For 2025, the Municipality of Tirana had a considerable budget for public expenditures and investments, but official data provided by the institution itself to Faktoje shows that a good portion of these funds were not used as planned.
By December 2025, the overall budget realization of the Municipality of Tirana reached 53%.
Public services
According to official data from the Municipality of Tirana, Local Public Services were implemented at a rate of 40%. This means that urban maintenance, cleaning and public lighting, essential components of this program, have operated with less than half of the planned budget.
For local government expert Agron Haxhimali, this level of implementation translates into "truncated services, poorer maintenance, lower quality and unresolved daily problems in the city."
The municipality attributes the failure to implementation to “procedural delays in procurement” and “legal deadlines for expropriations.” Haxhimali characterizes the situation as a result of “unrealistic planning, weak implementation capacities and serious delays in procurement, especially for capital investments.”
Social housing
The Social Housing Program presents one of the lowest implementation levels, from 12 to 15%.
According to Haxhimali, this situation "shows neglect towards the needy, failure of social policies and lack of will to address the housing crisis."
inFRAStRuctuRe
Also worrying, according to Haxhimali, is that very delicate sectors such as irrigation and drainage, emergencies and housing have minimal implementation. According to him, "this phenomenon shows a poorly focused municipality, without social priorities and with a high risk of consequences from floods and urban crises."
Irrigation and drainage infrastructure management accounts for 21%, while civil emergencies account for around 20%.
In the fire protection and civil defense sector, about 622 million lek were spent, in other words 34%.
"If they had been spent on maintenance, services or investments in the system, Tirana would have a little more drinking water than we have today, and squares, streets and neighborhoods would not be flooded as is currently happening. So, non-investment in 2025 will show us problems as early as 2026."
Urban planning was only implemented by 19%, while university education was 18%.
emergencies
Official data shows that the Municipality of Tirana did not activate any of its emergency financial instruments during 2025. The Reserve Fund, planned at 731.3 million lekë, was not touched a single penny. Neither was the Contingency Fund.
Bad governance?
Haxhimali characterizes the situation as “malgovernance,” identifying three main dimensions: unrealistic planning that creates unworkable budgets, priorities that neglect critical sectors such as social housing and infrastructure, and the measurable consequences that budget underperformance brings to citizens’ daily lives.
The contradiction between high achievement in some administrative areas such as 98% election administration and critically low achievement in social services and essential infrastructure shows, according to him, that the issue lies in setting priorities and orienting public policies. /Faktoje.al/
