Central Public Administration Authority at the Regional Level in Albania

The Albanian regional governance system is based on both decentralization and deconcentration, each of them aiming at bringing services close to the public. To make the multilevel governance system work, the prefect is a keystone of public administration at the regional level. The paper is an analytical study case on the prefect’s institution in Albania, focusing on the challenges that prefects face, particularly related to their functions in supervising local government units. We decided to adopt a problem-oriented approach. Instead of a comprehensive picture of prefects, we focus on identifying concrete challenges as they are perceived by different stakeholders, analyzing their causes and proposing concrete measures that can address both. More concretely, the analysis looked at various dimensions of the prefect system, from a systemic perspective, based on the assumption that the prefects’ performance depends not only on the legal framework and norms, but even more on adequate institutional set-up, procedures and relations, and behaviour and capacities of stakeholders. The prefects are acting in a political and administrative system which is subject to change. If policy decisions are taken to change the overall system (for example, by giving the central state or the municipalities more power and responsibilities), the prefects’ legal roles and responsibilities, procedures and capacity requirements will have to be adapted accordingly. However, we leave it to the competent political bodies to reflect and decide on changes to the overall system.