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Numerous questions about the Saranda prosecutor's asset declaration...
One of the well-known public figures of justice in the south of the country, prosecutor Esmeranda Basho, often presented in public as a tough voice against violations and an unwavering figure of the law, appears financially naked from her official data declared to the High Inspectorate of Asset Declaration and Control (ILDKPI).
A simple analysis of the documents submitted by her for the period 2019–2023 sheds light on a series of serious legal violations, ranging from false declarations, failure to justify income, concealment of financial sources, to serious suspicions of obtaining assets through corruption or abuse of office.
In the 2022 declaration, Ms. Basho reports that she received 123,415 lek on 07.01.2022, as well as a considerable amount of 740,490 lek during the period January 1 - July 1, 2022. In total, 863,905 lek listed under the "other income" heading. Up to this point, everything might seem in order, if this income were accompanied by the exact source of profit and the relevant documentation. But they are not. No concrete reference, no contract, no supporting document, no public explanation. The lack of these elements constitutes not only a violation of the legal obligation for transparency, but is a sufficient element to open a criminal investigation for a suspicious source of income, as provided for by the law and the Criminal Code.
In the same statement and in subsequent ones, Basho claims that since August 3, 2019, he has been involved in the activity of renting out an apartment, where the monthly amount he reports is… 20,000 lek. This amount, in the conditions of the free market in the city of Saranda, especially during the tourist season, is simply absurd. In a city where a night during July or August costs over 20,000 lek, Basho declares that he rents out the entire apartment for a month or so. For four years in a row. Without indexation, without a rental contract document, without documentation of payments, and above all: without mandatory tax payments as a subject of rental income.
The situation becomes even more serious with the declaration of 2023. According to the data submitted to the ILDKPI, Basho has acquired an apartment with an area of 86 m² in Saranda, but declares it with the contradictory status of "asset in use". This unclear and unusual phrase raises a number of questions: if the apartment is an "asset", that is, her property, why has the financial source of its purchase not been declared, at a time when the minimum market price for such an apartment in Saranda is 129,000 euros (about 13.5 million lek)?
If Basho is using it as a loan or a gift from a third party, then it should have been declared as a benefit of a gift or a loan, and not as an "asset". If she pays rent, where are the contracts and the relevant payments? If she does not pay, why did she not register it as a benefit from third parties, as required by the law on real estate? All this suggests that the prosecutor may be the de facto owner of the apartment, but has deliberately avoided full declaration in order to hide the real estate and its source of creation, thereby escaping in-depth auditing and financial control.
According to the Law on Tax Procedures in the Republic of Albania, the use of immovable property without a registered lease contract and without accurate declaration to the tax authorities constitutes a violation of fiscal rules and seriously undermines the functioning of the tax system. In this specific case, the self-declaration by the prosecutor as a “user” of an apartment, without clarifying the legal relationship of use and without paying the relevant income tax in the case of a rental use, creates a dangerous precedent that not only damages the state budget, but also inspires citizens and other individuals to avoid withholding tax, thereby promoting informality and chaos in the fiscal system. This action contradicts the spirit of the law and the standards of a responsible and honest administration.
At this point, any logical and legal analysis leads to the conclusion that we are dealing with false declaration of annual income, concealment of assets. We are dealing with a discrepancy between declared income and acquired assets, concealment of the source of real estate assets. Suspicions of the possibility of obtaining assets through corruption, bribery or illegal influence.
A figure representing the law cannot and should not be above the law. Citizens are punished for not paying an energy bill or for delaying a document. In this case, we have a representative of the prosecution who benefits from unjustified income, uses apartments that are not clearly declared, and avoids legal and tax obligations.
The question is also about a number of institutions and whether there will be a real investigation by the ILDKPI? Will SPAK intervene to analyze the financial resources of prosecutor Basho and decide whether we are dealing with money laundering, false declarations or corruption? Or will the case be closed with some "formal clarification" and be hushed up like many others?
With these actions, is prosecutor Esmeranda Basho an example of public honesty, or another face of the justice system that manipulates the system from within, for personal gain? In a country that claims to be on the path of justice reform, these are not just personal issues of a prosecutor, but issues of public order and citizens' trust in the judicial system. / In-Front
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