1st of May is the last day when every ministry and municipality in Albania has to submit the annual budget (2019) and the mid-term (2019-2020) to the Ministry of Finances and Economy. Nevertheless, so far, neither the ministries nor the municipalities, have organised any public hearings with civil society organizations to consult the state budget, as required by also Article 25 of Law no. 9936, of 26.6.2008, “On the management of the state budget system in the Republic of Albania”.
As of February, the Ministry of Finances and Economy has shared the budget methedology with the ministries and municipalities across Albania the methodology for drafting the annual and med-term budget at local and central level. However, this years budget guidelines, drafted by the Ministry of Finance and Economy, were never consulted with the civil society organizations.
In our statement we would like to bring to the Government attention that the state budget is the budget of every Albanian citizen!
The Coalition for Education in Albania, CRCA and the Albanian National Youth Network, through this Call would like to express our joint concern for the lack of the implementation of the requirements of the law “On the management of the budget system in the Republic of Albania”, which states that: The Ministry of Finance organizes meetings with local government units for the mid-term budgetory program. The budget unit at the Ministry of Finance conducts consultations with civil society during the state budget programming process.
We would like to express our deep concern to the Albanian Parliament, which has not exercised its duty of the parliamentary control over the Government in order to promote full transparency of the state budget and that of the municipalities, with the participation of citizens and their organizations nationwide.
The Albanian Coalition for Education (ACE), Child Rights Centre of Albania (CRCA) and the Albanian National Youth Network (ANYN) call on the Albanian Government, Ministries and all Municipalities to start imediately the process of consultations of the central and local budgets, with civil society organizations and citizens.
We are open to support any initiative that enhances and strengthens the participation of citizens, children, young people, women and men in drafting state budget that meet their needs and requirements.