The week of public administration unfolded with a series of events dedicated to public service, to bring closer to the citizens the work of officials and the plan for the further modernization of the public service that leads to the transformational processes in the country, – culminated today with the extended meeting with public administration employees, in the premises of the Palace of Congresses, on the Public Administration Motivation Plan, part of Albania’s 2030 challenge for EU membership and the qualitative increase of the abilities of the Albanian state in the service of the interests of the country and its citizens.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama Speech:

I believe this meeting has a special value after the start of the process led by Adea for the re-energization and modernization of the public administration, it is the fact that as you saw it and as I hope other colleagues will also see it, the initiative has an essential element, which is your own participation in the improvement of all those elements that make up daily work and that the more they improve, the more each can expect from himself and all together we can expect from our work.

I once had a debate with a colleague, – I was a minister, – who had an obsession to catch the employees at the door at 8:10 a.m as part of a routine of a formal discipline which removed the fun of the day as if, in 8 after 1 minute, the rocket to the moon will leave.

So flexibility in working hours is not only normal to consider, but today it is possible and for another reason than for the sake of the truth, regardless of what I said, it was also impossible to think flexibility at work due to a large number of employees engaged in direct services to citizens. Today 95% of the processes are online.

On the other hand, it is understood that this will require a phase of approval of how it will be programmed because there are still times, certain phases when joint meetings should be held or when there should be an internal interaction, but these are things that we do not have to invent but it is something that, as Adea said, is applied more and more in EU countries to boost the spiritual well-being, psychological well-being of employees, especially in the public administration.

I am well aware that many who listen think that I am talking about the sex of angels, because many fortunately have the idea of ​​an administration that is a nursery of people who all day move money from one pocket to another, who all day work to steal with meanness, which is a perception raised systematically, year after year, month after month, day after day, and of course it is then illustrated with certain examples of wrongdoers in the administration who, when exposed for the sake of justice, are used to say that everyone does the same here.

In fact I would never have dared to make this speech to tell the truth, despite the courage I do not lack, if I myself had not been psychologically prevented from praising our administration publicly, although I knew without a doubt as everyone knows that our administration certainly has many flaws, but it is not the nursery where “all the devils are gathered and where only bad things happen”, but has represented Albania at the table of discussions and preparations for negotiations in the “Screening” process, so no matter who thinks of the administration as the “nursery of all evils” due to perception, the truth is that we have in our administration an extraordinary national asset which is your sum total.

It is not at all, so to speak, an obstacle for me to see and appreciate your work as an important national contribution because of the cases of corruption, because of the cases of wrongdoing, which I believe the fact that are being exposed and treated at the highest levels is very encouraging and is another reason to be proud.

It has been a universally disturbing fact, that in the administrative processes, there is a disturbing dimension of abuse and corruption. The fact that today, the public is faced with more cases than it sees, does not show that corruption has increased, it shows that corruption is being fought seriously. In fact, something very important is happening in terms of the honor of the vast majority of the administration’s employees because it is completely unfair that because of a part of the people who are in the administration, who are in every sector, to taint everybody as infected.

I repeat, the fact that in Albania, we faced a process as complicated, as challenging, as professional as the “screening” of the entire body of the Albanian state by the European Union, with such success with the fact that this result was repeatedly stated by our partners in the European Commission is a very strong reason to feel very motivated and to have the conviction that we will succeed in this mission, of finally having a public administration that is at the height of the needs and the height of ambitions of this republic.

Adea mentioned that in all these years we have never touched or tried to touch the Civil Service Law. It was a very difficult initiative, with many problems and risk. To give peace and security to the employees of the administration who are not threatened in their workplace due to the change of power, the change of the political direction of the power, to give a perspective to the people in the administration to understand that having stability at work, they can aim to grow in their career and so on, and today, in fact, the interventions that will be made in the law are of a completely different nature and aim at the complete opposite, not creating spaces to intervene, but to create more spaces for the troop itself to be even more motivated, to be even more respected, to be more valued and having said this, I believe that what has started is very positive and I am very grateful to Adea for her passion and determination and above all for the ability to create a motivated team, but also with the way she leads this process.

