Tirana, 19 Sept 2017 (Tirana Echo) – Albania’s Public Administration employees are concerned about their job security after being notified by the Public Administration Department (DAP) that all ministries will undergo restructuring, due to the new government lineup.
DAP confirms that it has written to all public administration employees reassuring them that restructuring does not mean they will lose their jobs.
The move follows Prime Minister Edi Rama’s unveiling in September that his new government will have a different leaner setup.
An undisclosed source from the Ministry of Economy, which is to be merged with that of Finance, state employees have been told by their superiors that all departments will be restructured but they need not worry about losing their job. However, the source told Tirana Echo a climate of uncertainty and fear is felt across state institutions as employees wonder what ‘restructuring’ means.
Concerns about Albania’s public administration have always been at the focus of EU and US criticism, whose representatives fear that the country’s public administration is consistently used to reward political party faithfuls.
In its 2016 progress report on Albania, the European Commission said that “some progress was made on public administration reform, especially with more transparent recruitment procedures for civil servants”.
However, PM Edi Rama made public administration ‘clean-up’, it its principal electoral campaign pledge, promising to root out all political appointees.
Many analysts have interpreted this at a possible witch-hunt of former junior coalition partner the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) members, whom Rama’s socialists accuse of having recklessly filled up public administration positions with LSI militants.
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