ANALYSIS 

Eleven years after embracing capitalism, Belgrade has cancelled almost 30 per cent of all privatisation deals because of corruption or mismanagement. Yet the system remains open to abuse.

Stevan Dojčinović

 Valjevo, Belgrade, Podgorica and Warsaw

The now-abandoned Mašinoservis factory site is just one example of poor privatisation in Serbia (Photo: S Dojčinović)

Just two years after serving a prison sentence for attempting to kill four police officers during a gun battle in Belgrade, Milan Lazarević decided it was high time he cashed in on Serbia’s privatisation programme.

Seeing no reason why his criminal record should hold him back, Lazarević set his sights on buying a newly-privatised machine-parts factory, Mašinoservis, in his home town of Valjevo in south-eastern Serbia.

Turns out he was right his criminal past would be no hindrance to the sale. Serbia’s ownPrivatisation Agency signed off on the deal in November 2005.

In stark contrast to other former communist EU states such as Poland, Serbia was slow to introduce background checks on buyers to prevent criminals profiting from the sale of state companies.

This lack of state control created a perfect environment for widespread criminal activity, including illegal asset-stripping and money laundering.

The scale of corruption and mismanagement was such that Serbia has, to date, cancelled 629 out of a total of 2,281 privatisation deals because the new owners stopped production, stripped assets and failed to pay workers.

Thousands of Serbian workers have also lost their jobs as a direct result of mismanaged privatisation.

Milan Lazarević managed to buy a newly privatised company despite having a criminal record (Photo: Serbian Police)

While would-be investors are now required to obtain certificates stating they do not have a criminal record and are not facing charges, there are still loopholes in the system that allow criminals to profit from sales.

Lazarević, who secured state approval to buy Mašinoservis, is now back in a prison cell on trial for allegedly running a racketeering enterprise that extorted payments and favours from Valjevo’s bar and restaurant owners.

He is also accused of ordering the murder of a local underworld rival and has since been charged with tax-evasion, insurance fraud and misappropriating government funds.

‘Only Fools Talk’

Twenty-five years ago, Mašinoservis was a successful state-owned enterprise, employing 130 people in Valjevo, 100 km from the capital Belgrade. The factory once had offices throughout the former Yugoslavia.

Today, the building is locked up with heavy chains but it is just possible to peer into the courtyard. The factory is derelict and abandoned; the windows broken and set in half-crumbling walls.

Milivoj Savić, a former Mašinoservis employee, is one of many Serb victims of failed privatisations (Photo: S Dojčinović)

On paper, Mašinoservis continues to employ 12 staff, all of whom say they have not worked or been paid in nine years. Locals in outlying villages who once depended on the factory for work have been forced to scrape a living doing odd jobs whenever possible.

Milivoj Savić, 60, was the only worker brave enough to speak out. His wife protested throughout the interview at their home near the centre of Valjevo, angrily saying: “Only fools talk.”

Just mentioning the name Lazarević strikes fear in the hearts of people here.

Undeterred, Savić, nicknamed Bosanac, insists that talking to a journalist is pretty much his last option. Partially-paralysed after suffering a stroke, he can neither work nor retire because Mašinoservis never paid his salary or pension contributions after privatisation.

He says from the moment Lazarević arrived at the factory, there was little evidence the new owner intended to invest and try to turn the company around. Instead, the new boss met the workers and told them to go home.

“Lazarević said: ‘I have all your phones here in the company and when I find some work, I will give you a call.’ However, he sold all the machines and there’s nothing left down there [at the factory],” says Savić.

Desperate, Savić finally managed to meet Lazarević and pleaded with him to at least pay his pension contributions so he could retire.

“How do you want me to beg you, like a father, like a God, like a boss? He told me: ‘Bosanac, you are the age of my father, I’ll respect you for that and have no worries’… but he never paid,” says Savić.

He was the only worker brave enough to seek a face-to-face meeting.

The Deal

Lazarević bought the company in September 2004, paying the then owner, Vladan Krunić, €13,000 in cash. He was duly granted power of attorney, giving him full control of the company, until the sale could be officially approved by Serbia’s Privatisation Agency.

As the newly-privatised company remained subject to state supervision, only the agency could formally sign-off the sale, which it duly did on November 15, 2005.

Mašinoservis was originally privatised in December 2002 with Krunić paying around €40,000 for the firm. He says he couldn’t turn the company into a profitable enterprise and was unable to pay the workers, all of whom were on strike at the time of the resale to Lazarević.

During Krunić’s time as owner, the Privatisation Agency inspectors filed two critical reports over his management of the company; one in October 2003 and another in June 2004.

Both reports state Mašinoservis workers’ had not been paid since privatisation and that production had ceased, warning the company might have to be taken back under state control.

Extraordinarily, just five months later, inspectors revisited the factory that had been under Lazarević’s ownership for just a few weeks to find the workers unwilling to complain about anything at all, despite still not having been paid.

Asset Stripping

According to former owner Krunić and employees, Lazarević immediately set about stripping Mašinoservis’ assets.

Krunić claims Lazarević sold key machinery worth €10,000 within the first few months of taking control of the factory.

Lazarević also allegedly sold one of the factory buildings for €41,000 in cash, according to charges brought by Serbia’s tax office. They claim he sold the structure without declaring the sale, so evading paying tax.

BIRN has obtained records that show Lazarević mortgaged the factory site, although it has so far been impossible to establish exactly when he took the mortgage or the sum borrowed against the land.

Lazarević has not directly commented on any of the allegations or on his ownership of Mašinoservis, but his lawyer, Miodrag Đuričić, told BIRN that there is “no evidence against him”.

Regarding Lazarević’s management of Mašinoservis, Đuričić said that production and administration problems predated his client’s ownership of the firm.

While extreme, the Lazarević sale is far from unique in Serbia. This was just one of thousands of small enterprises sold off by the state, many of which will have been subject to illegal asset stripping and other criminal activities.

