Source: Ministry of Finance
Processing and comments: ODA
In 2013, the state budget increased support for local government in the form of unconditional transfers (UT) with about 465 million ALL or 4.5% more than in 2012. The Municipality of Tirana was the local government unit that benefited most from these funds, since the unconditional transfers for this unit had a value of 1.1 billion or 23.4% higher than in 2012, deepening even more the funding gap toward other municipalities.
Enhanced values for UT in 2013 were also noticed in the municipalities of Shkodra (+ 17.57%), Kamza (+ 12.17%) or Fieri (+ 9.72%), while cities such as Lushja, Vlora and Durres experienced contraction of allocated funds, respectively -9.94%, -7.17% and -7.79%.
As a consequence to these changes in funding, after Tirana, in 2013, the municipalities most supported through unconditional transfers were Shkodra (409 million), Durres (360 million), Elbasan (303 million), Vlora (268 million) and Kamza (229 million), while for the first time since 2004, in the top 10 municipalities most funded enters to be part of the list the municipality of Kukes 118 million, leaving behind the municipality of Lushnje.
The budget of 2014 changes somehow the general view. The municipalities with the largest increase of unconditional transfer are the municipality of Korca with 30.3%, Vlora with 26.1%, Berat with 22.4%, Lushnje with 21.7%, Elbasan with 21.88% and Durres with 21.56%.
In 10 municipalities surveyed, none of them appears to have decreased value of transfer, although some of them have grown more modestly, like for example the city of Shkodra with 0.27% or Kamëz with 1%. However, despite the changes in the levels of funding from the state budget, the ranking of municipalities continues to be headed by Tirana, with 1.87 billion ALL, followed by Durres (437.9 million ALL), Shkodra (411 million ALL), Elbasan (370 million ALL) and Vlora (338 million ALL).
Source: Ministry of Finance
Processing and comments: ODA