Albanians' perception of corruption in public institutions increased during 2025, despite the investigation by the Special Prosecution Office of a series of corruption cases and high-level officials.
Transparency International's latest annual report on the level of corruption perception in the world for 2025 has assessed Albania with deterioration, which marks a decline of 3 points and 11 places in the ranking from 2024.
In the ranking of 182 countries worldwide, Albania ranks 91st with 39 points out of 100, ranking even worse than neighboring Balkan countries, which have also recorded a decline.
Although there is no chapter dedicated to Albania on the reasons for this deterioration, Transparency International's report analyzes the deterioration for all Balkan countries regarding the concentration of power, unfair influence on the judiciary and pressure on civil society, phenomena that promote steps back in democratic developments and mechanisms of balance and control between powers.
“Across the Western Balkans, the lack of transparency in decision-making for high-value investment projects is a common weakness. The suspension of transparency rules and unchecked discretionary powers are putting public funds at risk from corruption, while undermining public trust,” the report says.
For Albania, Transparency International notes that the new justice institutions, namely SPAK and the Special Court, have gained the trust of citizens after convicting former ministers, members of Parliament and mayors, and investigations continue for a former president, former prime minister and other senior public officials.
SPAK started the year with the arrest of Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj on charges of creating a corrupt scheme between his wife's companies and a group of businessmen close to him, while in the fall, Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku was also indicted on charges of violating equality in tenders worth hundreds of millions of euros.
A request to authorize her arrest has been dragging on by the socialist majority for more than two months. The public was shocked by another investigative file that revealed that the leaders of the National Information Agency, AKSHI, functioned as part of a structured criminal group that influenced the agency's tenders.
All of these files, according to civil society representatives, have simultaneously revealed how widespread corruption is in public institutions, influencing public perception of it.
"This is related to the discovery, through SPAK files, of corrupt schemes and affairs that have been made public by the media and, consequently, by citizens," said Rigels Xhemollari, head of the organization "Citizen Stability" on the increased perception of corruption.
"These files show the collaboration between politicians, public officials and organized crime to gain high-value tenders or property in violation of the law," he added.
Meanwhile, for Daniel Prroni, an expert on integration and anti-corruption issues, there are several factors that have influenced the decline in the index and this is mainly related to the way Albanian institutions are performing in relation to democratic standards of transparency in the management of public funds.
“The reasons for this year's decline have to do with long-standing concerns about the high concentration of power, the overly broad powers of the executive branch, and the lack of transparency in decision-making on strategic public projects, where the risk of corruption is particularly high,” Prroni told BIRN.
Prroni also believes that perception is also influenced by "deficiencies in the regulatory framework and institutional practices", which, according to him, are clearly evident in sensational corruption cases such as those of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the National Agency for Infrastructure and Transport.
Although the Transparency International report did not specifically analyze Albania for its anti-corruption issues, Prroni suggests that the cases of these sensational corruption files have also highlighted "weaknesses in the mechanisms of checks and balances."
He refers to the recent case when the Parliament has not yet expressed a position on the lifting of the immunity of Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku.
“The index acknowledges the efforts of law enforcement institutions to punish corruption, but they are not sufficient to reverse the weight of failures in preventive policies, deficiencies in the regulatory framework and institutional culture, which still hinder the exercise of public powers in accordance with the standards of the rule of law,” he said.
This regression in the index after a positive assessment in 2024, according to him, brings the country back close to the average of the last decade of 39 points and shows that the improvements achieved remain fragile, while Albania's performance also reflects a broader regional trend, where anti-corruption efforts in many countries are showing signs of stagnation or deterioration. /BIRN/
