virginity of freedom of speech is being affected! If your world and ours, which we want to become an integral part of your world, will not solve the problem of slander, the end of the world, as we know it, will be much closer than we can imagine.
When we launched this initiative, surprisingly, do you know who the ones desperately wanting an anti-defamation law were?
They were the entrepreneurs. How could you explain this?
The entrepreneurs are not part of the daily public battle. However, they are the ones desperately seeking an anti-defamation law be adopted, because they are most blackmailed people on daily basis and because they have to pay ransoms to the media that otherwise slander and go as far as to speculate and spread panic about food, about medicine, about commodities of everyday use and consumption in the people’s lives, raising questions over their safety and describing them as potential poisons, that they want black money to feed their sources of slander and information.
If compared to corruption, defamation is equally dangerous and harmful. By describing everyone all the same, branding them all corrupt, by determining for actually corrupt interests who is corrupt and who is not. All this creates a vicious circle from which we must emerge, but of course, Albania can not undertake to solve a problem that should actually be solved by countries with indisputable democracies and where you cannot say that a painter has emerged authoritarian that will silent us all.
Thank you very much!
