PRESS RELEASE
Questions and Answers at the Governor's Press Conference, 27 August 2014

Question – The media has echoed suspicions that the amount of money misappropriated from the Issue Department could actually be higher than the official figure reported by the Bank of Albania and investigation authorities. From your checks, would you exclude that the misappropriated amount is higher, particularly for the portion of money destined to be withdrawn from circulation and destroyed?

Second, you have been bluntly accused by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance, Mr. Erjon Braçe, of withholding information required by the Assembly. What is your response to Mr. Braçe’s accusations?

Answer – Concerning the first question, I reconfirm the previous statement that the amount of missing cash is ALL 713 million. Another control will obviously be carried out by the Supreme State Audit.

We are, at the same time, working intensively with our partners, central banks and other international organisations, and asking their assistance, in order to guarantee that our measures will ensure perfection of the entire regulatory framework and prevent that similar events take place again. The international institutions have stated they are willing to assist us and we do hope we will begin to implement these measures very soon.

In the meantime, the Bank of Albania is fully committed to taking measures to supply the market with the necessary liquidity, to ensure it operates under sound parameters.

As I stated above, there are positive news about the economy. The Bank of Albania is paying utmost attention to this severe and individual event. We will follow it up step by step, taking all the necessary measures with the assistance of national and international institutions to prevent it from happening again.

As for the second question, the Bank of Albania is not only an independent institution, but, first and foremost, it is a responsible, accountable and transparent institution. The Bank communicates at the highest levels of responsibility and ethics, and I can guarantee that the official information submitted by the Bank of Albania to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance fully complies with the entire legal and regulatory framework. Moreover, concerning the information that has not been submitted, Chairman Braçe has been invited to the Bank of Albania to scrutinise all required documents. We, once again, guarantee that Bank of Albania's responsibility, accountability and transparency are at the highest levels.

Question – Has the Prosecutor's Office called you to testify about the event? If so, what will be your response to the subpoena?

Answer – I would like to reconfirm that the Bank of Albania, right after filing the criminal charges, cooperated with the Prosecutor's Office and investigation authorities to help solve the case efficiently and quickly. In addition, all important state institutions were, from the first hours, notified of the case.

The Bank of Albania and I personally are the most interested ones to solve the case and take all the measures to prevent it from happening again.

This is truly a serious event that has hit a specific segment but I guarantee you that the Bank of Albania, the Supervisory Council and myself are showing utmost responsibility. We will continue to commit to round-the-clock cooperation with the Prosecutor's Office to solve this case quickly and as best as possible, and draw the responsibilities of each and every one.

Question – Since you mentioned the review of regulations, does this mean that Bank of Albania's regulations, which are approved by the Supervisory Council, have in a way failed? The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance has made accusations that the Inspector General has been kept from submitting the reports to the Committee and the Supervisory Council. Is this true?

Answer – Concerning the second question, I answered that earlier and that would be my statement.

As for the first question, you have already asked it before and my answer remains the same. The entire Bank of Albania’s regulatory framework, from the law to the control, provides full guarantee for sound and adequate functioning of the central bank, incorporating all principles of modern banking. All this is also overseen by the IMF and World Bank missions, and an ECB team that will soon release its assessment report on all Bank of Albania's activities, including this case.

The review of rules and regulations is a work in progress for every institution, and this is common for the global practice going through such a case. We are not the first to go through a similar event. In dozens of cases over the years, including the current year, central banks have been robbed by their staff. This is not the right moment to mention a few, but they can easily be found in the media. In all these cases, once the verification and clarification process has been exhausted, the first following step would be to review all regulations so as to prevent similar events from happening again in the future. This is the practice and a necessary condition to enhance the efficiency of all regulations, and bring them to higher levels in the future.