Not to mention the many Serbs who lost their livelihoods in a country where the unemployment rate stood at 20 per cent in 2010. The number of jobless is expected to continue to rise in Serbia, as the global recession bites further.

Serbia has not yet completed the privatisation process and has another 435 companies to sell, according to Privatisation Agency records.

Fake Buyer Background Certificates

Diagram – How ruthless buyers scam privatisation checks

Despite introducing tougher measures to prevent criminals using the privatisation process to launder money or for other illegal purposes, the system remains open to abuse.

Although buyers have been required since 2008 to present certificates from the police or the courts stating they do not have a record, criminals can still circumvent the system.

Some bidders use proxy buyers who do not have any criminal past, many place bids via offshore companies and others even forge the certificates.

“If someone comes with a forged certificate, how could I know that it is counterfeit? These are criminal acts; it must be for someone else to investigate,” says Dušan Belanović, director of the Privatisation Agency’s communications centre.

Asked why they don’t send the certificates to the police for checks, Belanović says the agency doesn’t have enough staff to conduct these types of checks.

In addition, Serbia is unable to ascertain the origin of money used to buy businesses through offshore companies.

Fugitive Darko Sarić was charged in 2010 by the Serbian authorities on suspicion of running an international drugs ring, thought to have smuggled around 3.5 tonnes of cocaine into Europe, and of laundering as much as €30 million through Serbia’s privatisation process.

Documents obtained through the state prosecution service and business registers in the US and Serbia, show Sarić managed to buy Serbian firms through offshore companies registered in the US state of Delaware.

Because the Privatisation Agency did not attempt to establish the origins of the offshore company funds, the authorities claim Sarić could have freely laundered millions of euros earned by illicit means.

The importance of robust buyer background checks has been demonstrated time and time again in Serbia. This failure enabled Zoran Copić to buy more than 15 companies in Serbia and Bosnia since 2005, despite being tried for cigarette smuggling at the time of the purchases.

The trial opened in 2004 and is yet to be concluded. He was arrested in Bosnia this April and charged with money laundering offences and is expected to stand trial soon.

Copić was also charged by the Serbian police in late 2010 with illegally mortgaging and stripping assets from some companies.

Law ‘Riddled with Weaknesses’

“The Privatisation Agency is a government body without any accountability,” says Verica Barać, president of Serbia’s corruption council

At the heart of the problem lies badly drafted and poorly enforced privatisation laws.

“Privatisation is riddled with incomplete regulations, weaknesses, gaps and holes,” says Vladimir Goati, a politics and economics expert who is also director of Transparency Serbia.

“Dozens of companies were sold… without established conditions that the owner is obliged to act responsibly toward the company and its employees.”

Verica Barać, president of Serbia’s corruption council, agrees: “It enabled tycoons and criminals to formally, by buying companies, actually come into vast estates.”

But Barać says the biggest problem with the current system is that there is still no real external control over the privatisation process.

“The Privatisation Agency is a government body without any accountability. They create, implement and control the privatisation process, but they are not controlled by any one,” she says.

Branko Pavlović, a former director of the Privatisation Agency, says the law is also flawed because it allows buyers to pay for companies in up to six separate instalments, giving the new owner time to sell off assets before completing the purchase.

“After they get the money [from asset stripping] it does not occur to them to pay the rest of the purchase price,” he says. The state is then forced to take back a virtually worthless shell of a firm.

Barać and Pavlović say that the laws were effectively approved by the World Bank and both claim the bank put Serbia under pressure to get the privatisation process rolling quickly.

“[The law] is the concept of the World Bank, based on liberal economics. It was important just to privatise, which meant institutions were not important, the property was not important, the processes were not important, the origin of money was not important,” says Barać.

The man who drafted the privatisation legislation in 2001, Aleksandar Vlahović, failed to respond to numerous requests for an interview placed via his assistant at his private consulting company Eki Investment.

Privatisation Chief ‘Forced Out’

“I had pressure from all sides,” says Branko Pavlović, former head of Serbia’s Privatisation Agency (Photo: S Dojčinović)

Pavlović was director of the Privatization Agency for just four months between April and July 2004.

Initially appointed by Dragan Maršićanin, the then minister for the economy, he claims he was sacked because he tried to reform how the privatisation agency was run and to confront crime in privatisation.

Pavlović says that from the moment he was appointed director at the agency, he was immediately being pressured from all sides, “politicians, international organisations and domestic tycoons”.

According to Pavlović, shady businessmen would attempt to approach him through a front person.

“Tycoons do that, they find someone who you know and then that person tells you ‘hey Branko, this businessman just asked me, do you want to go to dinner with us’ and I would say not dinner but he can come to the agency and we can schedule a meeting,” says Pavlović.

But Pavlović claims that as soon as he tried to terminate a suspicious privatisation deal that he was certain involved corruption, he was immediately fired along with the economy minister who appointed him.

Today he works as a lawyer and adviser to minority shareholders of companies in the process of being privatised.

The situation is not much different in other Balkan states, where privatisation has offered a perfect opportunity for shady deals, as witnessed in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro.

In Montenegro, it is almost impossible to gauge the level of corruption because the details of sales are shrouded in secrecy, since the state hasn’t made the records public.

Podgorica began its privatisation process back in 1997 and around 85 per cent of companies are now privately-owned. NGOs have claimed many of these deals have been subject to high-level, serious corruption.

Slow but Sure Sales in Poland

“If we have any doubts about whether it is a legitimate investor, we disqualify them,” says Krzysztof Walenczak, Poland’s deputy treasury minister (Photo: S Dojčinović

It couldn’t be more different in Poland, where the state has taken its time over privatisation. Warsaw has developed a system focused on rooting out corruption and organised crime over the two decades since its transition from communism to capitalism.

Twenty years after beginning its privatisation programme, five per cent of Polish companies are yet to be sold, says Ireneusz Jablonski, an economics expert and member of the Adam Smith Institute in Warsaw.

Krzysztof Walenczak, deputy minister at the Polish Treasury which oversees the privatisation process, acknowledges progress has been slow but underlines they put a great deal of effort into finding solid investors.

