Albania's parliament sacks central bank governor

Albania's parliament has voted to dismiss the country's central bank governor for alleged abuse of office, the first significant move against high-level corruption since Tirana became an official candidate for EU membership in June.

Ardian Fullani, the long-serving Bank of Albania governor, was arrested in his office on September 5, five weeks after a central bank employee confessed to stealing lek710m in banknotes from the vault where he worked.

Legislators voted by 76 in favour and six against to dismiss Mr Fullani with immediate effect. He was moved from jail this week and placed under house arrest to await trial. If convicted he faces a seven-year jail term. He has strongly denied wrongdoing.

The case is seen as a test of the socialist government's commitment to reducing corruption in public life, one of the criteria set by the European Commission for starting Albania's EU accession negotiations. The country was awarded candidate member status after three straight rejections but has not been given a specific date to begin the talks.

Edi Rama, prime minister, pledged the new central bank governor would not be a politician, ruling out the appointment of a former finance minister to the post.

Mr Rama invited applications from Albanian bankers and academics working abroad, saying the new governor "should be recognised internationally for their professional and ethical standards".

Investigators arrested 19 central bank employees, including all those who worked at the bank vaults outside Tirana, after uncovering irregularities in treasury and bank supervision operations.

Ardian Bitraj, who worked in the vault, admitted stealing new banknotes delivered from Switzerland as well as old ones being withdrawn from circulation over a four-year period. He told investigators he stole daily during the World Cup in Brazil in order to place large bets on matches being played.

Mr Fullani called the theft a "grave but isolated case" which did not affect the bank's capacity to provide liquidity to commercial banks. Amid street protests calling for his resignation, the bank's supervisory board at first supported Mr Fullani, only voting for his dismissal after he had been arrested.

"As a result of the theft several governance issues emerged. The vault operation was not correctly handled because of a lack of personnel, including the lack of a deputy governor responsible for supervision," said a person with knowledge of the investigation.

Emmelinda Meksi, a board member since 2011 and former minister of European integration, said the post of deputy governor in charge of treasury operations and supervision had been vacant since 2006.

"The governor proposes this deputy governor from among the board members and calls for a vote. But this procedure never took place," Ms Meksi said.

Ms Meksi said she "raised many issues within the board" concerning governance, requests for closer co-operation with other central banks in Europe, and ways of strengthening the bank's independence, which were ignored by the governor.

Mr Fullani, a former commercial banker who headed one of Albania's first private banks, has been credited with maintaining currency stability through a managed float of the lek against the euro, and running a tight monetary policy that kept inflation in check during his 10 years as central bank governor.

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