E fundit!

22:50 CRIME

Wanted for favoring illegal construction. Former Saranda police chief surrenders

This evening, former police chief Irakli Koçiaj, who has b...

Census data/ Call of Klodian Tomorri: To be investigated INSTAT

2024-01-24 13:11:00, Aktualitet Klodian Tomorri

Klodian Tomorri

Even though the work on collecting data for the Population and Housing Census has been completed, INSTAT has not published the figures.

A few days ago, the director of INSTAT, Elsa Dhuli, in an appearance for the media, said that the data will be published in December, 9 months late.

In relation to this situation, there was also a reaction from journalist Klodian Tomorri, who called for INSTAT to be investigated, so that the Census is not distorted.

"Albanians know that their government does not have a very friendly relationship with the truth and the integrity of digital data, from the rape of TIMS to the release of sensitive data of citizens in the bazaar. So that the Census does not is distorted, someone should put INSTAT under investigation. The manipulation of official statistics is a very serious crime. And the suspicions are strong", says Tomorri.

Full text:

In 2011, the Institute of Statistics carried out the time census. Field work for data collection was carried out during the month of October 2011, in the interval from October 1 to 30, in the same period as other European countries.

At that time, Albania was more underdeveloped than today, while the technology was more backward. Data were collected by letter through door-to-door interviewing. INSTAT engaged over 15,000 employees for the Census, of which 12,500 were surveyors in the field, who collected data door-to-door in 740,000 households.

However, less than two months after the end of data collection on the ground, on December 21, 2011, INSTAT presented to the public the preliminary results of the census, based on an incomplete calculation of individuals, Household Economic Units, dwellings and buildings enumerated.

The next census in Albania was scheduled for 2020. But INSTAT and the government postponed it by 3 years for some of the strangest reasons. Anyway, field work started in October 2023. But this time the infrastructure was much more modernized than 12 years ago. Data was not collected on paper, but digitally.

The Institute of Statistics contracted over 8,000 tablets for surveyors in the field at a total cost of 1.6 million euros without value added tax. Added to these are other operating costs, bringing the total budget spent on the census to around 15 million euros.

Second, the Geographic Information System today is much more modern than 12 years ago. However, although with a larger budget, although with a totally digitized infrastructure, INSTAT does not report the data.

Theoretically, the main data of the Census, such as the number of the population, that of housing as well as some other indicators should have been ready for reporting at the moment of the completion of data collection in the field. This is because unlike 12 years ago, INSTAT did not have to scan over 2 million questionnaires.

Postponing the publication of the Census results to June of this year is methodologically and procedurally unreasonable. If in 2011, the main results were announced in less than 2 months, no one can find logic why in 2023 it takes 9 months.

At this point, anyone has the right to suspect that the government and INSTAT are getting their hands on the data. Sali Berisha, who is here on his favorite ground, declares that the census has shown that there are less than 1.5 million inhabitants left in Albania, which means that in a decade the resident population of Albania has shrunk by 47.7 percent. .

We will never know if this is true. But we know another truth. As of now, the results of the Census are biased. Not because of the accusations that the Doctor knows how to throw in bulk, but because of INSTAT himself and his actions.

Albanians know that their government does not have a very friendly relationship with the truth and the integrity of digital data, from the rape of TIMS to the release of sensitive data of citizens in the bazaar. So that the Census is not distorted, someone should investigate INSTAT. Manipulation of official statistics is a very serious crime. And the doubts are strong./CNA