“When we are selling a company we go to 15 different countries. We go to every financial centre… we have our own internal services that track potential investors. If we have any doubts about whether it is a legitimate investor, we disqualify them,” he says.

Walenczak says that off-shore companies have been excluded from the privatisation process for some time in Poland, because they cannot track the origin of the funds.

Unlike in Serbia and many Balkan states, the work of the ministry is subject to constant review by various agencies, including the powerful Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA).

The CBA targets high-level corruption and reports directly to the prime minister.

“We are a unique agency in the EU because only our bureau has such powers,” says Pawel Wojtunik, director of the CBA. “We can work like the police… and use all ‘special measures’ as the secret service does. We can check the highest officials in Poland.”

The CBA also investigates sales that seem suspiciously low priced, ensuring the state gets the best return possible and rooting out corruption. Offshore companies give Poland a wide berth as they often don’t want to attract the attention of the CBA.

“We had one such case involving the privatisation of shipyards,” says Wojtunik. “A firm from a ‘risky’ country was interested in the sale until the media published information that the CBA was looking into the case. The firm withdrew its offer.”

EU Demands Serbia Investigation

“Three to five per cent of GDP is from money laundering activities [in Serbia]” says Vincent Deger, EU ambassador to Serbia (Photo: Media Centre, Belgrade)

While it seems clear that the Poles see crime-free privatisation as essential for the state and the economy, looming EU membership appears to be more of an incentive for Belgrade to revisit its privatisation process.

In June last year, the EU demanded Serbia re-examine 20 deals suspected of either involving high-level corruption or of failing to comply to privatisation rules.

To sweeten the pill, however, the Serbian government also received in July a €2.2m EU grant to help the state more effectively combat money laundering.

Vincent Deger, the EU ambassador to Serbia, notes that countries in transition to capitalist economies are at greater risk of money laundering because of the privatisation process, but warned the situation was of particular concern in the Balkans.

“Three to five per cent of the gross domestic product is from money laundering activities [in Serbia]. It’s a high risk… it threatens the smooth functionality of the economy and affects the whole of society,” he says.

Despite making much noise over Serbia’s willingness to confront the criminalisation of its privatisation process, not everyone’s convinced.

Barać, the anti-corruption council chief, is particularly unimpressed and doubts that even pressure from the EU will make much difference.

“The council has shown a number of privatisation cases and delivered documentation to the prosecution, but so far there haven’t been any investigations,” she says.

As Lazarević sits in prison, facing numerous charges of continued criminal behaviour, he remains the official owner of the now devastated machine-parts factory.

While the man the state granted ownership made thousands out of the Mašinoservis by selling assets and mortgaging land, many workers have been reduced to scraping a living  and surviving day to day.

Serbs are wondering when their leaders will finally ensure companies, and their livelihoods, are not placed in the hands of ruthless criminals out to make a quick buck.

Stevan Dojčinović is a Belgrade-based journalist. This article was produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

Balkaninsight – 02 NOV 2011

Employers across Europe have read workers’ private emails and chat conversations by illegally using secret computer surveillance software; in Romania employees claim bosses have used private information gained to blackmail and bully them.

Most workers across Europe seem unaware that bosses can read their private emails and chat conversations (Image: Partners for Serbia).

Most Romanian workers log on to their computers each morning oblivious of the fact their bosses can not only monitor what websites they visit, but measure exactly how much time they spend working or surfing the net.

Of greater concern, hardly anyone realises their employer can, with the right software, intercept private emails sent from personal accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo!

“Employees should be aware that the content of their emails could be read,” says LF, an executive at Netsec Interactive Solutions, a Bucharest-based IT security consultancy, who asked not to be named.

“Sadly, although initially designed to be used constructively, IT monitoring tools are used by some employers for personal rather than professional goals. We are talking about blackmailing or even harassment.”

Netsec estimates more than 40 per cent of multinationals and large companies operating in Romania use specialist software to routinely intercept and track all information flow – including what an employee might write in an email or download onto a memory stick.

Secret surveillance of workers, banned under EU law, has been hugely controversial in other European states too, particularly Germany where companies have been forced to pay multi-million euro fines and lawmakers are debating new workplace privacy legislation.

In Romania, many allege that bosses not only collected information about them by illegal, covert means, but then used it against them.

Blackmailed by the Boss

No Romanian employees would talk openly to BIRN about their experiences of illegal workplace monitoring, fearing speaking out would jeopardise their new positions and mark them out as troublemakers.

One woman claims she was forced to resign after her boss accessed private emails she had sent to a friend, in which she criticised her line manger.

After being called into the boss’s office, she was shown printouts of her private emails and told it would be best for her to leave. She accepted a small payout after her employers threatened they would make sure she couldn’t get work anywhere else.

Another, a married man, claims he was blackmailed by his boss after she discovered he was having an affair with a colleague. The manager found out after accessing conversations between the two on Yahoo! Messenger that were recorded by computer surveillance software.

He claims the boss forced him to perform tasks he did not want to under threat she would tell his wife he had been unfaithful. When he finally refused and left his post, the boss rang his wife and told her about the affair.

Both say their employers never once informed them that their communications, both private and official, would be subject to surveillance.

While it is legal for employers to monitor their workforce and use computer software to do so, they are obliged by EU and national law to inform workers. In turn, employees must officially consent to the surveillance. In practice, this rarely happens.

Officially, not a single company in Romania subjects its workforce to surveillance. Employers are also obliged by the law to inform the Romanian Data Protection Agency (ANSPDCP) if they are monitoring staff, but not one has registered to date.

Software Sales Boom

WORKPLACE MONITORING AND PUBLIC AWARENESS

A survey by a Romanian monitoring software manufacturer suggests during an average working day, 20 per cent of employees spend between one and two hours playing computer games.

