Albania’s Commissioner for the Right to Information Besnik Dervishi has been asked to speed up and conclude his investigation into the 2021 leak of databases containing the personal information of citizens and foreign residents.
The leak saw over 637,000 people’s names, employer details and salaries made public, followed by another leak of over 530,000 people’s names and car registration numbers.
This came following an April 2021 leak of names, phone numbers, perceived voting preferences, and notes on employers and living situations, apparently for the benefit of the ruling Socialist Party.
Last week, the Assembly called on the commissioner to finish the investigation and publish his findings.
“To conclude the administrative investigation on the publication of the database with data on salaries of citizens employed in the public and private sector and the database with data on vehicle license plates, within 2022,” the document states.
Dervishi also notes there was a big increase in the number of complaints to his institution, rising at least 30% on 2020. These requests come from citizens, civil society, and investigative media, he added.
“The analysis shows that the responsibilities in exercising the transparency of institutions are still at unsatisfactory levels and in many cases remain formal.”
He said it was necessary to implement a Transparency Programme and release access to information without requiring requests for information. He referred to the creation of an electronic register in every institution to avoid bureaucracy, describing the constant replacement of coordinators for information as “the disease of public authorities”.
On the topic of the leak and responding to criticism on the pace of the investigation, Dervishi added, “Without wanting to remove any gram of responsibility from what belongs to our work, we feel sorry for the misunderstanding by professionals in the field and the limits of the responsibility of the commissioner’s office.”
He asked MPs to understand “where the competencies of the commissioner begin and end and where the responsibilities of the controllers begin, ie those who process personal data, whether public or private institution”.
Dervishi has called for his office to have broader powers in an attempt to improve the flow of information between institutions and the public in Albania.
Albanian Data Commissioner Seeks Wider Powers in Bid for Transparency
