Territorial Reform/ Patos Mayor Opposes Merger with Fier: We Rank Among Albania’s Best Municipalities, There Is No Reason for Us to Lose Our Status

In a social media post, Patos Mayor Fation Duro opposed the new territorial reform proposed by the Socialist Party, which seeks to dissolve several municipalities and merge them with others.

He said that Patos is not a low-performing municipality.

He argued that the Commission’s final report does not portray Patos as a municipality that is unable to carry out its functions; rather, it ranks among Albania’s best municipalities.

Duro emphasized that Patos ranks 10th among the country’s 61 municipalities in the Municipal Functionality Index, with 71.7 points.

Duro also compared it with the other municipalities in Fier County, saying that the municipality proposed for dissolution performs better functionally than the municipality proposed to absorb it. In this context, the mayor asked: “What specific functional failure by Patos Municipality warrants the removal of its status when the Commission’s own official Index ranks it tenth nationwide and clearly above Fier Municipality, with which it would be merged?”

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Patos is not a low-performing municipality

The Commission’s final report does not portray Patos as a municipality that is unable to carry out its functions. On the contrary, according to the most important indicators, Patos ranks among Albania’s best municipalities.

Patos ranks tenth in Albania for functionality

The Municipal Functionality Index, MFI, assesses elements such as:

* fiscal autonomy;

* budget rigidity;

* coverage of functions;

* staff efficiency;

* arrears.

Patos scores 71,7 points and ranks tenth among 61 municipalities. The report considers any score above 65 points to be high.

The official argument for territorial consolidation is:

Small municipalities lack the administrative and financial capacity to perform their functions.

But in the case of Patos, the report’s own data show the opposite.

Comparison within Fier County

National ranking Municipality 2023 Population MFI

10 Patos 18.227 71,7

15 Roskovec 16.332 65,2

16 Lushnjë 63.135 65,0

23 Divjakë 24.882 59

32 Fier 101.963 55,4

40 Mallakastër 15.838 50,4

The data show that Patos has:

* 16,3 points more than Fier;

* better performance than every other municipality in the county;

* a high score at the national level as well.

Therefore, the municipality proposed for dissolution performs better functionally than the municipality proposed to absorb it and has better functional performance than all the other municipalities in Fier County.

What specific functional failure by Patos Municipality warrants the removal of its status when the Commission’s own official Index ranks it tenth nationwide and clearly above Fier Municipality, with which it would be merged?