A 2008 Eurobarometer study looking at data protection and public awareness among EU citizens suggests:

Only 28% of respondents knew they had national data protection agencies

The level of trust in employers was low in Spain (34%), Cyprus (47%), Latvia (44%), Lithuania (39%) and Greece (37%), where less than half of respondents showed confidence in employers handling their personal data appropriately

Austrian and German citizens were most concerned about how their personal data was handled, with 86% stating they were concerned

In Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Finland, only one-third of respondents said they were concerned about data privacy (BG: 34%, NL: 32%, FI: 36%)

Around two-thirds of all respondents said they trusted banks and other financial institutions (66%) and employers (63%) to handle their personal data appropriately

The majority of respondents agreed it should be possible to monitor passenger flight details (82%), telephone calls (72%), internet and credit card usage (75% and 69%, respectively) when this served to combat terrorism

This appears to be rather at odds with estimates on surveillance software sales in Romania, where IT companies say business is booming.

The surveillance software market was worth an estimated €1 million in Romania in 2010 alone, according to Amplusnet, another software manufacturer, who stress it is a rapidly expanding business.

The Romanian Constitution stipulates that all correspondence is confidential but does not differentiate between private or official work-related communications.

Alina Savoiu, head of communications at ANSPDCP, says: “It is a violation of correspondence, which is a criminal act. All companies that are involved in such practices are infringing the law.”

The software manufactured by companies like Netsec track every activity on workers’ computers, not just their correspondence, private or otherwise.

The boss can see exactly which websites you visit, what content you view, and compare how much time you spend surfing the net rather than using Excel, Word or other office tools.

Lawyers who represent employers argue they need to ensure their workers are putting in their full hours and are not engaged in unproductive or unlawful activities – such as accessing porn sites or downloading illegal content.

Gay Worker ‘Asked to Leave’

But, as LF from Netsec says, bosses can use tools developed for lawful monitoring to gain information they can then abuse. Even the pages employees visit can reveal or suggest they may have personal problems, such as health issues, addictions or complex private lives.

Mihai Russu is a Bucharest-based lawyer who has represented companies involved in disputes with employees about privacy. He recently represented a medical firm that had secretly monitored its employees and in doing so discovered one of the directors, who was married, had been browsing gay dating sites. The director was asked to leave his job.

He initially refused, claiming the request was discriminatory. In the end, he gave up because he feared his family would discover he was gay.

Russu insists his sexual orientation was irrelevant and that he was asked to leave because “he was not working his eight hours”.

However, Russu acknowledges the company did break the law because it secretly monitored workers.

Savoiu says the ANSPDCP has not received any complaints about covert surveillance, but insists they would investigate if they did and seize equipment, including computers, if deemed necessary.

However, she admits they employ just one qualified IT expert who can track monitoring software.

Bosses Own the Evidence

Proving you have been the subject of unlawful workplace surveillance is no easy task, not least because the bosses own the evidence.

If the ANSPDCP was unable to investigate, employees can go to civil courts themselves but they cannot seize the bosses’ equipment.

“Can an employee bring to court all the servers and evidence on the employee’s computer that shows he was supervised? No. The state would only have the authority to seize this type of evidence, backed up by appropriate experts, in criminal cases,” says Cristian Driga, a lawyer specialising in IT crime.

“In civil cases, employees have to bear the cost alone… added to that, there is an acute shortage of certified computer experts available in the field,” he says.

On the other hand, employers argue they must monitor their staff to protect commercially sensitive information and safeguard their brand.

Russu quotes one case where an advertising firm he represented discovered, by means of covert surveillance, that one worker was copying confidential client databases that could have been financially damaging to the company.

She resigned after being challenged by the bosses and went on to set up a competitor firm of her own. The dispute is ongoing with the firm yet to decide whether to prosecute the worker.

Bogdan Manolea, a lawyer specialising in internet law, believes the Romanian government has failed to properly implement data protection laws and has not ensured the public is properly aware of their rights and responsibilities.

“The authorities did not do their job properly; they did not explain why it is important. People have a paranoid reaction – yes, we are all intercepted – but when you ask them what they are doing about it, they don’t know or don’t act. There are many who complain and few who act,” he says.

Asked if the ANSPDCP has done enough to inform bosses and workers about the rules, Savoiu says they have published the Romanian data protection law on its website.

The ANSPDCP site does not, however, carry an accessible summary or guide to good practice on monitoring that could be of use to both employers and employees.

Balkan Communist Legacy

Yet there seems to be little appetite among Romanians and Serbians alike to take on their bosses or the authorities – a legacy, in part, of communist rule.

An unwillingness to confront employers is also evident in neighbouring Serbia, an aspirant EU member that, in 2008, adopted European data protection laws.

Implementation has been slow and Serbians seem equally unaware, and disinterested, in privacy at work issues.

Aleksandar Resanovic, Serbia’s deputy information commissioner, believes people do not properly understand the concept of privacy after so many years of communism.

“We do not have complaints. People say ‘who cares if they monitor me?’ But it is not a question of whether you have something to hide or not. Privacy is something that belongs to you and you decide whether you disclose it [information] or not,” he says.

Together with the Partners for Serbia NGO, the commissioner is trying to make sure that at least employees responsible for processing personal data at large firms are aware of the law.

Serbia: Who Monitors the Monitors?

Blazo Nedic, president of Partners for Serbia, launched a campaign this year to raise awareness but remain concerned the law does not adequately check the people responsible for monitoring.

And there have been some eye-catching incidents that have made it to the press, including the posting on YouTube of Serbian police CCTV footage that captured a couple having sex in a car park.

Since then, the Serbian police have been required to follow new, strict procedures when collecting and processing CCTV data.

But confusion as to what remains private at work is certainly not confined to Belgrade and Bucharest; there have been numerous cases and campaigns across European countries.

The European Directive 95/46/EC does not spell out the limits of lawful employee monitoring but it does enshrine employees’ right to be informed that they will be subject to surveillance, grants access to the data and allows for workers to oppose data collection by the bosses.

Britons Trust the Authorities

Like their Romanian and Serbian counterparts, the British do not appear overly-concerned about surveillance either in or outside the workplace.

