Author: Merxhan Daci
Addresses harm the work of the Post Office and the judiciary
The Dibra court failed to hold the last hearing for 2021 with the trial of the former head of the Dibra police station, Robert Aga, and the former administrator of Lura, Hasan Hoti. The session of December 22 failed due to the lack of lawyers and defendants. The latter had not confirmed that they were aware of this session by postal workers.
" They have returned the subpoenas sent by the court and it is not confirmed that the defendants were informed. After the prosecutor's opinion was also taken into account, we assess that the session should be interrupted here, without the defendant's knowledge ," declared the judge in the case, Nertila Kape.
Dozens of judicial processes throughout the country are ineffectually postponed because police stations fail in some cases to notify witnesses whose addresses cannot be found. Neither are the residences of the interested parties in the trial. Dashamir Fucia, a clerk at the Tirana Court of Appeal, has the duty to invite citizens to the trial. During his daily work, he tells "Sinjalizo" that he has significant challenges with the issue of addresses.
" There are problems with streets that have received new names that the municipality has given, for example, "x" street, the municipality has given a different number to the building or private apartment and it is impossible to find the person, in most cases we find them by asking for their first and last name rather than the address that the citizen has left ," says Fuçia.
" There are cases where the address is only the street and the building or a private apartment without a number. There are people who have left the correct address, but have moved away, or have sold the apartment or rented it out and the tenants do not receive the notice ," Fuçia says, among other things.
The problem of addresses, an issue that has repeatedly turned into a challenge for some interior ministers, affects not only those who seek justice. For the mail, the deadlock remains current and therefore the citizens who are waiting to receive a certain service or product remain affected.
Amarildo P. from Mamurrasi says that the Post Office has not brought the monthly electricity bill to his house for years.
" It's been at least 4-5 years since we received our electricity bill in the mail. To know how much we spent, we go every month to the OSHEE offices in Mamurras to get information about how much we spent. Even there, we don't receive any electricity bill, we only receive the bill we paid ," he tells "Sinjalizo".
" For information, usually when a letter from abroad arrives in our village, the postman comes to the village cafe and asks the waiter if he knows this person, since they don't have addresses for people, only their names and they don't know where to send them ," Amarildo recounts, among other things.
Asked by "Sinjalizo", OSHEE sh.a said that there were complaints about the non-receipt of the electricity bill at the declared address.
" Following communications with the Albanian Post, it has emerged that there are problems with the addresses of electricity contracts in the billing system, as well as various problems where irresponsible residents abuse the building entrances by throwing or tearing up other people's bills. To improve the electricity bill distribution service, monitoring of the distribution of bills by the Albanian Post has been increased, the addresses in the billing system are being updated, and all complaints received regarding this issue are being followed up on a case-by-case basis ," OSHEE said in its official response.
Not a small problem, the issue of addresses is also for private mails in Albania. Bruno Sanija, administrator of Global Express Delivery, told "Sinjalizo" that the company's couriers encounter problems related to addresses almost every day.
" The difficulty is great because customers use markets, bakeries, trash cans as orientation points, but not roads. There comes a point when Google Maps helps, but only up to a certain point," said Sanija.
He said, among other things, that the biggest problems with addresses arise in Tirana, since in small towns the post office is easier to navigate.
"In Tirana it is more of a problem. But there is a problem in other cities as well. This has a cost, we notice it in the amount of oil that is consumed, for example, when we do the balances. But also the clients, since they do not even know the fixed addresses themselves, give approximate information. For example, recently we had an episode, we had an order in Berat, but since the person in question could not explain, the courier went in the direction of Fier", Sanija said.
According to information that "Sinjalizo" has on unofficial channels, the issue of addresses not working in Albania has caused giants of technology and online trade such as Amazon not to approach Albania as they are afraid of informality.
The last order: Tell me where your address is!
On November 22, 2021, the Minister of the Interior, Bledi Çuçi, gathered in a meeting the mayors, prefects and heads of the civil status offices of the whole country, to ask them to be included in the process of registration and clarification of residential addresses.
" It is an easy and simple process that takes very little time. Wherever you are and at any time, you can apply online through the "e-Albania" portal or by going in person to the Civil Registry offices in the municipality where you live. Municipalities should have a proactive role in this regard and encourage citizens to register their residential address. They should create all the conditions for the finalization of this extremely important process for everyone ," said Minister Çuçi.
