While fires this summer have scorched dozens of hectares of forests and pastures across the country, causing damage estimated at billions of lek, municipalities and local governments have failed to invest and use even the few funds they have available.
Official data from the Ministry of Finance shows that only 23 municipalities have allocated funds for fire protection in their budgets with a total value of around 729.6 million lekë for this year.
While actual expenditures by the end of June were only 75.7 million lekë with an implementation level of only 10.4% of programmed funds.
Of the 23 municipalities that had planned investments in the fire protection and civil defense program, only 11 had recorded expenditures by June, while 12 others had not yet made any payments, according to official data.
The largest difference between the projected funds and the actual implementation is observed in the Municipality of Tirana. The capital has about 356.8 million lek programmed, or almost half of the entire fund of the 23 municipalities taken together.
But by the end of June, Tirana's actual expenditures were only 164.9 thousand lekë, bringing the realization to about 0.05% of the total budget.
Even the Municipality of Durrës, the second largest municipality in terms of funds programmed in this sector, had a budget of around 104 million lek, but by June it had not incurred any expenses.
Tirana and Durrës alone concentrate over 63% of all funds programmed by the 23 municipalities, while together they had spent only around 165 thousand lekë by June. This significantly affects the low level of implementation at the national level.
On the other hand, Himara leads in terms of actual spending. The municipality had spent 46.8 million lekë, out of the 143.8 million lekë programmed, or about 32.5% of the fund. Almost the entire amount spent by Himara is related to the purchase of a fire truck, worth 46.8 million lekë, a project that has been paid for 100%.
After Himara, Pusteci ranks second, with around 10.8 million lek in expenses out of the 18.9 million lek forecast. The main part is related to the purchase of a vehicle for the MZSH service.
Kukës had one of the highest levels of implementation. Of the 8.46 million lek programmed, about 8.44 million lek, or 99.7%, were spent. About 7 million lek were used to purchase a fire truck.
Librazhdi had also practically realized the entire fund of around 4.55 million lek, although most of it is related to civil defense interventions and not directly to firefighting equipment.
In total, Himara, Pusteci and Kukës alone account for about 87% of all actual expenditures recorded until June for the 23 municipalities.
Meanwhile, apart from Durrës, there were still no expenditures in municipalities such as Kavaja, Kruja, Vlora, Bulqiza, Malësia e Madhe, Gramshi, Puka, Përrenjasi, Këlcyra and Dropulli, although they had funds foreseen for this program in their budget.
The data refer to the situation until the end of June 2026, so they show the progress of implementation in the first half of the year and not the final result of annual expenditures./ B.Hoxha
