Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama has proposed using artificial intelligence in public procurement processes to tackle corruption – but experts argue that the root causes should be dealt with first.
Rama’s government has been increasingly in the spotlight since the relatively new Special Structure Against Corruption and Organised Crime, SPAK started a series of investigations that brought charges on abuse of power and corruption against several dozen officials, mayors, ministers and a deputy-prime minister who is currently on the run from justice.
SPAK’s efforts are part of wider efforts to tackle high-level graft, backed by Albania’s Western partners.
Rama claims that he bears no structural responsibility for these cases, insisting they were just incidents of individual wrongdoing. As to tackling corruption in public procurement processes using AI, he has not explained specifically how this might work.
Experts are also unsure.
“It is difficult to evaluate with the data at hand the capacities of the government to implement AI in public procurement, and it is not clear what elements of the public procurement process it will cover,” said Orkidea Xhaferaj, digital and innovation policy expert at the Centre Science and Innovation for Development in Tirana.
“Although the government of Albania is working with Microsoft to implement AI for public procurement, there are concerns when it comes to technology, legal and regulatory measures, as well as operational ones. Predominantly, data management and quality remain an issue in the country, especially at local level,” Xhaferaj added.
She pointed out that recruiting well-educated staff to implement such innovations remains a challenge in Albania, not only for public institutions, but also for the private sector.
But she argued that using AI in public administration has a series of benefits – “automation of processes which reduce manual work, data analytics capabilities, real time analysis of bids, contracts and notices, to address risks of fraud and errors”.
However, there are practical issues too: “The use of AI in public procurement brings about concerns in regard to cybersecurity and data privacy, and data biases raise concerns as well,” she pointed out.
She recommended that the authorities begin with smaller-scale or pilot projects before committing to involve AI in larger processes.
Infographic: BIRN.
‘The machine is deciding’
Political observers expressed cynicism about Rama’s idea of using AI to fight corruption – seeing it as a potential tool for blame-dodging.
“He is apparently aiming to tell citizens and businesses who are complaining about public procurement services that ‘the machine’ is deciding and consequently, his administration bears no responsibility and the system that he created is causing no issues,” commented Zef Preci, executive director of the Albanian Centre for Economic Research.
Afrim Krasniqi, director of Albanian Institute of Political Studies also believes that the Prime Minister is trying to avoid accountability. “This will create a new alibi for corrupt officials,” Krasniqi told BIRN.
This isn’t the first time that Rama has promised high-tech solutions for Albania’s institutional problems.
Rama has previously said earlier that he believes that AI will help Albania to speed up its EU integration process by machine-translating EU laws and regulations. However, these plans failed when a public procurement call resulted in no offers.
The digitalisation of the Public Procurement Commission’s documents has got under way, however; the National Agency for Information Society, which is supervised by Rama’s office, last year awarded a 17 million leks (173,000 euros) contract to a private company to begin the process.
Opposition Democratic Party MP Jorida Tabaku at a parliamentary session. Photo: LSA
Corruption deeply rooted
Albania’s Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organised Crime, SPAK observed in its annual report that its investigations have shown how corruption has been identified from the inception of some public procurement processes and not as part of the process.
“The corrupt activity might start from the very initial stage, from the decision to allocate funds for a specific project, followed by incorrect actions and decisions from the contracting authority,” SPAK noted.
The report revealed that investigations have shown direct involvement of high-ranking public officials in irregularities that start before a call for proposals is even issued for a specific public procurement process.
“We have seen direct interventions by high level officials who negotiate with a private party before a procurement or a public private partnership process has been started,” the report said.
Experts believe that digitalisation and the use of AI will make little difference to this.
“One of the main faults [of the government] has been the preparation of the laws or decisions to serve specific oligarchs or political clients; many of these things that are presented as large-scale development projects have been granted to companies that have been created exactly for the purpose of winning such contracts,” Krasniqi said.
Rigels Xhemollari, executive director of Qendresa Qytetare (Civic Resistance), a pressure group, says that technological innovation will not help if the people operating the new tools are the same as those who have been manipulate public procurement processes on paper.
“The problem here is not the process, but the need to fight corruption in the public procurement processes,” Xhemollari said.
Jorida Tabaku, an MP from the opposition Democratic Party, said that that the government has already a high-tech tool to identify potential graft issues – the Open Data Albania online platform.
Open Data Albania evaluates procurement processes according to anti-corruption criteria and flag those with suspected anomalies. Some 40 per cent of all procurement processes have been flagged on the platform.
“SPAK has arrested several high-level officials, including MPs and ministers while a deputy prime minister is currently on the run. The question is whether the government has stopped to think over what has caused this widespread corruption among its ranks,” Tabaku declared.
Krasniqi said that the lack of will to analyse corruption in the current procurement system means that using AI may make no difference in practice.
“The new system provides no guarantees that it will be more successful than the traditional method of tackling corruption in public procurement,” he said.