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        70 Opinion
bne February 2021
     a major reform of Russia’s 40 development institutions such as Rusnano and the Russian Venture Company. Some of these have been quite effective, but others have been notorious
for their wastefulness and corruption, and even the more successful ones were too often used as slush funds to support prestige projects, bail out court favourites and otherwise spend money on anything but their actual development mission. It remains to be seen whether the changes will manage to alter this, as in part that depends on greater self- control by the government, but it is a worthwhile first step.
Russia’s established commitment to ‘techno-authoritarianism’ is also unchanged – although it is, in fairness, the flipside
to a very successful campaign to move on to efficient and accessible online platforms such as the Gososlugi public service portal. Artificial intelligence-based systems are being rolled out to do everything from monitoring progress on the National Projects to collating police evidence.
Institutional change, and even fancy ‘techno-authoritarianism,’ is still hostage to the human factor. Individuals still have the
BALKAN BLOG:
The controversial recipe for building up Albania
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
The Albanian coastal city of Vlora, where the Adriatic Sea merges with the Ionian Sea, is a major industrial hub as well as tourist destination. Like much of Albania, its infrastructure needs are large and it is not only the likely destination for Albania’s second airport – if an investor can be found – but also the site of a planned 400-berth marina.
Controversy surrounds the latter project after local media revealed that the infrastructure ministry has launched a tender offering a 35-year concession for the port of Vlora, that will include construction of the new marina. The project was proposed not by the government or municipality but by a company, as yet unnamed, interested in taking
on the concession, in what has become common – albeit much criticised – practice in Albania in recent years as the government led by Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to mobilise
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capacity to cheat, lie, bribe, con, connive and backslide their ways around any such reforms, given the opportunity. And this may be where Krasnov comes in.
Bit by bit, Krasnov has been shaking up the Procuracy, in
part to bring in his own allies, but also to purge some of the more notoriously corrupt or inefficient officials. Meanwhile, he has identified the struggle against kick-backs as a priority and wants civil servants convicted on corruption charges – including accepting a bribe of less than RUB10,000, currently considered a petty offence and which may leave them with no lasting criminal record – to be barred from re-employment with the government.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that Mishustin has instructed Krasnov with this role – there is no evidence he needed
a push. Rather, the prime minister’s drive for administrative efficiency, as well as the political realities which keep the kleptocrats safe from prosecution, means that there is an inevitable coincidence of interests in going after the middle- level institutional profiteers.
The coast at Vlora, where a new marina is planned under a proposed PPP project.
private investment through public-private partnerships (PPPs) for much needed infrastructure projects.
The debate erupted again in recent weeks, when President Ilir Meta rejected the budget for 2021 put forward by Rama’s government, citing PPP projects among his objections.
The main problem with the Albanian take on the PPP concept, as repeatedly pointed out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international financial institutions (IFIs), is that many of the PPP projects that went ahead followed unsolicited bids where a private company approached the government with a proposal, rather than
a tender being launched based on an assessment of needs by the authorities. Moreover, the companies that proposed the projects are typically given bonus points when considering
   










































































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