Opinion
€135 million should not stay buried in a report's annex
The state auditor found contracts beyond available funds, investments without projects and a budget plan revised until February. Before the 2027 budget is voted on, these findings need an open debate.
By ANN Newsroom · Newsroom
November 1, 2026, 18:00 · Updated 19:04 · 2 min read
The Supreme State Audit (KLSH) issued a qualified opinion on the execution of the 2025 state budget. According to the report's annex, cited by Monitor magazine, the audits found 171.9 million lek in economic damage and 12.3 billion lek in negative financial effects, about 12.5 billion lek in total, or roughly 135 million euros. The figure is large, but the way it came about is more troubling.
In 44 cases, procurement procedures were launched for contracts worth 16.8 billion lek even though the available funds were lower; in 39 other projects, commitments exceeded approved funds by 4.28 billion lek. Investment funds of 5.26 billion lek were opened without being assigned to specific projects, while 188 planned projects saw no execution at all. More than 20% of annual spending took place in December, and the 2025 plan was revised until February 2026. This is not an accounting slip; it is a budget written along the way.
A qualified opinion does not mean money was stolen: KLSH speaks of damage and negative effects, not criminal offenses, and anyone using the report in the debate should say so clearly. But the government should not play down the findings either. When advance payments on two projects reach 20% of the contract, against an allowed limit of 10%, and when work that was not done or not documented is paid for, the risk falls on taxpayers.
The report comes as the 2027 draft budget is under discussion, which the government says exceeds 10 billion euros for the first time, along with a Fiscal Package that raises the standard VAT rate and the dividend tax. The opposition has focused its attack on taxes, with Sali Berisha's promise that no tax will exceed 12.5 percent. But the debate over how money is spent matters as much as the one over how it is raised: neither lower taxes nor a record budget is credible without spending discipline.
Our proposal: before the 2027 budget is voted on, Parliament's economy committee should hold a special session with KLSH and the Finance Ministry on these findings; the ministry should publish the list of the 44 procedures and 39 projects, with the status of each; and the budget law should explicitly ban launching procurement without available funds and limit plan revisions after the year has closed. Public money deserves a plan that holds.
