Denis Tahiri
He is 42 years old, he has been an employee of the state administration since the age of 30. If you see him on the street, no one can distinguish him from other officials of this country. But unlike many others, in addition to working in the administration, he serves his country by being part of a small group of people called "Signalers".
"At first I was afraid", says Alberti ((Name changed to preserve anonymity) who adds that for several years now he has been reporting irregularities in the department where he works to the media. "I created trust, and I have maintained the relationship with several journalists who have been fair with me at all times", he adds.
But the trust he has in journalists and the media, he does not have in the unit established within his institution. "It is something that is understood, there are so many of us there, everyone knows each other", says the 42-year-old, adding that he has never used this signaling unit within the institution where he works. Unlike a large part, he knows the law on "whistleblowers" very well and says that the Signaling mechanism must change.
For him, the law when it was approved was poorly presented by the media, calling it the law for "Spies" within the institutions. "It has nothing to do with spying, whistleblowers do a great public good, as much as they can, but they protect what belongs to all of us, whoever whistles does not do it for personal gain but for the common good and the media should not have presented it as he introduced it", he concludes.
The problem is highlighted in a recently published report on the situation of whistleblowers in Albania, where the situation described is a bad quote.
Report: Signals among the lack of transparency
According to the data published in the report, in 2017 there was only one request for protection from retaliation in 11 line ministries, and this request was reviewed by external channels of the High Inspectorate for Declaration and Audit of Assets and Conflict of Interest.
"In 2018, three such requests were reviewed which came from the public sector. Meanwhile, from January to November 2019, only one request for protection was registered. The request was submitted at a time when the whistleblowers were faced with disciplinary measures such as "suspension from work", it is stated in a part of the report which states that the data show that there has not been an increase in cases of whistleblowing that have been threatened by ILDKPI. Also in this report it is highlighted that there was a small increase in alerts in 2018, two years after the law came into force, but the number fell again until 2022, when it started to have a slight increase to reach the same levels it had in 2019.
But the lack of data makes it difficult to get an overview of the situation. "There is no information about the specific protective measures implemented, not knowing whether the whistleblowers have been reinstated in their workplaces or not." says the report, emphasizing the fact that the reports of public institutions that are obliged to report to the ILDKPI do not contain more than 200-300 words and have almost zero data regarding whistleblowers.
On the other hand, the data in the report show a lack of employee information on the law on "Whistleblowers", where in 2020, according to the findings, in the monitored ministries, knowledge about this law was very low. On the other hand, at the local government level in 2021, there were no information or training sessions except those conducted by ILDKPI. These data, which clearly show how seriously the implementation of this very important law is taken by the public institutions in the country.
Expert: Changes are needed
"Public data are very general, they don't allow us to understand how the cases of whistleblowers are handled" - says Klaudia Koxha, a researcher who worked on the report and adds that the official reason given for this by the ILDKPI is that it is done to protect the anonymity of whistleblowers. "There was a case where they wrote that corrective measures were taken, I officially asked what measures were taken and it is not that I received an answer "- says Ms. Koxha, adding that this undermines the confidence of whistleblowers by discouraging whistleblowers.
"After 2016, when the law was approved, there was an improvement, then it fell back, especially during the pandemic years, and this is staggering"- says the researcher, who also connects it with the investigations that the Prosecutor's Office against Organized Crime and Corruption is conducting - "There is corruption but it is not reported, the fact that there is no increase in cases shows that people do not have the confidence to report", she adds.
For the researcher Koxha, the emphasis is placed on the lack of trust that people have in the institutions to report and as a result the reports are few. The trust for him is not even in the signaling units within the institutions, where a good part have no cases at all and have nothing to signal. The fact that the employees of these units are people who change often is also worrying.
"This has been proven to be problematic, the presence of these units within the institutions, since if there is a signal, this unit must receive the holder's signature to start the investigation, but what happens if the holder is involved in corruption". she says, adding that now is the time to change this mechanism, as there is some stagnation in this form.
On the other hand, even the justice institutions seem not to be doing their job, where the referred cases that have gone to court are non-existent.
"In the referred cases, the prosecutor's office should have opened an investigation but did not open it"- says Koxha, who adds that this has also damaged the work of the whistleblowers and the ILDKPI itself, according to her, should maintain a relationship with the Prosecutor's Offices where they should have knowledge about the progress of these referrals, but nothing happens according to her.
But does the whistleblower law work according to the Koxha study in Albania?
"The fact that there are no major cases of signaling and the absence of a major case, that is, a headline, shows the idea that it does not work, since you cannot induce this consciousness when I see that there is no major case"-she says. On the other hand, the researcher states that soon there will be changes in the law, to align it more closely with the law of the European Union.
"These problems must be addressed, we must see what we will do with the signaling units, will we leave them inside the institutions or not? And many other things, so there is room for improvement". she says, adding that they are doing the best they can in legal terms to fix these problems.
USA as a possible model
The United States of America has one of the most developed models of "Whistleblowers" where very important protection is offered, but also incentives for those who expose illegal or unethical behavior within organizations. Whistleblowers, who are often employees, are encouraged to report illegal behavior such as fraud, security breaches, or unethical behavior without fear of retaliation.
The False Claims Act (FCA) plays a central role in this system, particularly in cases involving fraud against the government, where whistleblowers can sue under the qui tam provision and receive a portion of any recovery from the government. This financial reward can be significant, often reaching between 15% and 30% of the amount recovered.
Further strengthening protections, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act protects employees of publicly traded companies who report securities violations by ensuring that they are not fired or harassed for their disclosures. The Dodd-Frank Act enhances this framework by creating the SEC's Whistleblower Program, which not only provides protection but also promises monetary rewards for tips that lead to successful enforcement actions in the financial sector. Whistleblowers who report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) may receive up to 30% of any penalties collected.
Additionally, the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) protects federal employees who expose corruption, fraud, or abuse within government agencies, while other agencies such as OSHA provide protections against retaliation in sectors ranging from workplace safety to environmental law. . Whistleblowers are also protected by confidentiality provisions, ensuring their identity remains protected during investigations. This is crucial, as many whistleblowers fear retribution from their employers or colleagues.
