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| Departament of State headquarters |
The U.S. Department of State (USDS) in its 2021 report on Albania says that our country has widespread corruption throughout the country.
According to the USDS, the problem remains the independence of the judiciary and the lack of impunity despite the SPAK and the anti-corruption courts having 'made significant progress in 2021'.
Although several government agencies investigated corruption cases, USDS says, limited resources, leaks of investigative information, real and perceived political pressure, and a poorly organized appointment system hampered investigations, Euronews reports.
In the report, DASH states that the investigation of senior officials in Albania remains low.
"While prosecutors made significant progress in prosecuting low- and middle-level public corruption cases, the prosecution rate for high-ranking officials remained low," the report said.
Among other things, USDS says that ‘there have been reports that the government, businesses and criminal groups have tried to influence the media in inappropriate ways.
The report says independent media were active in investigating crime and corruption but attempted to exert direct and indirect political and economic pressure on the media.
Businesses, the report adds, used their media freely to secure favors and 'influence government actions against their other businesses'.