"The curse of being poor"/ The small municipalities of the North suffer from a lack of funds

2024-11-19 08:23:00, Ekonomi CNA

"The curse of being poor"/ The small municipalities of the North

The curse of being poor is haunting the small municipalities of the North, which are suffering rapid depopulation, lack of infrastructure and sufficient resources to develop living standards.

Next year, the state budget will allocate 42 billion lek (420 million euros) of funds in the form of unconditional transfer to local government units, with an increase of almost 17% more than last year.

Comparing the transfer level for each municipality, it can be seen that those in the North (except Kukës) have an increase in funding less than the national average.

According to the data processing by the Ministry of Finance in 2025, the municipalities of Devolli, Vora, Dimal, Saranda, Roskovec, Konispoli, Finiq, Belsh and Dropulli will receive from the unconditional transfer 22-24% more funds than last year (see chart below).

On the other hand, the municipalities of Malësi e Madhe, Shkodra, Vlora, Tropoja, Divjaka, Maliqi, Dibra have increased budgets from transfers by less than 14%. Shkodra and Malësia e Madhe have the lowest growth.

Except for Kamza and Kukës, all municipalities of the North have increased funds less than the national average.

The Ministry of Finance in relation to the 2025 draft budget pointed out that the allocation of funds in the unconditional transfer took into consideration the data of the 2023 census. In the municipalities that would have a large decrease in population, the increase in funds would be lower.

Other studies have shown that the reduction in the population of the Northern municipalities came from the high level of poverty and limited livelihood resources, especially for young people. Thus, the population-funding ratio from the budget has entered a vicious circle. People are displaced from poor municipalities, while the government reduces resources further as there are fewer people.

According to Cens 2023 data, Shkodra Municipality had the largest population reduction compared to the others.

The breakdown of the transfer by value shows that the municipality of Tirana receives the largest funding from the budget with about 6.1 billion lek next year or 16.8 percent more than in 2024. The transfer to the municipality of Tirana accounts for 14.4% of the total fund of calculated for the coming year.

Municipalities suffer from a lack of funds to develop local plans, but on the other hand, they do not have the capacity to manage them, since in 2023 most of them "burned" the funds for public investments./Monitor/