Municipalities realize only 17% of the investment program, led by Durrës and Tirana

Realization of capital investments according to the program is facing difficulties both in the central and local governments.

According to data from the Ministry of Finance, in the first six months of the year, the local government had realized only 17% of the annual public investment program.

Of the 41 billion ALL that is the budget of the local government for investments in 2024, only 7.2 billion ALL or 17% of the program were realized in the first six months.

The Municipality of Tirana, which dominates the investment program with 15 billion ALL planned, has realized only 2 billion ALL in the first 6 months or only 12.9 percent of the annual plan.

According to official data, the Municipality of Durrës made about 900 million ALL of investments in the first 6 months of the year, or about 25% of the annual plan.

The largest investment by the municipalities in the first half of the year is the post-earthquake reconstruction projects in the Municipality of Durrës with around ALL 528 million.

The second largest project is the construction of general secondary education schools in Tirana with 211 million ALL.

The third largest project is the rehabilitation of the rural road network in Lezha Municipality with 159 million ALL.

The fourth largest project is the reconstruction of schools in Kamze Municipality with about 138 million ALL.

Last year, the local government failed to realize public investments. The official data of the Ministry of Finance show that only 45 percent of the programmed total of 48 billion lek (460 million euro) of capital investments have been invested, a value of 26 billion lek (252 million euro).

Of the 5,228 projects in total that were programmed to be financed by 2023, less than half, or only 2,546 projects, are 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.

On the other hand, tourism, which is serving as an incentive for the development of rural areas, cannot be connected to these communities due to the lack of basic infrastructure.

The popular mountain tourism areas suffer from regular energy supply, while the beauty of the country's rural areas cannot be transformed into economic benefits due to the lack of infrastructure.

Previous inspections by the High State Control have found that municipalities suffer from poor management of procurement laws. Almost all procurements are irregular, exposing taxes to large wastes./ MONITOR