Political Risk:
High
Score:
47/100
Defence and Security Policy and Policy Transparency
Q1
67/100
Is there formal provision for effective and independent legislative scrutiny of defence policy?
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The Albanian Parliament has the power to approve or veto laws on security and to reject or amend defence policy. These powers are conferred…
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Following constitutional and legal provisions the Albanian Parliament formally debates security policy and legislation related to defence and security in the permanent committees and…
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One of the typical features of the Albanian Parliament is the political polarization which has resulted from the tendency of alignment between the executive…
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Q2
38/100
Does the country have an identifiable and effective parliamentary defence and security committee (or similar such organisations) to exercise oversight?
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Since 2004 the Albanian Parliament has established a permanent parliamentary Committee on National Security (CNS). According to the Article 18 of RoPP, the “The…
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The CNS comprises of 18 permanent members and eight substitutes. Nearly half of the members have some experience with the security sector, having held…
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After the adoption of the first National Security and Military Strategy in 2000, the parliament reviewed the Military Strategy in 2002, in 2005, in…
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In its practice, the CNS does not issue amendments to budgets and recommendations. The most common ex-post oversight practice is the organisation of hearing…
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Conducting long term investigations is not an established practice of the CNS. From January 2014 to July 2018 the CNS has held 118 meetings…
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As a result of the lack of a well-established CNS agenda that combines ex-ante and ex-post oversight tools, there has been no meaningful dialogue…
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Q3
56/100
Is the country’s national defence policy or national security strategy debated and publicly available?
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There is very little debate on defence and security policy in Albania. The main security policy documents are the National Security Strategy, the Military…
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The focus of debates varies depending on the document discussed. In the discussions on the national security strategy and military strategy, the debate in…
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The CNS has a list of NGO representatives and experts who are invited to attend meetings where the policy documents or laws related to…
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The national security policy and military strategy documents are made available publically in its complete form when the drafts reach the parliament. Usually, documents…
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Q4
50/100
Do defence and security institutions have a policy, or evidence, of openness towards civil society organisations (CSOs) when dealing with issues of corruption?
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The Inter-sectoral Strategy Against Corruption 2015-2020, sets the objective “Encouraging cooperation with the civil society” (Objective C 3 of the Strategy) [1]. One of…
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Albania’s legal and regulatory framework on the right of freedom of association is generally in line with international standards [1]. Albania adopted a law…
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The interaction between the defence and intelligence sector and CSOs on corruption-related issues is very limited. Overall, the interaction between the MoD and the…
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Q5
75/100
Has the country signed up to the following international anti-corruption instruments: UNCAC and the OECD Convention?
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Albania is not a major arms exporter. It only sold 1.28 million euros worth of arms in 2016 [1]. Albania has ratified the United…
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Albania has made efforts to comply with the UNCAC convention [1]. In 2015 Albania adopted the Inter-Sectoral Strategy against Corruption and its Action Plan…
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Q6
25/100
Is there evidence of regular, active public debate on issues of defence? If yes, does the government participate in this debate?
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Q7
50/100
Does the country have an openly stated and effectively implemented anti-corruption policy for the defence sector?
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There is no specifically defined and actively implemented strategy on anticorruption in the defence sector in Albania. A clear anticorruption deference strategy is supposed…
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Under the ISSC, the MoD has adopted an Action Plan for the period 2014-2017, which includes 31 measures subdivided in prevention, repressive and awareness-raising,…
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Q8
75/100
Are there independent, well-resourced, and effective institutions within defence and security tasked with building integrity and countering corruption?
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Within the defence sector, there are several mechanisms with different mandates that are designed to ensure integrity and tackle wrongdoings. The two largest organisations…
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The DISA, the Military Police, and the IAD are established by law and they cannot be removed or shut down by the authorities to…
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It is not possible to estimate the effectiveness of these bodies due to the lack of reports on corruption perceptions by defence and security…
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Q9
NS/100
Does the public trust the institutions of defence and security to tackle the issue of bribery and corruption in their establishments?
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This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. No polls have been conducted specifically to target defence corruption. However, various polls on…
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Q10
25/100
Are there regular assessments of the areas of greatest corruption risk for ministry and armed forces personnel, and are the findings used as inputs to the anti-corruption policy?
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The MoD has not conducted defence specific risk assessments on corruption. However, this is not exclusive to the MoD as no other institution has…
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This indicator has been marked Not Applicable, due to the fact that risk assessments are currently not conducted. According to the Action Plan 2018-2020…
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This indicator has been marked Not Applicable, due to the fact that risk assessments are currently not conducted. According to the Action Plan 2018-2020…
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Defence Budgets
Q11
42/100
Does the country have a process for acquisition planning that involves clear oversight, and is it publicly available?
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Defence acquisition planning is conducted following the long-term plan on the development of the armed forces 2016-2025 [1]. Under the Law on the Powers…
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The public has very limited access to the acquisition process. No acquisition plan is published by the MoD. Under the transparency program the MoD…
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The parliament is not involved in ex-post oversight of acquisition planning. Ex-ante oversight is conducted by the parliament through the adoption of the long…
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Q12
75/100
Is the defence budget transparent, showing key items of expenditure? And it is provided to the legislature in a timely fashion?
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Q13
63/100
Is there a legislative committee (or other appropriate body) responsible for defence budget scrutiny and analysis in an effective way?
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According to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, the parliament and the permanent committees have all the powers to scrutinise the budget of…
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The defence and security budget is discussed in the CNS in meetings where traditionally the minister of defence and high military officials are invited…
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Q14
33/100
Is the approved defence budget made publicly available? In practice, can citizens, civil society, and the media obtain detailed information on the defence budget?
