At a time when the Prime Minister is celebrating the "Digital State", an official announcement from the Public Procurement Agency (APP) reveals a shocking reality: the Albanian state's central financial system, AFMIS, has stopped functioning normally - and with it, budgetary control over public procurement.
With Order No. 18, dated 04.02.2026, the Ministry of Finance has notified all contracting authorities that, due to the malfunctioning of AFMIS, system integrations should be discontinued and procedures should continue... manually.
But what does this order mean specifically? What are the consequences it brings?
The integration of the APP with AFMIS had a critical function: no procurement procedure could be opened without confirmation that the funds existed in the budget. It was the last wall against spending without budget coverage. Now, this wall has fallen. So “an inn without gates”.
The paradox of scandal
Precisely while AFMIS is "not functioning", on 21.01.2026, the National Agency for the Economy and Finance (NAEF) launched a tender with the object of "Maintenance of the Financial Management Information System (AFMIS)" - with a limited fund of 169,462,000 lek (Ref. REF-54889-07-15-2025). The tender is open, the offers are being evaluated - and the system is still out of order!!!
The natural question that arises: Who pays 169 million lek of taxpayers' money for the "maintenance" of a system that does not work? And who will be declared the winner? Most likely, one of the "fashionable" IT firms at AKSHI?
The bitter irony
In a country where the Prime Minister speaks of a "digital state" as a civilizational achievement, budgetary control of public procurement is returning to pen and paper. Not metaphorically, but literally!
When digitalization becomes a facade, the "gaps" created are no longer technical. And their cost is paid by us, the citizens.