The reason why, however, might surprise Balkan readers who lived under communist rule.

“We never had a police state like Romania. In a sense, we trust our authorities more than most nations do and if something goes wrong, we have a very good legal system,” says Nicholas Lakeland, a partner and employment law specialist at London law firm Silverman Sherliker LLP.

But he warns workers should be aware of the sort of personal information bosses can collect and how it could be used.

“We had a case where the employer found out one employee had HIV. In the construction industry, employees using heavy machinery may be breathalysed… in that particular case they also found he had been using drugs which helped him with the HIV… the employer did nothing… but it was a [potentially difficult] situation,” says Lakeland.

EUROPEAN LEGISLATION: EMPLOYEE PRIVACY

Employees’ right to be informed about workplace surveillance is enshrined in Directive 95/46/EC, 2002/58/EC and 2006/24/EC

Bosses should not intercept even work-related emails if the company hasn’t set down clear rules and they did not get the employees consent

Across the EU, employers who suspect serious criminal activity among workers can ask the police to intervene, who are able to secretly monitor

Employers are banned from storing sensitive data, such as religious beliefs, political opinions, sexual orientation and racial/ethnic origin, under Directive 95/46/EC

Confusion over the law has led to scandals in Germany and a few privacy cases in the UK, some of which ended up at the ECHR in Strasbourg

In ECHR cases Copland and Halford vs the UK, a precedent was established setting down that employees are entitled to privacy at work while using the company computer or phone

Germany is the only EU country debating federal workplace monitoring laws

However, some British employees have taken privacy cases all the way to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), as demonstrated by the Halford and Copland cases.

In 1990, Alison Halford, a police officer in Wirral, accused her superiors of intercepting her phone and Lynette Copland, a secretary at a college in Wales, found out that her phone and office email have been intercepted over a six-month period.

The ECHR ordered the British state, which employed both, to pay damages on the grounds that they were entitled to privacy at their workplace.

However, despite the ECHR rulings little changed in Britain.

“A lot of employers do that [monitoring] without thinking. An employer comes to me and says ‘I find all these interesting things by looking in employees’ emails’. And I say ‘You did not tell them, there is no legitimate reason why you are doing it. You are just snooping, so stop it and destroy all the data you have’.

“There are a lot of small offices where employers are doing that, they don’t really know the law, people are curious and want to know what other people do. It is human nature but it is not legal”, says Lakeland.

This trust in the authorities will have been undoubtedly dented by the News of the World illegal phone hacking scandal that threw suspicion not only on unscrupulous journalists but also law enforcement and politicians.

Germans Keep State in Check

Germans are acutely aware of the importance of privacy and the need to keep state control in check.

They share a deep-seated distrust of authority figures with their eastern European counterparts – an unease informed by recent history including the Nazi era and the Stasi in what was East Germany.

Germany has had data protection laws on its statute books since 1970 and, although their legislation on monitoring does not differ from the rest of the EU, they have set down additional rules.

Unlike elsewhere, employers are forbidden from monitoring employees’ online activities if the company rules allow them to access private email accounts or surf the net for personal use from the firm’s computer.

Still there is unease about the scale of unlawful monitoring.

Bertran Raum, head of social services at Germany’s Federal Commission for Data Protection, quotes 2001 statistics suggesting that two out of three companies monitor their workforce.

“I think the number of employers who are monitoring their employees has risen since. I think that a lot of that monitoring would be illegal,” he says.

Workers’ Bank Accounts Accessed

The media heightened awareness of illegal workplace monitoring in Germany, says Jan Jurczyk at German trade union Ver.di

There was public outrage when it became known that Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned national rail company, had been secretly monitoring its employees for a decade.

In a bid to root out corruption, the company routinely accessed employees’ private bank accounts and checked payments against their supplier list.

In 2009, they were fined €1.2 million by the Berlin Data Protection Commissioner.

The LIDL retail chain was fined in 2008 a similar amount for employing private investigators to monitor staff, including video surveillance, by the data commissioner of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Their have been numerous other workplace privacy and surveillance scandals, involving high-profile companies, that have been covered in the German media.

Employees who suspected they were being illegally monitored talked to the press and the resulting coverage forced the authorities to take action on the issue.

Jan Jurczyk, press officer for Ver.di, the second largest German trade union, says that “we have more to thank journalists for than the authorities”.

Alexander Dix, Berlin Information Commissioner, admits: “It takes a lot of courage in Germany to complain about an employer. You cannot rely on the German courts, as it takes several years… and sometimes you don’t win.”

More Power for Bosses?

After so many scandals, the German parliament is debating a new federal law to regulate workplace monitoring which they are expected to vote on by the end of 2011. No one is happy with the proposed changes.

Currently, companies have to seek permission both from the unions and the labour courts before installing surveillance equipment. Under the proposed new law, they would only have to ensure they notified employees and secured their consent.

“Now the judge keeps the balance between employees and employers, but in the new project, the employer is the one who decides when to monitor. He is the judge,” thinks Sarah Thomé, lawyer for the human rights NGO the Humanist Union.

She believes that the focus on consent is misleading, as the employee could agree to all types of monitoring out of fear that not doing so would prevent them from getting the job in the first place.

For their part, employers say the rules do not address their key concern: corruption.

Thomas Prinz, a lawyer at the Confederation of German Employers’ Association, believes there is no need for a new law, just because some companies illegally spied on their employees.

“The draft has no clear provisions for preventing corruption. This is the main point for any German company,” he says.

Raf Jaspers, a Belgian lawyer and author of Big Brother in Europe, is convinced only public awareness and action will combat state and employer privacy intrusions.

“It will be a long struggle to convince the masses. Privacy is not like work or food, which you miss immediately if you don’t have them,” he warns.

Back in Romania, IT specialist LF offers workers some simple advice: “Do not forget that when you switch on your computer you are no longer alone and no password, no matter how complex, can block monitoring software.”

