Minister of Justice Gazment Bardhi — one of the technical ministers installed by the PD as part of the McAllister+ agreement between opposition leader Lulzim Basha and Prime Minister Edi Rama — has suspended the procedures for handling the resignations of the local Asset Registration Office (ZRPP) directors.
On July 27, Prime Minister Edi Rama had demanded the resignation of all ZRPP directors, as, according to him, they had “tortured” common people with their work approach.
A few days later, Central Asset Registration Office Chief Registrar Blerina Doracaj claimed that all other ZRPP personnel would be “vetted.”
Following suit, ZRPP directors throughout the country handed their resignation to the Minsiter of Justice, who is their superior.
But in a press statement, Minister Bardhi has now declared that he will suspend the procedures to process all the resignations until a full administrative investigation of all directors have been completed:
Noticing that the resignations came as the result of a public statement by the Prime Minister of Albania that these public functionaries have seriously violated the rights of the citizens, by ridiculing people individually and collectively, the Minister of Justice has taken the intermediary decision to suspend the approval of their resignation until the completion of a full administrative investigation of the activities of these public functionaries.
The fact that the Ministry of Justice indicates that an administrative investigation has yet to be carried out strongly suggests that Prime Minister claims were based on hearsay rather than proper legal procedures to inspect and investigate governmental mismanagement.
Minister Bardhi further ordered the Central Asset Registration Office to set up three special committees to investigate the activities of all local ZRPP offices.