Registering and correcting the address gives citizens access to many public Services, Minister Çuçi said, therefore it is imperative that citizens who do not yet have a declared and verified address be included in this process.
At the moment, there are about 750 families that have a correct address according to the unified address system. The municipalities with the lowest number of correct addresses are: Tirana, Durres, Elbasani, Shkodra and Vlora.
15 years looking for an address
On November 5, 2007, the creation of a new address system was presented in Tirana at a conference organized by the OSCE Presence in Albania together with the Ministry of Interior.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior at the time, Ferdinand Poni, emphasized that the government was fully committed to the creation of modern address systems and civil registration.
Two years later, on 10 December 2009, the database of the new address system in Albania, based on a digital map, was launched . The database was created by the Ministry of Interior and local authorities with the assistance of the OSCE Presence in Albania, with financial support from the EU.
As the OSCE wrote at the time, the European Union allocated 2.5 million euros for the creation of the address system and 1.5 million euros for the installation of road signs.
On November 27, 2015, then-Minister of Interior Tahiri presented the project for registering addresses and citizens.
"Everything will be done electronically and will be completed within 2017, enriching the register with the data of citizens and with the data of entrepreneurs."
He recalled previous failed projects in this regard.
" I remind you here that the EU in 2007 funded European taxpayers' money to do this and it was not done," he said.
In 2016, the government charged the energy distribution operator OSHEE sh.a and the Ministry of the Interior with the issue of addresses. They had to identify each subscriber by where they lived.
OSHEE opened a tender worth about 7 million dollars. By economic experts, but not only, this tender was considered unnecessary and corrupt.
The law that entered into force on addresses in 2017 provided for an administrative measure of 10 thousand new lek for citizens who did not report the address correctly. Afterwards, the clause that provided for a fine was amended and removed.
At the moment, this process has been left in the hands of the citizens themselves by putting the E-Albania portal "into play" and an awareness campaign has been launched by the municipalities.
Problems with settlements and voter lists
Problems with voter lists were found in the June 30, 2019 voting.
In the report submitted to the CEC, the experts state that problems have been found in 10 percent of the voter list, which undermines credibility.
In Korça, 1051 voters are registered at the address of the Faculty of Natural and Human Sciences, while another 495 are registered at a flower garden in the city. Likewise, in the city of Durrës, 944 voters lived in an apartment with insufficient surface area.
In September 2020, Euronews Albania reported that near unit number 5 in Tirana, revolted citizens said that they had changed their address of residence without their request and knowledge.
" I go to get my passport document and it turns out that my place of residence has been changed to Saranda. I live in Tirana and I have a vacation home there. How they did it, I have no idea ," said a citizen.
An audit report on the verification of actions in the database of the National Register of Civil Status and directed by the CEC, prepared by the expert Roland Kërçuku, shows that the issue of changing addresses remains a concern.
Among other things, the auditor notes that the process of changing addresses of citizens was done illegally.
Municipalities are making citizens aware of the address, how well is it working?
"Sinjalizo" asked several municipalities in the country how they are helping the process of registering or correcting addresses.
The Municipality of Lushnje told "Sinjalizo" that there is no accurate information about the number of citizens or families who do not have a correct address, since in their knowledge the majority of citizens correct the address only when they need it. to take action at the Civil Status Offices.
Meanwhile, the Municipality of Mat, to help raise awareness among citizens about the registration of addresses, has also used the local media several times in order to reach the citizens.
Giving more details, the Municipality of Saranda told "Sinjalizo" that from the identification made, it results that of the total of 260 roads found in the administrative territory of the municipality, only 175 of them are named and 85 others do not have names, but just numbers. In the areas that have newly joined the territory of the Municipality of Saranda, such as in Ksamil and Çukë, the municipality has identified that 14 streets have names that are repeated (overlapping).
"Where the streets have no name"
“ Albania is facing an unusual obstacle to ever joining the European Union: very few people there seem to know where they live .”
This is how the British daily "Independent" began its article " Where the Streets Have No Name - in Albania " on October 24, 2004.
However, even after 17 years of this ironic article about Albania, addresses still remain an unsolved problem.
