FLASH NEWS
The 'secret' sponsor of KPK is Shefqet Kastrati's insurance company
2024-07-19 17:53:32 / AKTUALITET
The Independent Qualification Commission has received sponsorship from the private insurance company ALBSIG sh.ae of businessman Shefqet Kastrati to finance an activity of its commissioners at the luxury resort "Marina Bay" in the Bay of Vlora in September 2021.
After keeping the name of the sponsor a secret for almost three years and investing all three levels of the judiciary to prevent it from being made public, the Independent Qualification Commission was forced by a Supreme Court decision to make available to BIRN Albania a copy full sponsorship contract with the insurance company ALBSIG.
According to the agreement signed in June 2021, the ALBSIG company has undertaken to pay the invoice value in the amount of 3 thousand euros for the organization of the "Strategy Meeting" activity, which includes the travel and accommodation of the Commission's staff for three days and two nights in "Marina Bay" as well as the organization of the workshop in the conference hall of the accommodation unit.
The Independent Qualification Commission is a constitutional institution created within the framework of the reform in justice to clean the judicial system and the prosecutor's office of corrupt magistrates with the promise of restoring public trust in justice.
The company ALBSIG sh.a is one of dozens of companies of the businessman Shefqet Kastrati with economic interests in the hydrocarbon business, the construction business, the hotel industry, as well as the beneficiary of several concessions during the "Rama" government for the management of airports, ports and the maintenance of the nation's road. .
The above agreement is not the only one signed between the Independent Qualification Commission and the insurance company, ALBSIG. Earlier in July 2020, a contract worth 4.4 million ALL was signed between KPK and ALBSIG for the health insurance of advisers, family members of commissioners and administrative staff of KPK.
Throughout the mandate of the Independent Qualification Commission, hundreds of magistrates have been held accountable and penalized with dismissal for gifts or sponsorships received from third parties, which have been assessed in light of a potential or apparent conflict of interest. KPK itself refused for three years to submit to the same standard.
The judicial saga for transparency started with a request for the right to information that BIRN directed to the KPK about the financier of the activity, but the answer then came incomplete, as the data of the sponsoring company had been anonymized. Subsequently, KPK was faced with a decision of the Commissioner for the Right to Information in December 2021, which ordered it to make available a full copy of the agreement.
KPK refused to implement the decision of the Commissioner for the Right to Information and challenged it in the Administrative Court of Tirana, where it received a favorable decision. In its lawsuit, the Commission claimed that making the sponsor public would harm national security, the vetting process as well as the image of the KPK and its international partners.
The first-instance decision was overturned as unfounded by the Administrative Appeal, which pointed out that compliance with confidential contractual clauses does not seem to constitute a limitation provided for in the sponsorship agreement, but was subsequently interpreted as such by the Commission.
"...On what basis should the standard of transparency, already applied during the vettiung process of judges in office, not be applied to quasi-judge commissioners as well?" the Administrative Appeal stated in the reasoned decision.
Although the decision of the Administrative Appeal was final, the KPK refused to implement it and appealed to the Supreme Court, which was dismissed on Wednesday as unfounded, leaving the decision-making for transparency in force.
KPK and ALBSIG did not respond to BIRN's requests for comment on the existence of a possible conflict of interest in the sponsorship agreement until the publication of this article./ Reporter.al
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