The State Supreme Audit Institution (KLSh) has published its auditing report for the first semester of 2017. Its audit of a number of state institutions, covering 2014–2016, has shown a total economic damage of €590.6 million caused by legal violations.
The numbers in the report show an administration beset by lawlessness and inefficiency, with little control or oversight from governmental institutions. The customs offices appear the most inefficient and corrupt of all government institutions, followed by public procurement and tax offices:
- Customs offices’ violation of laws and regulations and maladministration: 798,898,000 lekë (~€6 million);
- Irregular procurement procedures or failure in oversight by different state institutions: 282,859,000 lekë (~€2.1 million);
- Tax offices failing to impose taxes or fines: 245,824,000 lekë (~€1.8 million);
- Overpaying civil servants: 71,540,000 lekë (~€540,000);
The far majority of the financial damage comes from the Customs Office at the Durrës harbor, where the KLSh registered 648,111,000 lekë (~€4.8 million) in violations. Furthermore, the Durrës harbor is one of the main exit points for Albanian drug trafficking.
A few other state institutions show even greater incompetence. The National Agency for Natural Resources missed out on 19,734,800,000 lekë (~€148 million) through “violations of financial discipline,” whereas the Gambling Oversight Authority failed to gather a whopping 50,294,500,000 lekë (~€378 million) in fines. Especially the latter fact is remarkable, as the government had given out a questionable 30-year concession to monitor the gambling industry in March 2017.
I final highlight is that the Water Supply and Drainage Company of Tirana (UKT), in 2016 only, gathered 744,405,000 lekë (~€5.6 million) in unpaid invoices. The most recent solution to this incompetence has been increasing the water price.