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The approved budget for all the institutions, including defence and intelligence, is published by the MoF, but in the same aggregated form with the…
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The approved defence budget, aggregated in programs, is published by the MoF as soon as it gets adopted by the parliament. The budget is…
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No disaggregated budget is made public. There is no evidence of a published defence budget over the last few years. Open Data Albania, which…
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Q15
33/100
Are sources of defence income other than from central government allocation (from equipment sales or property disposal, for example) published and scrutinised?
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The aggregated version of the overall state budget published by the MoF includes two sources financing: domestic and foreign. The same published budget documents…
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There are internal and external mechanisms in place for the scrutiny of incomes generated by the defence sector that include the Internal Audits, the…
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There is limited public scrutiny on the sources of funding of the defence sector. The media has reported on irregularities with the assets, such…
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Q16
38/100
Is there an effective internal audit process for defence ministry expenditure (that is, for example, transparent, conducted by appropriately skilled individuals, and subject to parliamentary oversight)?
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Internal audits in public institutions Albania are regulated by law [1]. The laws provide for the scope of activity and competences of the Internal…
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The overall performance of the Internal Audits is assessed by the SSAI, which has the competence to audit the internal audit systems. The law…
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The MoD’s internal audit reports are not published nor presented to the parliament [1, 2]. However, the internal audit reports are available to the…
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No disaggregated data exists on the role and institutional outcome of the Internal Audit in security and defence institutions. MoF annual reports do not…
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Q17
69/100
Is there effective and transparent external auditing of military defence expenditure?
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Albania has a consolidated institutional framework for conducting external audits. In its present from the Supreme State Audit Institution was established in 1997 [1].…
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The SSAI’s functional, operational and administrative independence is enumerated in the Constitution and the law. The SSAI Chairman is elected and removed from office…
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The SSAI reports regularly to the parliament, and the reports are made available to the public on the institution’s website [1]. The reports include…
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Overall, the implementation of SSAI recommendations is low. During 2017 the SSAI made 3521 recommendations and proposed measures to be taken to strengthen financial…
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Nexus of Defence and National Assets
Q18
67/100
Is there evidence that the country’s defence institutions have controlling or financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural resource exploitation and, if so, are these interests publicly stated and subject to scrutiny?
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A review of the legislation on armed forces and of the legislation that regulates various natural resource sectors shows that there are no specific…
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Although there is no explicit legal ban, there are no cases of the defence and security institutions being involved in businesses related to the…
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There is no evidence that proves the engagement of individual defence personnel in businesses related to the country’s natural resource exploitation.
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This indicator has been marked Not Applicable. There are no cases of the defence and security institutions being involved in businesses related to the…
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This indicator has been marked Not Applicable. There are no cases of the defence and security institutions being involved in businesses related to the…
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Organised Crime
Q19
13/100
Is there evidence, for example through media investigations or prosecution reports, of a penetration of organised crime into the defence and security sector? If no, is there evidence that the government is alert and prepared for this risk?
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Over the last few years, there have been several cases of involvement of armed forces personnel in various organized crime activities [1]. In addition…
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There is a government awareness of the threat posed by the organised crime which is defined also in the strategic documents. Organized crime is…
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Q20
58/100
Is there policing to investigate corruption and organised crime within the defence services and is there evidence of the effectiveness of this policing?
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The Military Police is the main organization for the investigation of crime and corruption. The Law on Military Police establishes the Military Criminal Police…
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According to legislation, the Military Police and DISA have the powers to investigate cases of corruption and organized crime [1, 2]. However, they don’t…
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There are no official reports on the performance of the Military Police and DISA to be able to assess their effectiveness through figures. However,…
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Control of Intelligence Services
Q21
50/100
Are the policies, administration, and budgets of the intelligence services subject to effective and independent oversight?
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In Albania, the two largest agencies that conduct domestic and foreign intelligence gathering activities are the State Intelligence Service (SHISH) (formerly the National Intelligence…
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CNS members have access to classified information, but the committee has no schedule of its own, rather it is determined by the executive agenda…
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Q22
25/100
Are senior positions within the intelligence services filled on the basis of objective selection criteria, and are appointees subject to investigation of their suitability and prior conduct?
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The Law on the State Intelligence Service (SHISH) doesn’t specify any criteria for the appointment of the agency’s Director [1]. The law on the…
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There is not a competitive process for the appointment of the intelligence directors in Albania. When legislation was adopted in 1992 to place intelligence…
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As a rule, all personnel having access to classified information have to undergo security vetting under the law on classified information [1]. The vetting…
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Export Controls
Q23
67/100
Does the government have a well-scrutinised process for arms export decisions that aligns with Articles 7.1.iv, 11.5, and 15.6 of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)?
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Albania has ratified the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in January 2014 (1). The trade of weapons, military materiel and dual use technologies has been…
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According to the Arms Trade Treaty-Baseline Assessment Project (ATT-BAP) Albania has complied with all the ATT articles (1).
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Regarding parliamentary scrutiny, the 2007 law established the legal bases of the export control policy while the Council of Ministers drafts and implements the…
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Lobbying in Defence
Albania has no legislation on lobbying; however, political parties use part of their finances for lobbying activities aboard, mainly in the United States [1,…
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This indicator has been marked Not Applicable. In the absence of any regulatory framework, no provisions exist on disclosures by public officials in defence…
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This indicator has been marked Not Applicable. In the absence of any regulatory framework, no provisions exist on the registering of lobbyists [1].
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This indicator has been marked Not Applicable. In the absence of any regulatory framework, no provisions exist on oversight or the enforcement of lobbying…
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