Court Orders Treasury to Process GJKKO Payrolls; Rama Says Parliament Will Act on 17 September

The Newsroom

The Tirana Administrative Court of First Instance on 11 September ordered the Ministry of Finance and the Tirana Treasury branch to resume processing payment orders and payrolls submitted by the Special Court against Corruption and Organised Crime (GJKKO).

The interim measure suspends the Ministry act and the Treasury actions that had blocked the payments. It is immediately enforceable and allows recourse to state or private bailiffs if the order is not carried out. It may be appealed to the Administrative Court of Appeal within five days of notification.

The case was brought the same day by the GJKKO Appeal Court, represented by vice-president Dhimitër Lara, against the Ministry and the Tirana Treasury branch, with the State Advocate and the High Judicial Council (KLGJ) as third parties. The suit asks for the annulment of Ministry letter no. 14110 of 2 September, which suspended payment orders 190 to 196, and for the payrolls to be executed on the basis of KLGJ decision no. 435 and the court’s Order no. 73, without requiring a return to the July salary parameters. A parallel request was filed by the Durrës District Court; several outlets reported that it too was granted on 11 September.

Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted on X that evening. If the Administrative Court showed every citizen and institution “the speed of hell” with which it had acted “to open the doors of the treasury for the raising of its own salaries without parliament’s approval”, he wrote, every employed Albanian would forgive it half a salary.

He called it “deeply disturbing” that the court had granted “in the blink of an eye” a security measure designed not to stop an act but to advance the execution of one “that likely violates the law and the public interest”, while thousands of cases remain pending before the same court.

“The doors of the state treasury are opened only by the independent legislative power,” Rama wrote, adding that the Assembly would act on the Constitutional Court judgment on 17 September.

The figures at the centre of the dispute were published on 10 September by Finance Minister Petrit Malaj and reposted by Rama as a table with his message. They compare gross monthly salaries at 15 years’ seniority under the previous reference and under the reference set by the KLGJ and KLP in August, across four categories of magistrate, with each increase amounting to about 51 per cent.

Malaj put the annual cost of the increase at about €40 million and the cost of the 2023–2026 adjustment at about €125 million. He said the Ministry had refused to “open the doors of the state treasury” without a decision by parliament and said the matter would be addressed on 17 September.

Also on 11 September, Socialist MP Erion Braçe told Report TV that the criminal complaint filed against Malaj amounted, “at a minimum”, to taking justice into one’s own hands when the Constitutional Court had assigned parliament the task of determining the salaries.

Braçe said parliament “should have taken a decision by 31 July” and that, although he had “great reservations about the logic the Constitutional Court used”, its judgment had to be implemented. He praised High Court chair Sokol Sadushi for convening the General Meeting of Judges, saying this had put the dispute “on a legal and constitutional track”, while another part of the judiciary had gone to SPAK. Braçe also said the Ministry had told him the courts submitted administrative staff on the same payroll lists as magistrates and refused to separate them when asked.

The criminal complaint, dated 8 September and made public on 10 September, was filed by court authorising officers and the heads of the judges’ and prosecutors’ associations against Malaj, Ministry Secretary General Gentian Këri and district Treasury heads. It alleges abuse of office, obstruction of the execution of court decisions and unjustified non-execution.

The Treasury block began on 2 September, after KLGJ decision 435 of 26 August and KLP decision 144 of 28 August established a reference salary of 222,425 lekë plus a 14,000-lekë qualification supplement from 1 August. The Assembly had missed the 31 July deadline set in Constitutional Court judgment 15/2026.

Court administrations in Tirana, Vlora, Fier and Lushnje have boycotted work since 8 September. On 10 September, the General Meeting of Judges convened by Sadushi declared the Constitutional Court judgment final and binding and called for the immediate unblocking of salaries.

Illustration: English rendering of the table Prime Minister Edi Rama posted on X on 11 September 2026, based on figures published by the Ministry of Finance on 10 September. Headed “Current salaries and requested salaries” in the original; gross monthly figures assuming 15 years’ seniority.