The local government needs infrastructure, especially to connect rural areas with urban centers, but the Albanian municipalities are failing to fulfill their budget commitments for investments.

The Ministry of Finance has reported that during the first nine months of 2024, the municipalities spent Lek 12 billion on capital investments out of the Lek 46 billion in the annual fund. For this nine-month period, only 26% of the annual plan was allocated, and in the last three months, 74% of the investment fund was available.

The situation with the realization of investments is worse than a year ago. In 2024, the share of investment expenses in the total local budget significantly decreased to 17.8%, from 23% in the same period of 2023.

During the 9-month period of 2024, according to the economic nature, the municipalities have used about half of the expenses for personnel Salaries and Insurance 49.5%, increasing the weight of these expenses compared to the same period a year ago as a result of the increase in salaries in the month July. The general expenses of the municipalities have maintained a normal trend, but the structure of the expenses has further deteriorated, the expenses for investments and those for personnel have increased.

The capital's municipality has the largest share of local government expenses. The Municipality of Tirana has spent Lek 15.3 billion or about 31.6% of the total expenses of the local government in nine months. In the total of its expenses for the 9-month period, Tirana Municipality spent 40% on personnel (salaries and insurance), 35% on operating expenses, 17% on capital investments, and 8% on other expenses.

The other 60 municipalities taken together have spent about Lek 33.2 billion or 68.4% of the total local government expenditures at the national level for the 9 months of 2024.

This group of municipalities has a large share of personnel expenses, resulting on average during this period with about 54% of total expenses, operating expenses, at 24%, and then investment expenses at 18%.

During the year 2023, the data on municipal investments show that, out of the programmed total of Lek 48 billion budget (Euro 460 million), only 45% was used, a value of Lek 26 billion (Euro 252 million). Of the total of 5,228 projects scheduled to be financed in 2023, less than half, or only 2,546 projects, have been financed.

At a time when municipal funds remain unrealized, entire rural regions across the country are being depopulated, as a result of a lack of infrastructure, roads, health, and schools.