Tenders in the healthcare sector, 40% of procedures carry risk of clientelism, marked with a red flag

The apprehension, on corruption charges, of a senior official from the Ministry of Health coincides with grim developments in this sector’s public contracting AIS, through its Open Procurement Albania database – the Health category, has been monitoring all relevant procurement procedures for years, assessing and marking with a Red Flag (risk of irregularities and clientelism) several of them, which exhibited clear markers of abuse. Link…

51 Parties have benefited ALL 2.17 billion from Taxpayers in 10 years 2011-2022

AIS has just published an article on the Open Data Albania page showing the Public Money Value that Political Parties have received in 10 years. 2011 – 2022. The data provided in the article disclose public funding from taxpayers’ money distributed to (51) Beneficiary Parties1), by Year abd by type of funding, i.e. annual or electoral funding, etc. The reference used for each data is…

Debate and Policy Paper on “Financial Control of State-Owned Corporates” (Standards, Chapter 32 of EU Integration)

The organization AIS, promoter of Open Data Albania, organized on May 31st, a Debate and Presentation of a Policy Paper on the topic of Financial Control of State-Owned Corporates (SOC – State Owned Corporates). Financial Control, as in chapter 32, part of Cluster 1, in the process of fulfilling the conditions and standards for Integration. State Owned Enterprises or Companies are a risky sector in…

AIS concerned: Central Election Commission has limited access to Documents and Information on previous Election Periods.

For many weeks now (February 2023), the CEC official website lost touch with its database before 2020. This database contains Documents, Acts, Reports, Minutes and Decisions that represent the backbone of CEC activity and electoral campaigns developments. Similarly, while Albania gears up for the local elections, the previous 2019 campaign is darkened by a total lack of acts and information on the CEC website. Although…

“February, Month of Civil Engagement for EU Integration” started – AIS presented a Policy Paper on Integrity Control of Public Contractors, EU practice and the Albanian Context

February, the Month of Civil Engagement for European Integration, began with an event of the Organization AIS, whose purpose was to present a Policy Paper titled “Control of the Integrity of Public Contractors, EU practices and contracting in the Albanian Context”, drafted in the frame of the C1-EU- NPA Project. His Excellency, the ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tirana, Mr. Reinout Vos,…

StartUp Datathon Albania, Data Marathon by AIS, promoter of Open Data

AIS returns to its tradition of Datathon and Hackathon Albania. This November we started working with a group of young people for the DataThon that will be held in January 2023. DataThon comes from the words Data and Marathon. They are events where people meet to work together on an idea and to collect, analyze, visualize and communicate findings related to data. AIS has previously…

Treasury transactions, 10 years of open data for each expenditure, 1900 budgetary institutions

How does the Government Spend the Taxpayers’ Money? Our well-structured Treasury Transactions database enables the monitoring of all payments that state institutions make to third parties. Currently, we have data on each payment made in 10 years. The data is obtained through the access to information from the Treasury Department. They are placed in a system where anyone can easily find, use and reuse them…

Open Data and Gender Reports, Social-economic Data on Gender Balance

The Open Data Albania portal continuously publishes data related to Gender Balance Statistics in the country. Articles are listed under the Gender Relations topic. The latest data published are related to the gender balance in sectors and fields such as Demography, Education, Public Representation and Penal Policy by gender groups. The data assist in identifying ratios and development of gender groups, revealing also economic and social imbalances.…

We work on Civic Education – Youth Empowerment in Anticorruption

Empowering young people against corruption – this is the goal for which we created a group of young people, part of the OpenDataYouthNetwork, a year ago. In October, this team was trained on several important topics in anti-corruption analysis. Civic education and strengthening FactChecking Models on accountability are two important aspects of the organization’s activities and projects. The work with young people and the expansion…

Make Elections Count. The need of monitoring the Misuse of Public Funds in Electoral Campaigns

On May 14, 2023, the local elections will be held in 61 municipalities of the country. AIS, based on previous election monitoring, estimates that there is a high risk of distortion of the electoral will through misuse of public funds during the elections period. A few days before voting for the April 2021 parliamentary elections, the state budget was shifted from Public Works fund to the…

Constitutional Control over Corrupt Laws, Vacancies of several years in the Constitutional Court bring Serious Consequences for the Prevention of Corruption by Law

The AIS organization initiated a Lawsuit in September 2021 for the Constitutional Court requesting the Repeal as unconstitutional of a law that regulates Contracts for the Reconstruction Program after the Earthquake. The lawsuit of the organization AIS/Open Data Albania sought the Partial Repeal of Law no. 97/2019 for the adoption of the normative Act with the power of Law no. 9 / 2019 of the…

OpenData Youth Fellowship Retreat October 22nd and 23rd, 2022

The organization AIS / Open Data Albania has been working with a group of students and young professionals for a year, creating a Fellowship program for empowering young people in Anti-corruption matters. This includes events held during the year such as work sessions; discussion forums; internships with the organization’s team; training and other networking events. On the weekend of October 22nd and 23rd, members of…

Training Cycle: Youth Empowerment against Corruption – Citizen Education, Improve Fact Checking Models

The Organization AIS / Open Data Albania is holding this week (October 2022) a training cycle with young people, part of the OpenDataYouth Network. The young participants in this program are selected through competition targeting young journalist professionals or students; economists; tax accountants; future politicians; analysts; sociologists; researchers; etc. The purpose of the Training is to raise the capacities and empower the youth, as the…

The German Newspaper Die Welt writes for Albania: Corruption, justice and issues with press freedom – is Albania ready for the EU?

Albania towards the EU integration, Albanian government, AIS founder, Aranita Brahaj, talks about corruption and justice The serious German newspaper Die Welt published this September an article entitled: Corruption, justice and issues with press freedom – is Albania ready for the EU? The article carefully analyses some geopolitical aspects and challenges of Albania’s negotiation process in its path towards the EU. The journalist Mandoline Rutkowski…

393 Donors during the 2021 Election Campaign, SP receives the largest donations, LSI surpasses the DP, List of Donors for each party

Open Data Albania is publishing the names and donation size of Electoral Donors in the 2021’s April Elections. Donors in Electoral Campaigns are private subjects, companies, legal entities or individuals who donate funds, goods or services to candidates or electoral parties. Donations are mandatory to be divulged based on the agreed legal form. Donations of goods or services, provided without compensation in return are considered…