Dollores Benezic is a Bucharest-based journalist. This article was produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

- Real Estate: Rental prices in shopping centers show big fall says Colliers

- PM CNN interview stirs unusual debate on EU integration

- President Topi new political party is likely

- Suspected Drugdealer killed in mafia style action

- Albania accepts Hong Kong as “Chinese territory”

- Albania performance estimated as average from the EBRD transition index

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- Real Estate: Rental prices in shopping centers show big fall says Colliers

The rental prices in Tirana’s shopping centers saw 30-50 per cent drop this year due to increased economic difficulties and growing competition, the real estate agent Colliers announced in its report.

“The retail market in Tirana continues its dynamic activity – an additional 41,200 m2 is expected by end of 2011 – with the opening of Tirana East Gate, the city’s newest and largest shopping centre. The retail market experienced an increase in vacancy rates reaching 10.8% and a significant decrease in rental prices in some shopping centers in the range of 30-50%, in H1 2011. High street and secondary retail streets continue to report a drop of 20-30% in retail sales and a high turnover of shops,” Colliers underlined in the report.

Although a poor country with just 2700 euro GDP per capita, Albania is currently full with seven shopping centers while another one is expected to open soon.

The shopping center mania started back in 2005, when the first department store QTU opened 6 km outside Tirana. Several other projects followed soon. One of the shopping centers was taken over by the banks due to unpaid loans this year while others show difficulties to attract customers.

Furthermore, the retail sales this year showed an unusual decline of 6 per cent due to growing economic difficulties among Albanians.

Colliers report can be read in full here: http://dsg.colliers.com/document.aspx?report=1818.pdf

- PM CNN interview open unusual debate on EU integration

The Prime Minister Sali Berisha was asked by a CNN journalist during an interview this week what he except to earn from EU integration of Albania, a question that stirred an unusual debate among Albanians on possible benefits and costs from the integration process. Berisha replied to CNN that for him, EU integration is a dream, without getting into details on cost/benefits.

Albania has no known euro-skeptics among politicians or among opinion makers and intellectuals. Some newspapers attempted unsuccessfully to debate on EU integration but dropped the topic almost immediately. Albania is currently under the Stabilization and Association Agreement with EU, which comes due in 2013. According to the MSA, in 2013 EU will decide whether to accept Albania’s membership or to postpone the MSA for another 5 years.

Panorama, Shqip

- President Topi new political party is likely

The President Bamir Topi announced on Thursday in an interview for Top Channel that he plans to stay in politics after his mandate comes due early next year and that he may create a new right wing party. Mr. Topi, 54, was elected president from the ruling Democratic Party of the Prime Minister Sali Berisha. Over the last few years, Berisha had often attacked Topi publicly and effectively closed the door for his return in the DP. Berisha had accused Topi as the man behind the nationalistic campaign “the Movement Black and Red” as a political party against the government. Black and Red are the national colors of Albania.

Top Channel, Shqip.

- Suspected Drugdealer killed in mafia style action

Armando Andoni, a known drugdealer and US Marshals fugitive was killed on Monday 25 Sept. in a mafia style action that left no traces behind. Andoni, also known as Arjan Selimi, escaped from US in 1998 while on bail for the transportation of 1000 kg of cannabis. He was arrested in 2004 in Albania after a multinational law enforcement operation to cut drug smuggling in Latin America, Europe and US.

There had been quite few mafia style killings in Albania this year, including Skerdelajd Konomi, a judge in Vlora, who was killed with a bomb in his car.

Leaked US cables, Shqip, Gazeta Shqiptare

- Albania accepts Hong Kong as “Chinese territory”

Albania removed visa requirements with Hong Kong this week and referred to the “special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China”. Albania had adhered to the one China policy and strictly follows it. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Edmond Haxhinasto used the sentence “the Chinese territory of Taiwan” while speaking in a television talk show.

Official law publication

- Albania performance estimated as average from the EBRD transition index

Albania’s road toward open market economy was evaluated as poor or average in a list of 14 indicators compiled by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the Transition Index, a tool created by EBRD to follow the transition in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

As for 2010, Albania performed well in Small scale privatization, where it scored 4 out of 4.6 points, in price liberalization and trade liberalization. Albania underperformed in enterprise restructuring, scoring just 2.33 points, in competition policy, just 2 and in Securities markets & non-bank financial institutions.

“More private capital is needed to help finance infrastructure investment, especially in transport and electric power. The priority is to accelerate the preparation of investment projects while ensuring that tenders are carried out in an open and transparent manner.

The system of tariff-setting at the municipal level is often non-transparent and politicized and hinders restructuring and investment in this sector. Reforms in this area should be pushed forward as soon as possible. The level of development in the non-banking financial sector is still quite low by regional standards. A key priority in this regard is to come to a resolution on the sale of INSIG, which is scheduled for this year,” the report noted.

EBRD report can be found here: http://www.ebrd.com/downloads/research/transition/tr10assess.pdf

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Disclaimer Notice

Weekly news report is a service of Albanianeconomy.com to offer a short review of the major events occurred during the week. It is published on Monday and includes the events occurred in the previous seven days. The main source of information is the local newspapers and televisions and AlbanianEconomy.com doesn’t verify the accuracy of the reports, so doesn’t bear responsibility on the veracity of the information reported.

You can send a request for this report by e-mail at gjerebara@albanianeconomy.com to receive it directly to your email address every Monday.

- The Prime Minister Berisha visits New York: Albania vote on Palestinian membership bid remains unclear

- Opposition regional councilors switch sides

- Miners strike continues with no end in sight

- Bribery in Albania and Bosnia the highest in the region – UN reports

- Albania sovereign bonds priced at 9.6 per cent

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- The Prime Minister Berisha visits New York: Albania vote on Palestinian membership bid remains unclear

The Prime Minister Sali Berisha visited New York between 19 and 22 September in the occasion of the yearly meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization. Mr. Berisha used the event to meet leaders from various countries in order to forward the cause of Kosovo Independence recognition and for advertising Albania as an investment destination.