I remember many years ago, in France, with a friend of mine who was the director of a museum had a problem with the ministry, I told him: “Well, why don’t you go to the press”? He was surprised.

“To appear in the press? I cannot appear in the press” – he said, “because I am an employee of the civil service of the Republic of France and the employees of the Civil Service of the Republic of France, before entering the Civil Service, take an oath for the republic. And I have no opportunity to go out and speak and express what I think about the hierarchy, but I have to deal with every problem within the hierarchy”.

It is an extraordinary story, the history of the French Civil Service and the way France has built an entire army loyal to the Republic, and that army has nothing to do with what happens in politics, and this is the history of the EU countries. Belgium stayed, I think, for 1 and a half years without a government at all, and the state functioned normally because the entire body of the administration continued to work and to be a member country of the EU, we must aim to consolidate this body of the Republic as much as possible and at the same time make life in the public administration as professionally and morally fulfilling, guaranteeing the career, and meritocracy within the administration. Guaranteeing that performance measurement is real, not fictitious; guaranteeing that the voice of the administration employees in that part of the work they perform.

To build a public administration that responds to the criteria and standards of the European public service is not a simple matter, it is not a matter of a few years, it is a matter of history. Fortunately, we live in a time where we do not need centuries, we do not even need tens of years because technology gives us the opportunity to make epochal leaps in a very short time and therefore what Adea mentioned, which is another innovation, of the use of artificial intelligence in the evaluation of public administration employees or in public administration competitions, is an example of how history is written today for tomorrow, having extraordinary tools in disposal.

In closing, I want to return to a modest effort I made in the Municipality of Tirana. I believe that the Municipality of Tirana at that time was a reflection of how people should feel when they enter an institution. I believe this and it is no coincidence that many of those people, whether in public careers, whether in the private sector, whether here or abroad, have made strides because the atmosphere was such that it created the conditions for everyone to feel motivated and everyone was a member of a team. The people who ran it, the people who had even a small sector, knew that they went in for breakfast and where they left for dinner.

I made an effort to attract the best students from several faculties that were related to the jobs that the Municipality of Tirana had; economics, law, engineering and architecture and we took 10 from each faculty for interviews. They were in their last year and were asked “How come you want to come to work in the Municipality of Tirana”. And the most interesting thing was, and at that time, of course, wages were much lower than today and that ambition for wages was not as great as it is today, they did not say “salary”. 93% of them said “we have no guarantee that we can make a career inside state institutions thanks to merit because if we enter the state, though we can be very good, someone overtakes us because he has the fastest motorcycle, than the motorcycle it’s up there”.

The second, again about 80%, was the work environment, where will I work, in what room, what corridors? I was worried about that myself, and I am convinced that the environment where a person works, where a person lives, where a person interacts is decisive in the way he thinks, in the way he produces energy and in the internal capacity he has to share energy with others.

The salary is very important to, let’s not create misunderstandings.

For this reason, in June the new salary increase comes into force and thus everyone will have an increase in their salary and we will achieve the objective that we have announced that the average salary in the Albanian public sector will be 900 euros and definitely that the average salary in the Albanian public sector will be 900 euros.

June is the last month with your current salary, and with the completion of all the procedures with the department, the next salary will be the increased, and it is actually a very significant increase if we consider the total, that is, from year to year are about 400 million in total that have been set for human resources, for human capital.

Certainly more is needed, but this is not an increase that we look as the end of the process, but it is a significant increase for a certain period of time, while we need, and I believe you agree here, to look a little bit more at how to do even the most difficult, most challenging part, which is starting with the lowest pensions, increasing support for retirees because we have a significant number of retirees who receive a pension under 150 euros.

I have always said it and everyone tells us, even all the international experts, the IMF, the WB, they all tell us about pensions, be careful because it is really a very heavy burden. However, we are thinking very seriously and I believe that we will take a step in that direction as well.

I am very grateful for everything you do, sincerely.

I am very grateful to you for being here, to begin with, for the patience that you listened to me. You had a long time without actually listening to me, also due to the fact that although I spoke very briefly, you do not want me to speak any longer, so I am cutting it off here, and I wish you all the best in the coming days, and then in the coming weeks we will surely meet again because Adea has a very ambitious plan to increase the intensity of the meetings.