The public procurement sector carries a high corruption risk for business. Irregular payments and bribes are frequently exchanged in the process of awarding contracts and licenses (GCR 2015-2016). In the same vein, more than a quarter of companies expect to give gifts to officials to secure government contracts (ES 2013). Favoritism is also a problem in procurement as officials are perceived to often favor well-connected companies and individuals. Companies in Albania experience non-transparent processes when competing for public tenders (e.g. ‘fixed’ technical specifications) as a means to exclude potential bidders (ICS 2015). The diversion of public funds to companies and individuals due to corruption is also a problem in Albania (GCR 2015-2016).
Albania now has an obligatory and fully operational e-procurement platform (ICS 2015; EU Progress Report 2015). Regulations can be found at the official website of the procurement system of Albania, which also publishes a list of companies that have committed irregularities during the procurement process. However, in practice, companies guilty of corruption are not effectively prohibited from participating in future procurement bids. To mitigate corruption risks associated with public procurement in Albania, investors are advised to exert caution when bidding on public tenders and are recommended to use a specialized public procurement due diligence tool.
In one case, the former governor of the Central Bank, Ardian Fullani, and his close aids were investigated during 2014 for the embezzlement of ALL 700 million from the bank’s reserves (BTI 2016). Under Fullani’s term, most of the bank’s employees enjoyed family connections to prominent politicians (BTI 2016). Fullani was later released from prison, despite the prosecutor ordering that he be put in isolation; the prosecutor was later removed from the case (BTI 2016). Fullani was eventually acquitted of the charges, while two former employees received 10 and 20 years of prison respectively for embezzlement (NiT 2016).
In another case in 2013, a former Minister of Defence was involved in a corruption case for the alleged violation of tender laws; in 2015, the prosecutor withdrew the file and closed the case (BTI 2016).