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Digital transparency platform launched/ PM Rama: Citizens to be able to track complaints, get timely responses

TIRANA, Nov. 1 /ATA/- Prime Minister Edi Rama on Sunday unveiled “Pasqyrë Albania” (Albania Mirror), a new digital platform designed to improve transparency over public investments and allow citizens to track applications, public services and complaints submitted to state institutions in real time.

During the launch, Saimir Kapllani, an expert at the National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI), said the platform was built around four main pillars aimed at improving public access to information and strengthening institutional accountability.

“Pasqyrë Albania has been built around four main pillars, enabling citizens to access information on all public investments. The aim is to ensure transparency over investments, but also, as the prime minister mentioned, to allow citizens to follow every step of their applications and complaints,” Kapllani said.

He said the first pillar, called “Check,” would allow citizens to monitor where public money was being invested, what projects were under way in their municipalities and which government initiatives and priority reforms were being implemented.

Rama said the platform would enable citizens to independently check the progress of projects in their areas, including those that had been suspended or delayed.

“The idea is to provide all citizens with a tool that allows them to see for themselves the investments and the progress of projects in any area of interest to them,” Rama said.

This would allow citizens to check claims and what he described as “half-truths” circulating on online news portals and other channels against the actual progress of public investments, he added.

The second pillar, explained Kapllani, focuses on transparency in local government decision-making. It will give citizens access to decisions already adopted by municipal councils, as well as draft decisions under consideration.

Called “Understand,” the section will allow users to search decisions adopted by their respective municipalities in recent months. Kapllani said decisions dating back to September had already been uploaded to the platform.

A virtual assistant has also been developed to help citizens understand municipal decisions by providing summaries of recently adopted measures, he said.

The third pillar provides citizens with a personal account through which they can access and track applications, public services and complaints by logging in with their e-Albania credentials.

Kapllani described this as the platform’s most important component, saying users would be able to view all applications submitted through e-Albania and follow their current status through Pasqyrë Albania.

Rama placed particular emphasis on the complaint-tracking mechanism, comparing it to the tracking of parcels through international courier company DHL.

He said citizens would be able to monitor the progress of every request or complaint, while public administration officials and the relevant institutions would be able to identify delays and bottlenecks in real time.

Rama said there should no longer be uncertainty over whether citizens had received a response, even if disagreements remained over whether their concerns had been adequately addressed.

Kapllani said each service listed on the platform would have a legally established deadline for a response, which the responsible institution would be required to meet.

If the deadline expires without a response, the platform will automatically flag the delay and notify the citizen by SMS. The notification will also include a link allowing the user to file a complaint, which will then be registered through the system, he said.

/m.q/r.e/u.sh/

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