Group of States against Corruption publishes report on Albania

STRASBOURG, Sep 22 – Criminalization of corruption and transparency of party funding in Albania were the focus of a report published last week by the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).
Regarding the criminalization of corruption, GRECO recognizes that the criminal law of Albania complies to a large extent with the relevant provisions of the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173). Nonetheless, several deficiencies in current legislation were identified such as the limited application of existing provisions with regard to bribery of foreign and international public officials; the low level of sanctions available for bribery committed in the private sector; and several loopholes relating to the jurisdiction over offences of bribery and trading in influence committed abroad. The practical implementation of the relevant criminal legislation needs to be enhanced.
Concerning transparency of party funding, the report acknowledges that Albania is currently engaged in a promising reform process aimed at remedying the low level of transparency in Albanian political financing. The new Electoral Code, in force since January 2009, introduces a new system of transparency and monitoring of election campaign financing. GRECO stresses that concrete measures will now be necessary to effectively implement the new regulations. Above all, an independent and powerful mechanism for monitoring both election campaign finances and general party funding – as opposed to the current ineffective regime of responsibilities shared between various institutions – needs to be developed. Furthermore, there is a clear necessity to align the Law on Political Parties with the standards of the new Electoral Code in respect to transparency, supervision and enforcement. The Albanian authorities are asked to pursue their efforts to establish and implement a comprehensive system of transparency of political financing.
Prepared within the framework of GRECO’s Third Evaluation Round, the report as a whole addresses 12 recommendations for Albania. GRECO will assess the implementation of these recommendations towards the end of 2010 through its specific compliance procedure.
GRECO recommended to Albania to take the legislative measures necessary to ensure that active and passive bribery of foreign public officials, members of foreign public assemblies, officials of international organizations, members of international parliamentary assemblies, as well as judges and officials of international courts, are explicitly criminalized; to take the necessary legislative measures in order to ensure that foreign jurors as well as domestic and foreign arbitrators are explicitly covered by the bribery provisions of the Criminal Code; to increase the maximum penalties for bribery offences in the private sector; to consider abolishing the requirement of dual criminality with respect to the offences of bribery and trading in influence committed abroad and thus withdrawing or not renewing the reservation relating to Article 17 of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption; to ensure jurisdiction over all offences of public and private sector bribery and trading in influence committed abroad (i) by Albanian nationals, Albanian public officials or members of Albanian public assemblies; or (ii) involving Albanian public officials, members of Albanian public assemblies or officials of international organizations, members of international parliamentary assemblies or
judges/officials of international courts with Albanian citizenship.
GRECO invites the Albanian authorities to present a report on the implementation of the above-mentioned recommendations by 30 November 2010.
GRECO invites the authorities of Albania to authorize, as soon as possible, the publication of the report, to translate the report into the national language and to make this translation public.