Prime Minister Edi Rama, in a meeting on the right to information, openly criticized Commissioner Besnik Dervishi, saying that the latter should apply sanctions to institutions when a response is not received within 10 days as stipulated by law.
He also focused on cases where sanctions were used to curb the phenomenon of occupying sidewalks or blocking roads by ministers and deputies. He also said that ministers and secretaries general should not escape sanctions for lack of information on the part of citizens.
"We have also discussed it with the Commissioner, we have also had a government meeting, where we have emphasized that we should be more focused on this aspect. For this reason, we have also pushed forward the Transparency Albania project, which is an ambitious project to have information in a virtual territory. This would also facilitate finding information. A significant part of these problems is related to bureaucratic laziness. It is not a barricade to keep information, but it is a problem of the internal functioning of the administration. This can be improved, less than those who see the glass as half empty would expect.
To be transparent, I have made a remark to the Commissioner, true, as far as I make to an independent institution, which is the lack of sanctions for the highest authorities. The law is clear; 10 days is the time to respond. This may be too much. If there is no response on the 11th day, the response is the sanction. The responsible institution must be sanctioned. Delegation must be made to the secretaries general. Ministers and secretaries general must be sanctioned on the 11th day.
If this happens repeatedly, a sense of urgency will be created, and the glass will be treated as if it were half-empty. Sanctions must be imposed. We had a problem with the illegal parking of all members of the Assembly, on possible sidewalks and in parks and public spaces around. Where are they today? Why don't they park like that anymore? Sanctions were imposed and fines were imposed and they realized that the parking game was over. There are no more ministers' cars that break traffic lights. So we talked to the drivers so that they wouldn't feel guilty and that they should respect the law," he said.
