By Aranita Brahaj / Open Data
Open Data Albania has ranked Supreme Court judges according to the declared income values for 2015. Judges in the Republic of Albania are subject to disclosure and public control of assets and conflict of interest. They must submit a declaration at the beginning of the year where income, wealth or property downturns are announced for twelve months of the last year. In the ODA survey, ranking and categorization according to the source of income, and finally for the total income generated in 2015, is detailed. The detailed declarations are in the “Money and Power” section of the Spending Data Albania portal. Transparency and public scrutiny through publication in well-structured forms is done as part of the activities of the Power and Power Program (MGP). The referral of a commercial company that operates as a university and employs a judge would more accurately address the source of income and address more clearly the control of conflict or incompatibility with the judge’s function in case of trial.
Honoraries constitute another category for the source of wealth, where Mr. Artan Broci declares that as a member of the High Council of Justice, in 2015, he received a payment of 102 000 lek.
Income from bank deposit interest, maturity of bonds and bonds, is another form of revenue gain. This income source in the context of a year refers to the monetary position that the totality of the declarative entities possess. There are seven senior judges who declare 2015 income from this source. Mrs. Arjana Fullani holds first place because of the benefits of this kind. It declares income from bank interest and treasury bills in the value of ALL 540 663. Mrs. Evelina Qirjako and Mr. Aleksandër Muskaj follow the list.
Rents also give an overview of assets generating profits for declaring entities. Nine Supreme Court judges benefit from rents. The judge who has benefited most from rents is Shkëlzen Selimi with 7.13 million ALL. Evelina Qirjako has also benefited a considerable amount as a rental income, or 5.6 million ALL. Six judges result in rents from higher salaries than the High Court.
Copyright as well as the right of publication as a source of specific profit for names of legal doctrine has been declared as a source of income for 2015 by only one member of the High Court. It is the chairman of this court, Mr. Xhezair Zaganjori who claims to have won 190,000 lek from the book’s sale and copyright for 2015.
Judge paid for work at the High Court and other professional engagements, during 2015, results of the High Court Judge Xhezair Zaganjori. His income differentiates due to the fact that he is a court president, as does academic and university professional engagements. His salary due to the function at the High Court is declared at the value of 2 063 000 lekë, and total work income by adding academic engagements at the School of Magistrates and Universities amounts to 3 323 266 lekë. After Mr. Zaganjori is Judge Ardian Nuni holding second place in the rankings according to personal income from work. Mr. Nuni has marked in 2015, besides the salary as a Judge, a payment at the School of Magistrates and the University of Tirana, as well as being engaged and paid as an expert in Advisory Groups at the Ministry of Justice and the Special Working Group on Reform in Justice. Ten of the seventeen judges stated that they had income from salary and rewards of work only for the function of judge. What is noticeable about declaring the income of judges from commercial, non-public entities that function as private universities is the declaration as employer only the name of the university.
The ranking of judges according to the income of family members, mainly husbands or partners, is chaired by Mrs. Mirela Fana. Husband Mr. Neshat Fana provided during 2015 a salary of 7.9 million leke in lawyer’s office and withdrawal to a commercial company where he is partner in the value of 10.1 million lek. The reason for the withdrawal is not specified, but even if we exclude this liquidity statement for 2015, the ranking in the first place would remain the same. The Fana family heads in the ranking by category of family members of the judge, followed by the Broci family, the Zeneli family and the Zaganjori family. In the structure of income according to spouses and family members it is concluded that three of the spouses of the High Judges are in the function of the notary, one is a judge, one is a lawyer at the same time a former member of the High Council of Justice, three work in high public institutions including the Assembly and the Inspectorate of Declaration and Audit of Assets, two are bankers and one case marks a senior management level at a public (not private) public company.
Revenue from Treasury Duties is another source of income for Supreme Court Members. These revenues are mainly revenue that comes from the sale of assets or other contractual obligations. To clearly identify which part of the entry is an income and which is simply the disposal of property from material property in cash, we should know the initial price of the property being sold or the property right that is alienated. By not having this information, the proceeds from the Treasury Obligations from third parties are simply sorted without categorization or ranking. Arjana Fullani, Lord Ilir Çeliku and Lady Majlinda Andrea are judges with incomes or incomes of this character.
In conclusion, calculating the total income of each court’s statement at the High Court, which includes all the above mentioned categories and at the same time the income of the family members in the obligation to make a statement, it results that the rankings are chaired by Mrs. Mirela Fana and Mr. Shkëlzen Selimi . And if we consider the judges in the ranking starting from the lowest income is Edmond Islamaj that the family income of a year fully refers to salary income without any other source. Medi Bici is the other judge who has a total of other family members who coincide with 143% versus the annual salary of a high court judge.
In calculating the income or revenues declared for 2015, foreign currency denominations are converted into Albanian ALL at the average annual rate for 2015 by the Bank of Albania. Each categorization and ranking coincides with income during 2015 and not with the entirety of the property declared by the judges. Detailed information on each judge is in the Priority and Power section of the Spending Data Albania portal. There you can find annual declarations and initial wealth declarations for other Judges and other Senior Officials. Also, rankings tables for all Judges can be downloaded to the Excel article of the article.
According to the judges’ statements for 2015, it results that a High Court Member earns on average over 6.5 million ALL a year or over 730 000 lek per month, an average four times higher than the salary as a judge. However, it is worth pointing out that the average annual revenue per judge of the Supreme Court in 2015 is no higher than that of the deputies who in the analysis made by Open Data Albania reflected an average annual income of 8.4 times higher if it pays.
