Albania Program Updates

Speeches Shim

With USAID guidance, Albania’s Agriculture and Rural Development Agency qualifies to receive up to 71 million Euros in EC grant funds
October 9, 2018

Following a success evaluation by the European Commission’s (EC’s) Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development,  the EC plans to make € 71 million ($82 million) from its Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance in Rural Development program available for agriculture and rural development in Albania by the way of grants to interested farmers and businesses.

USAID, Tirana District Court and State Archive for the Judicial System sign MOU to improve court case file archiving and free up courtroom space
October 4, 2018

USAID Albania, the chief judge of the District Court of Tirana, and the head of the Albania’s State Archive for the Judicial System signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding to begin a year-long effort to establish new archiving and management of the court systems’ case files. 

USAID helps Albania establish a test-based certification program for its water and sewage sector workforce
October 1, 2018

With the assistance of USAID supported SHUKALB, Albania’s Minister of Infrastructure and Energy formally institutionalized a Test-Based Certification Program for all staff at the country’s water and sewage utilities.

Helping Albanian municipalities understand how new local property taxes will be determined
September 20, 2018

To assist local governments on how to implement the recently adopted value-based property tax system on buildings, USAID partner Tetra Tech, in cooperation with the Property Tax General Directorate of the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE), conducted workshops with officials from the Korça, Lushnja, Fier, Vlora, and Durres municipalities. The municipalities learned how to compare their existing property tax database of local buildings with the data from the the entity expected to be assigned as the Government of Albania’s agent in collecting building taxes.

Enabling Albanians to “Red Flag” questionable health sector purchases and contracts
September 12, 2018

USAID partner University Research Company and the Albanian Supreme Audit Institution launched an algorithmic tool to analyze the Albanian Public Procurement Agency’s (PPAs) data on purchasing activity by healthcare institutions from January 2016.  Developed by the Albanian Institute of Science, the tool has been deployed on-line and when applied to PPA’s national database, can help users identify or “Red Flag” unusual activities and trends that may be the result of illegal, unethical behaviors, favoritism, lack of competition, and/or unequal competition. 

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