Although Albania has the legislation providing protection to government whistle-blowers, the latter are still overwhelmingly reluctant to come forward.
The Albanian Law on Whistle-blowing and the Protection of Whistle-blowers was passed in 2016 with the purpose of battling corruption in both the public and private sectors. Passing this law was also a step towards meeting the requirements for opening EU accession negotiations.
The High Inspectorate of the Declaration and Audit of Assets and Conflict of Interest (ILDKPKI) told Faktoje that, from 2017 to 2019, it handled 38 cases of whistle-blowing and 5 cases of protection against retaliation, in several public institutions. The Inspectorate’s investigations concluded that none of the cases had entailed retaliation, either direct or indirect, from the institution.
An Albanian Helsinki Committee (AHC) report found that in 11 Albanian Ministries, during a three year period (2016-2019), there had been only one case of whistle-blowing.
This dearth may be explained as a result of government workers being unfamiliar with whistle-blowing legislation and procedures. They may also be hesitant to blow the whistle on their employers in fear of retaliation, or because they feel their whistle-blowing will not be handled in an unbiased and professional way. Despite the legislation guaranteeing whistle-blowers protection and ILDKPKI’s investigation finding no instance of retaliation against them, it seems they remain afraid to come forward.
