Pamela Qirko, Belinda Balluku’s sister, is expected to be appointed Deputy General Director of the Deposit Insurance Agency (ASD), despite not having any experience in the financial sector.
According to Monitor, the ASD Steering Council is expected to approve this month the appointment of Pamela Qirko to the position of deputy general director, following the proposal by the institution’s new director, Mina Kusta.
Pamela Qirko is a lawyer and from 2017 to 2023 she was a member and then chair of the Independent Qualification Commission (IKC), the key institution in the vetting process of judges and prosecutors. After the end of her mandate, she attempted to be appointed as a judge at the Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction in Tirana, but her request was rejected this month.
Her CV does not show any experience in the banking or financial sector, however, this does not seem to have prevented her advancement to a management position in the institution that administers the bank deposit insurance scheme in the country.
Her appointment comes at a time when her sister, Belinda Balluku, continues to be the subject of ongoing accusations of corruption, abuse of public tenders and favoritism in infrastructure contracts, but has been defended by Edi Rama, who has blocked the warrant for her arrest.
In such a situation, it seems that Balluku is not stopping and is also installing her sister in another important state position as part of a model of rewarding and recycling people close to power.