Some of the Tirana’s newspapers stated that the diplomatic activity of Berisha this year was weaker than in the same occasion in 2010 and that the Prime Minister had much fewer meetings with head of states and prime ministers. Tema newspaper in opposition claimed that the Prime Minister is largely isolated now as the result of its democratic backsliding during the last two years. Pro-government media published informal photos that show Mr. Berisha embracing the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

On the issue of Palestinian UN membership bid, Berisha said that he fully supported the existence of Palestine as a state, but also the US stance on the issue, but did not indicate straightforward how Albania will vote.

Sources: keshilliministrave.al, Shqip, Tema, Koha Jone, VOA.

- Opposition regional councilors switch sides

Opposition Socialist Party lost its majority in the regional council of Berati in south of the country and won a hardly fought battle to keep its majority in the regional council of Fieri, after some of the councilors elected in 8 May elections decided to switch sides and join the government coalition. Newspapers suggest that the event reflects bigger troubles for the weakened opposition, which is also suffering internal fights among different groups.

The Socialist Party held the power in Albania between 1997 and 2005 and its officials had a reputation for corruption. But the money seems to have gone with the power lost six years ago and the Socialist Party seems to have lost also its ideology and structures, according to Servet Pellumbi, a retired SP official.

Shqip, Gazeta Shqiptare

- Miners strike continues with no end in sight

Miners in the Bulqiza mine complex started a second indefinite hunger strike this week after the Union failed to reach an agreement with the Austrian owned Albanian Chrome company (ACR) who operates the mine through a concessionary agreement. The miners had requested higher wages and better working conditions along with full payment of the salaries for the last three months when they were on strike, plus the dismissal of the ACR appointed director of the complex. The Company had accepted all the conditions except the director dismissal but the Union said that its conditions were non-negotiable.

Meanwhile, in Tirana the opposition Socialist Party accused the government for managing a criminal organization in the mining sector in the expenses of the miners. The Minister of Economy Nasip Naço said in the parliament that the Union has a hidden agenda that aims to kick out of the country the company and to take the mine for some local businessmen. Naço did not explain whom the local businessmen behind the Union are, but in the last three months, the Union doesn’t accept to give up to any of its request and that if the company agrees on their terms, then, they add new requests.

Top Channel, News 24

- Bribery in Albania and Bosnia the highest in the region – UN reports

An UN Office on Drugs and Crime Report on Corruption in Western Balkans unsurprisingly discovered that Albania and Bosnia on the top on bribery followed in a long distance from Croatia and Kosovo. In Albania, the majority of bribes ends up in the pockets of medics and paramedics and is paid by citizens to receive better treatment. In the majority of cases officials ask directly or indirectly for money in exchange for their service. The UN report was co-financed by the European Commission and used structured interviews with citizens as method. The interviewed citizens were randomly selected from the adult population. Macedonia is the least corrupted country in the region according to the report.

Bribery prevalence and purpose

Macedonia: 6.2 per cent of the adult population paid at least one bribe in the last 12 months. Speeding up official procedure was the main reason. 50 per cent of the bribes were paid for this.

Serbia: 9.3 per cent of the adult population paid at least one bribe in the last 12 months. 38 per cent of bribes were paid to Speed up procedure and 18 per cent to receive better treatment, mainly in public hospitals.

Montenegro: 9.7 per cent of the adult population paid at least one bribe in the last 12 months. Speeding up procedures 31.9%, receiving better treatment, 18% and avoiding fines, 17%, were the main reason for bribing officials.

Kosovo: 11.1 per cent of the adult population paid at least one bribe in the last 12 months.

Croatia: 11.2 per cent of the adult population paid at least one bribe in the last 12 months.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 20.7 per cent of the adult population paid at least one bribe in the last 12 months. Avoid fines was the main reason with 25 per cent.

Albania: 19.3 per cent of the adult population paid at least one bribe in the last 12 months. The majority of bribes were paid in public hospitals to receive better treatment. In 50 per cent of the cases the need to pay was after implicit request from the officials and 14.5 per cent the request was explicit.

For further information: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/corruption/Western_balkans_corruption_report_2011_web.pdf

- Albania sovereign bonds priced at 9.6 per cent

Yields on Albania’s euro denominated bonds jumped to 9.6 per cent during the last few months, the highest ever, reported this week Bloomberg.

“Yields on Albania’s 300 million euros ($409 million) of 7.5 percent bonds due in 2015 jumped 69 basis points, or 0.69 percentage point, in the past month to a record 9.6 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,” the agency said. Albania sold its ever sovereign bonds last October to pay for the Durres-Kukes highway that links Albania with Kosovo and is dubbed “The Road of the Nation” or “The Patriotic Highway”.

Xhentil Demiraj the country’s debt management director, said to daily “Shqip” in Tirana that the yield increase is not related to the economic development of Albania but is rather result of the increased risk related to the European debt crisis.

Albania doesn’t intend to issue new bonds in the near future and can wait up to 2015 to return to the international market.

Bloomberg, Shqip

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Disclaimer Notice

Weekly news report is a service of Albanianeconomy.com to offer a short review of the major events occurred during the week. It is published on Monday and includes the events occurred in the previous seven days. The main source of information is the local newspapers and televisions and AlbanianEconomy.com doesn’t verify the accuracy of the reports, so doesn’t bear responsibility on the veracity of the information reported.

You can send a request for this report by e-mail at gjerebara@albanianeconomy.com to receive it directly to your email address every Monday.

“In this visit, we will discuss different issues of our joint agenda and their perspective,” the Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a Press Release.

Mr. Lieberman is expected to meet the Prime Minister Sali Berisha, the President Bamir Topi and the Speaker of the Parliament Jozefina Topalli.
The Palestinian state is expected to apply for UN membership in the General Assembly in September.

Albania is the first country to recognize the Palestinian Authority as representative of Palestinian people in mid-70s. Albania had also recognized the existence of Western Sahara based on non-pragmatist Foreign Policy. Since 1989, the country had announced a pragmatism driven Foreign Policy. Albania withdrew its recognition for the Western Sahara in 2004.

