Author: Fatjona Mejdini
The municipality of Tirana seems to prioritize communication with the public and providing information about its investments. The main media in the country, several times a day, announce with well-curated videos the activities of the Mayor, Erion Veliaj.
But this communication seems to be one-sided, selective, driven by the need of the Municipality to convey information and not symmetrical when the media and civil society representatives seek to be informed.
For five consecutive months, using the law on the right to information, the Center for Quality Journalism found it impossible to obtain complete data on investments in public infrastructure in Tirana for the last eight years.
Although the Commissioner for the Right to Information has mediated the situation and representatives of the Municipality have promised several times to provide the requested information, the situation has remained unresolved.
After a continuous communication, both with the Commissioner for the Right to Information, and with representatives of the Municipality of Tirana, who have continuously ensured that the requested information will be made available, in the second month of the ordeal, this has recently presented the argument that the entire archive of this institution has been made available to the High State Control, KLSH, to be audited, and therefore cannot provide complete information on investments until the end of the process.
But in reality, KLSH has examined the investments of the Municipality for only three years, at a time when the Center has requested information on investments spanning ten years.
The argument used turns out to be an excuse for the Municipality to not allow transparency for investments.
Despite the fact that the Municipality during all these months has prevented the receipt of information using blocking tactics and false information, it does not result that its representatives have been penalized with any administrative fine, as the law on the right to information provides.
The ordeal of requesting information
On August 1, 2018, the Municipality of Tirana requested, through the Right to Information Law, to make public all investments made in infrastructure during the last eight years, from June 2010 to June 2018.
In it, general information was requested, such as the value of each of the investments, and the duration of the works until the complete completion of the works.
The Municipality of Tirana did not respond to the requested information within 10 working days as provided by law, and on August 26, the Center for Quality Journalism asked the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data to mediate its receipt. As a result of this mediation, the Municipality brought the requested information within a few days.
But the ordeal started exactly when at the end of October, the Center selected 25 of these investments in roads, urban blocks and playgrounds for children and asked the Municipality for detailed information about them.
In the request for information, the Center requested the contracts related to the firms that had performed the works, as well as those related to the supervisor and auditor of the works. It was also requested for each case the initial investment project and the final project implemented by the winning firm, in order to understand possible deviations from the idea to the implementation of the project. The guarantee that the firms gave for their constructions was also a required element, to understand whether or not they were responsible if the works made lost quality within a short time.
Tirana Municipality did not send the requested information within the deadline and the Center in November 2018 asked the Commissioner to intervene. This institution requested them through a letter Providing the requested information to the municipality by November 21.
In the letter signed by the Commissioner, Besnik Dervishi, the law is cited, where the refusal of an institution to provide information is punished with a fine from 150,000 to 300,000 ALL.
But the Municipality again did not provide the requested information within the deadline set by the Commissioner, and neither did this institution fine the Municipality for violating the Right to Information law.
After continuous complaints from the Center, the Commissioner decided to mediate a hearing between the two parties on December 6.
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fines
The Law on the Right to Information was approved në in 2014, bringing innovations such as the right of applicants to receive information no later than 10 working days from the day of submission of the request. According to this law, the refusal to provide information, after it has been consumed and the level of complaint to the Commissioner for the Right to Information, is punished with 150 to 000 ALL
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At the hearing, representatives of the Municipality argued that the failure to provide an answer to the Center's request was a consequence of the limited time available to fulfill it. According to the representatives of the Municipality, every investment file after two years from the realization was transferred to a central archive and for this reason time was required for the withdrawal of the files.
With the consensus of the parties, the Commissioner made a decision to postpone the deadline for the submission of the documents requested by the Center, until December 26, 2018.
But two days before this date, the Municipality of Tirana, through a letter, informed the Commissioner and the Center that it cannot provide the requested documentation until April 16, as "the entire archive of the Municipality" was made available to the KLSH for a audit process.
This unilateral decision of the Municipality was also approved by the Commissioner for the Right to Information.
But the Center directed you to the KLSH to be informed about the deadlines for the audit of the Municipality's investments. To his surprise, KLSH affirmed that the years they were auditing were only those 2016-2018 and not the investments that were made before 2016. Moreover, this institution guaranteed that it would do its best not to block the public's right to information due to an audit process.
Faced with the situation when the Municipality had not told the truth, the Center again asked the Commissioner to act. The answer received was that this institution had contacted the Municipality, but the latter, again, refused to provide the requested information.
Through an email dated March 18, 2019, the office of the Commissioner for the Right to Information has informed the Center that this institution has requested the Public Authority/Tirana Municipality to reevaluate the provision of the requested information according to the object of the request, as well as the relevant legal arguments within the date 15.03.2019.
In its response, Tirana Municipality has emphasized that "[so] Regarding the request of Mr. Roden Hoxha, as we have explained to you before, the Audit is being carried out by the KLSH group on all procurement procedures and their implementation near the municipality of Tirana. For this reason, until 16.04.2019, the date on which the audit process is closed, we are unable to release the official documentation requested by Mr. Roden Hoxha, as all the requested documentation is available to the audit group."
In these conditions, the Commissioner has become completely powerless in front of the Municipality of Tirana, and has continuously refused the requests of the Center for the exercise of his powers, which are guaranteed by the Law on the Right to Information.
Procrastination and impunity
For the Municipality of Tirana, it is not the first time that, despite not providing information, sanctions are not applied to its representatives. According to a report by the "Res Publica" Center published in January 2019, this Municipality is a repeat offender. During the years 2017 and 2018, a number of decisions on the obligation to provide information were given against her, but no fine was imposed.
"The fact that the Commissioner maintains a soft attitude towards the Municipality of Tirana suggests that he probably does not have the right strength to face institutions that are controlled by important persons for the political force that dominates the Assembly" highlighted in the report.
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Court
Information seekers or institutions have the right to appeal the Commissioner's decision to the Administrative Court. This process takes an average of three years, taking into account the fact that the first-instance decision can be appealed. Due to the great delays that this brings, the organizations demand a change in the law on the right to information and that on the administrative courts, where the decisions of the Commissioner have an executive character, or those of the court of first instance in matters of the right to information are unappealable.
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During 2018, despite the fact that 755 complaints against institutions were submitted to the Commissioner, this institution imposed only four fines.
According to the head of this center, Dorian Matlija, this approach of the Commissioner produces consequences in terms of the implementation of the law on the right to information.
"This brings the relaxation of all the institutions to which information is requested, because they have already learned that the Commissioner is soft," he emphasized.
According to Matlija, the Commissioner has preferred to resolve issues with understanding, despite the fact that the law does not provide for it.
"This practice leads to excessive delays in providing information and avoids sanctions by discouraging repeat offenders," he stressed.
The "Res Publica" report states that it is alarming that the institutions during 2018, compared to the previous year, have doubled the response time for completing or making information available after the requesting entities have complained to the Commissioner.
The Commissioner himself has exceeded the legal deadline by nearly 2,5 times in 2018, giving decisions for an average of 54 days, creating delays that make institutions react even more
slowly.
Today is April 9, 2019. After more than 5 months from the date of submission of the request for information by the Center for Quality Journalism, the Municipality of Tirana still has not provided the requested public information, justifying itself with incomplete audits and deliberate blockages.
* This article was produced within the project "Tiranalytics: An assessment of public expenditures of local government in the Municipality of Tirana" which is supported by LevizAlbania, a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The opinions and views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the opinions and views of the donor.
