FLASH NEWS
There is no end to the abuses of the National Insurance Institute / The Supreme Audit Office revealed a cost increase of €2 million for 3 tenders at the Insurance Fund
2025-08-12 15:40:48 / POLITIKË
The National Agency for the Information Society (AKSHI), under the leadership of Mirlinda Karçanaj, has become one of the most criticized institutions for the way public funds for information technology projects are administered. Repeated tenders for the same companies, disqualification of the cheapest offers, projects with costs inflated up to ten times above the real value, classified contracts and abusive cost increases in some of the most important projects, these are some of the findings of official reports, media investigations and political accusations.
The tenders of the AKSHI have been the subject of critical reports by the Supreme State Audit Office (SSA), during the audit of the Mandatory Health Care Fund (FDSKSH), which found that the AKSHI had unjustifiably increased the costs of several IT projects financed by the FDSKSH. Specifically, in 3 tenders (pharmaceutical warehouse module, electronic e-visits register, and server room improvement), the AKSHI contracted a total of €2 million above the values foreseen in the Fund’s budget. For example, the pharmaceutical warehouse software project was planned for 50 million lek, but the AKSHI procured it for 127.6 million lek (155% over budget).
Likewise, the e-visit system was planned at 80 million lek, while the AKSHI contract came to 215.6 million lek. The contract with the ABS company for the improvement of the server room also cost 94.2 million lek (almost double the 54 million lek budget of the Fund). The SAI found that AKSHI included multi-year maintenance expenses in the contracts without ensuring that the Fund had budgeted them, violating financial management rules and creating arrears. This report raises suspicions of abuse of public funds and lack of financial coordination. AKSHI denied the violations in its response, saying that the contracts were under the fund limit and saved money, as they also included maintenance that the FDSKSH had not foreseen.
Suspicions of favoritism and conflict of interest
Many public complaints have also revealed favoritism towards politically connected companies. For example, it has been pointed out that the same maintenance tender (worth ~€1.9 million) was awarded repeatedly in 2020, 2022 and 2024 to the same operator, with the same value, raising suspicions of a collusion to share the market. Another case is the e-Albania portal contract (€4.5 million) where AKSHI disqualified the cheapest bid and favored the Soft&Solution/Fastech merger with the most expensive bid, potentially causing damage to the budget.
In 2023–2024, a suspected affair with school laboratories (a government-funded AKSHI project) came to light. Former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj published accusations that the Prime Minister's stooge company (“First…”, former ABS) had received a €15 million project for ICT laboratories without competition, with costs inflated tenfold above the real value. Ahmetaj publicly stated that SPAK had issued two arrest warrants for this affair, but they were “disassembled” before execution. These allegations are very serious, suggest political interference to stop the investigations and directly implicate AKSHI in high-level corruption. Ahmetaj asked journalists to investigate how ABS hid behind a new name (AIBS) and how a company with an annual turnover of €1.9 million won a €1.8 million tender – implying fictitious capital and institutional capture. These allegations are expected to be verified by law enforcement agencies; in the meantime, they cast very serious doubts on the integrity of the NAKSHI tenders.
On the other hand, the Democratic Party has described AKSHI as “Edi Rama’s private garden” where tenders are awarded to family and friends. Media investigations have revealed facts that the “cake” of IT funds has been divided in a clientelist manner. AKSHI is called “the monster that is devouring the budget” and it is evident that since the government transferred all IT tenders to AKSHI (2017), the IT budget has ballooned out of control. AKSHI now dictates standards, limits funds, selects winners, oversees contracts and makes payments – a monopoly power that even the government as a whole does not have. This extreme centralization without controls is suitable ground for abuses and corruption, a widely raised concern.
Many AKSHI contracts (especially classified ones) suffer from a lack of transparency, as neither standard documents nor detailed notices are published. Only payments to the Treasury reveal their existence. This makes it difficult to detect irregularities without dedicated audits. Also, RedFlag reports show that AKSHI often does not respect the publication rules even for ordinary tenders (delays the publication of results, does not provide reasons for disqualification, etc.), which has prevented potential competitors from filing complaints in a timely manner. Thus, the data prove that AKSHI tenders during 2014–2025 have been problematic in several ways: large concentration of funds in a few hands, non-competitive procedures, lack of real competition, and strong indications of favoritism and overvaluation of contracts. One thing is clear: the financial trends of the National Agency for the Promotion of Youth in Action (NASHA) are increasing, but it must be ensured that this growth is accompanied by greater transparency and accountability, to avoid abuses and ensure value for public money./ Sotnews.al
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