Corruption in Albania

Corruption has been a problem in Albania for many years. It can happen in different areas, including government, politics, public contracts, and the justice system.

Corruption and human development in Albania

After 1990, Albania has passed from a centralized economy to a liberal one. Liberalization has brought both mainly negative effects to the politics, economy and other social aspect. There are two main components that measure a country's progress toward success. Firstly, the economic growth is the most used and discussed indicator of the progress.

During the last two decades, the economists have been more interested in the economic development, consisting of the aggregate of health, education level and income rather than economic growth. Secondly, the corruption level is found to be a significant component of progress. Different researches have founded out a negative relationship between corruption level and countries’ progress.

Empirical research of Hysa (2011) reveals that there is a statistically significant negative relationship between corruption indexes and human development. Empirical evidence of the study, comparing Albania with the EU member countries, suggests that more corrupted countries tend to have lower levels of human development. In the Albanian case, the relationship between corruption and human development is found to be much stronger than in the EU countries.

Albania has been trying to fight corruption in recent years. One important organization is SPAK, which investigates corruption and organized crime, including cases involving government officials. SPAK has investigated and prosecuted several corruption cases. However, there are still concerns about corruption in the country, and more work is needed to make the government and justice system more transparent and trustworthy.

Albania still has problems with corruption. According to Transparency International, Albania scored 39 out of 100 on its Corruption Perceptions Index and ranked 91st out of 182 countries. This shows that corruption is still a concern in the country.

The European Commission also reported in 2025 that Albania has made progress in fighting corruption, but there is still more that needs to be done. In particular, the country needs to improve how corruption cases are investigated, prosecuted, and handled in court, especially when high-level officials are involved.