Some Albanians activists had announced in different online media that intends to organize a protests in support of Palestinian bid for UN membership.

“Our protest is based in the universal right for existence. Based on such value, Albania had saved the Israelis during the Second World War and now it should support the Palestinian UN membership,” said Ervin Qafmolla one of the organizers.

Albania’s Central Electoral Commission has for the second time in as many months declared the ruling party candidate the winner of the hotly contested race for the Tirana mayoralty.

Besar Likmeta Tirana

With four votes in favour and two against, the commission declared Lulzim Basha the winner of the May 8 race for the capital’s mayoralty with a 93 vote advantage out of a quarter-million.
“I want to thank all the citizens who made their voices heard and waited patiently for the process to end,” the former interior minister said after the result was announced.
“The electoral process soon will end and the work to govern the city will begin,” Basha added.
The Tirana poll was considered the key battleground of the May 8 local elections, pitting Basha against the opposition leader and incumbent Tirana mayor, Edi Rama.
Despite Basha’s impatience to start work as the city’s next mayor, the Socialists are again contesting the commission’s ruling and on Sunday they warned that they will ask the Electoral College to annul the poll.
“The Socialist Party and the united opposition believe that the victory for the May 8 poll goes to Edi Rama,” Socialist MP Blendi Klosi said.
“Convinced that [Prime Minister] Sali Berisha and [commision head Arben] Ristani ruined this poll in order to hide their loss in Tirana and across the country, we will seek the invalidation of this electoral massacre,” Klosi added.
Within five days, the Socialists are expected to lodge a compliant with the Electoral College, a specialized court for election disputes.
The new complaint before the court would be the fourth after the election commission on May 23 initially declared Basha the winner, following a controversial recount of stray ballots.
The recount gave Basha a lead of 81 votes out of a quarter-million over Rama, who had a razor-thin margin of ten ballots in the unofficial preliminary results, before the stray ballots were added.
The dispute over the stray ballots occurred because some voters who had multiple ballots to put into designated boxes failed to do so correctly, partly because the ballot boxes were not clearly distinguished by colour.
On June 13 the Electoral College ruling annulled the election commission’s May 23 decision, which declared Basha the winner in Tirana. At the same time, it rejected the opposition challenge against the miscast ballots, which were deemed as valid.
Following the ruling, the court ordered a re-evaluation of contested ballots in 368 ballot boxes, whose results were added to the final tally, giving Basha a lead of 93 votes.
Earlier the Electoral College had rejected two other Socialist complaints about the procedure used by the election commission to include the miscast ballots in the final tally.
However the Socialists have contested the latest recount as well, pointing to problems in several ballots boxes, where security codes were different from those registered by counting centers or where paper ballots were found outside the various envelopes inside the ballot box.
The May 8 local elections were considered as key for the country’s EU future, following a two-year political crisis which has stopped the reform process dead in its tracks.
However, after a peaceful and quiet election day, the row over the miscast ballots has heightened the political climate once again, adding to Brussels’ doubts over the country’s EU future.
This article was made possible through the support of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Source: Balkaninsight

“The loan approval has been announced officially by Saudi ambassador in Albania Abdullah Abdulaziz AL-ABDULKARIM. The new loan will have 2 per cent interest rate and 25 years maturity where the first five years will be grace period,” the Ministry said in a press release.

Albania had already secured 220 million USD loan from the Islamic Bank for Development. Other loans are being negotiated currently with Abu Dhabi fund with the aim of providing 100 million USD financing facility and Opec Fund for 15-25 million USD.
The 40 KM highway will connect the capital city Tirana with Elbasan and is part of the TransEuropean Transport Network number 8.

Albania’s public debt is expected to jump to 62-63 per cent of the country’s GDP from bellow 60 per cent that is currently as result of this single project.

Gjergj Erebara Tirana
24 JUN 2011

“The flat tax can be raised to 12-15 per cent, [from the current 10 per cent] as a way to cut the deficit and the stock of public debt,” IMF representative Gerwin Bell said on Thursday in a joint press conference with Albania’s Minister of Finance Ridvan Bode and the Governor of Albania’s Central Bank, Ardian Fullani.

Fullani was also concerned about the country’s debt level and called on the centre-right government of Sali Berisha to increase structural economic reform in order to reinvigorate economic growth.

“Economic growth in the country had been financed in the last 20 years by raising debt, by immigrant remittances and by foreign direct investments,” he said. “Now we cannot increase the debt further and remittances are slowing and we need structural reforms to move forward,” Fullani added.

However, in contradiction to IMF and Bank recommendations to cut spending, the government plans to further increase its public debt from 60 per cent of GDP in 2010 to 62-63 per cent of GDP in 2013.

The new loans will finance a new highway linking Tirana with the industrial city of Elbasan and a new parliamentary complex in the capital.

Despite the IMF recommendations Finance Minister Bode remained adamant in support of the government’s expenditure plan questioning the Fund’s forecast of the country’s economic growth.

“Statistical models don’t always come true in the real world,” Bode said.

Besar Likmeta Tirana

The court ruled that Beqja had breached the constitution after his company, Intech Plus, won a tender to revamp the IT system of the city of Durres right after he was elected in June 2009.
Article 70 of the Albanian constitution says a lawmaker cannot benefit from public funds after being elected.

In October 2010, parliament voted by 70 votes in favour and 67 against to strip the Socialist MP of his mandate.

Beqja had contested the vote as a political attack by the ruling centre-right Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, arguing that he had yet to start work as a legislator when the tender was announced.

Beqja owns 51 per cent of shares in Intech Plus and the tender that he won from the municipality was worth €171.000.

Although Beqja has lost his mandate in parliament, the balance of political power in the assembly will not change.

This is because the opposition MP, according to the electoral code, will be replaced by the next candidate in line in the Socialist proportional list in the region of Shkodra, where he was elected in the 2009 parliamentary elections.

Source: Balkaninsight