Albania is burning! Only 23 municipalities have fire-prevention budgets

As fires this summer have scorched dozens of hectares of forests and pastureland across the country, causing damage estimated at billions of lek, municipalities and local government failed to invest or use even the limited funds at their disposal.

Official data from the Ministry of Finance show that only 23 municipalities budgeted funds for fire protection, totaling around 729.6 million lek this year.

Actual spending through the end of June amounted to just 75.7 million lek, representing an execution rate of only 10.4% of the programmed funds.

Of the 23 municipalities that had planned investments under the fire protection and civil protection program, only 11 had recorded spending by June, while the other 12 had yet to make any payments, according to official data.

The largest gap between planned funds and actual spending can be seen in the Municipality of Tirana. The capital had around 356.8 million lek programmed, or almost half of the total funds allocated by all 23 municipalities combined.

But by the end of June, Tirana’s actual spending amounted to just 164.9 thousand lek, bringing execution to around 0.05% of the total budget.

The Municipality of Durrës, the second among the larger municipalities in terms of programmed funds for this sector, also had a budget of around 104 million lek, but had not recorded any spending by June.

Tirana and Durrës alone account for more than 63% of all funds programmed by the 23 municipalities, while together they had spent only around 165 thousand lek by June. This has a significant impact on the low execution rate nationwide.

At the other end of the scale, Himara leads in terms of actual spending. The municipality had spent 46.8 million lek out of 143.8 million lek programmed, or around 32.5% of the funds.

Almost the entire amount spent by Himara was related to the purchase of a firefighting vehicle worth 46.8 million lek, a project that has been paid in full.

Himara is followed by Pustec, with around 10.8 million lek in spending out of 18.9 million lek planned. Most of this was related to the purchase of a vehicle for the Fire Protection Service.

Kukës had one of the highest execution rates. Of the 8.46 million lek programmed, around 8.44 million lek had been spent, or 99.7%. Around 7 million lek was used to purchase a firefighting vehicle.

Librazhd had also practically executed its entire fund of around 4.55 million lek, although most of it was related to civil protection interventions rather than directly to firefighting equipment.

In total, Himara, Pustec and Kukës alone account for around 87% of all actual spending recorded through June by the 23 municipalities.

Meanwhile, apart from Durrës, no spending had yet been recorded in municipalities such as Kavaja, Krujë, Vlora, Bulqizë, Malësia e Madhe, Gramsh, Pukë, Përrenjas, Këlcyre and Dropull, despite having funds budgeted for this program.

The data refer to the situation through the end of June 2026, meaning they show execution progress during the first half of the year rather than the final result of annual spending./ Monitor