"Rama openly cheated"/ Berisha: The integrity of public procurement has dropped by 14 points

2026-05-12 12:24:00, Aktualitet CNA

"Rama openly cheated"/ Berisha: The integrity of public procurement

The leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, has accused Prime Minister Edi Rama of presenting incorrect data regarding the state of public procurement in the country, describing his statement as open fraud.

In a statement to the media, Berisha said that the prime minister has misinterpreted statistics and reports from national and international institutions on transparency in this sector.

He recalled that Albania was among the first countries to apply the digital procurement system, which has been praised in the past by international organizations, including the UN and the World Bank, for transparency in the civil service.

According to Berisha, the integrity of public procurement was around 80% in the period 2010–2012, and then suffered a continuous decline, dropping to around 70% on average and to 66% in 2026, which according to him represents a drop of 14 points.

He described this as a "dramatic deterioration", adding that, despite the development of technology, the procurement system has not brought increased transparency, but rather a decline in integrity.

"The man who tells a lie in every sentence has become a real joke in Albania, in Europe and beyond."

Edi Rama came out yesterday with figures and statistics, beating his chest for transparent procurements, claiming that they have marked spectacular improvements, while being incapable of reading the figures, interpreting the graphs, and tables of national and international institutions that prove absolutely the opposite.

Albania, as is known, is the first country in the world to apply the digital procurement system, for which in 2010, the UN awarded Albania, after the World Bank certified this system, the second prize in the world for transparency in the civil service.

This system in 2010-2011-2012, so the integrity of public procurement was 80 percent. It was rated at 80 percent.

The integrity of public procurement after this period has fallen to an average of 70 percent. It has fallen by 10 points and not only that, but in 2026, this decline is to 66 points, it is a drop of 14 points. A dramatic decline. We will see the reasons below.

"So, you understand. The system established in 2010, which in the first years had an integrity indicator of 80 percent, and instead of recognizing improvements, because of course the technology of 2026 is more advanced and allows greater possibilities, not only did it not recognize improvement, but it recognized progressive deterioration," Berisha said./ CNA