The reports by the Albanian news portal “Ora News” that the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Nazim Bushi allegedly paid 20,000 euros for one night for a super-luxury suite in a luxury hotel in Istanbul directly raised the issue of the financial power of certain officials. DUI, whose staff is Bushi, recently re-opened the topic of vetting officials and if he is so much in favor of it, those checks should start with the deputy minister.

Telma asked Bushy how he stayed at the hotel, and his response is that it was a private trip for health reasons, planned before he became deputy minister. He traveled to Turkey in October 2020, and became deputy minister on September 23 of the same year.

We were in Turkey for my nephew’s intervention at Koc Hospital. Several people stayed in the hotel suite, we were guests of two friends from Skopje, and I don’t know who paid the bill and how much the stay cost. But the sum of 20,000 euros is excessive, Bushi told Telma.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs claims that they did not pay for Bushi’s trip.

Maybe the ministry didn’t really pay the expenses, maybe the apartment didn’t cost a fantastic 20,000 euros. But that does not answer the questions.

The most important of them are: who are those two friends from Skopje who paid for the stay in the expensive hotel; whether because of this Deputy Minister Nazim Bushi can have a certain sense of obligation towards them in any situation and whether staying in such an expensive hotel does not violate his position in the Ministry of Interior, which he entered a few weeks later. And finally, how can Nazim Bushi stay in a super-luxury apartment without knowing who paid the bill. If he does not demand accountability for himself, how will he be able to demand it from others.

Nazim Bushi cannot be justified only by explaining that the overnight stay in the luxury apartment was paid for by “two friends from Skopje”, and DUI should also ask Bushi for answers about his friends before continuing to talk about the vetting of officials.

Who paid for the 20,000 euro overnight stay of Deputy Interior Minister Bushi in Istanbul?