REFRAMING SOCIAL POLICY: government ,’ accompanied by frequent wholesale personnel changes 82 . The lack of security occasioned some mirth – ‘We are always looking over our shoulder. We are trying to make alliances with militants from both parties so whomever wins can keep us employed’(in a half-joking way).’ and ­‘We had better get trained well on the unemployment scheme as we might be the next claimants very soon’ However, respondents recognised that the consequences went beyond the in­dividual. Institutions were also being undermined, – hence the impact was more serious. ‘We were losing human capital because they went and worked outside the Government or even left the country. Institutions had no stability; jobs were not secure in the public administration. Even worse, this led to lack of respect for the work and the institution’. ‘It is sad to say, but we civil servants hardly saw a vision or felt related in the long term with the institutions’ It is difficult to see how institutions can be vital actors in social policy in such an environment? I remember a situation when one of our leading specialists was fired- she took the office computer and all documents with her, leaving the office completely empty except for the desk and chair. She then left the country to work abroad…Now, yes, let’s talk about how we can develop social policy(sarcastic tone).’ Co-operation in Government ‘ One hits the nail, the other the horse shoe!’(Albanian expression) Given this, there is little surprise then to find a lack of co-ordination in Gov­ernment. Indeed, it was openly offered that inter-ministerial Co-operation has been almost non-existent(Group interview, Tirane 2002). This is something observed recently in another context(World Bank, 2006). Its origins lie a long way back – ‘There used to be a policy during the communist Government whereby each Ministry was ordered to send their monthly reports and data to the National Insti­tute of Statistics(INSTAT)...who would then put together all the data and feed it back to the Government. It was a very good policy: notwithstanding the control and manipulation of data, it still provided a framework. Whereas today, tell them (the officials in Ministries) as many times as you like, they don’t care to send any­82 Such as the notorious purging of‘Operation Broom.’ Of course, we should be mindful of the fact that too much security is not a good thing either. 208