Fear of SPAK, officials hesitate to sign the tenders?!

In 2024, 135 billion lek (1.3 billion euro) are scheduled to be invested, the highest historical level since 1990, but in the first two months of this year, only 0.9 billion lek (8.8 million euro) have been disbursed ) which constitute only 0.6% of the annual budget.

Lawyers at public entities claimed that SPAK's recent arrests at senior management levels have increased fear among current officials, who are not signing off as readily as before.

Daily data from the treasury show that the main payments are for salaries, pensions and local government, while the largest payments have been made so far to the Llogora tunnel and major investments in road infrastructure.

But in the meantime tenders with average and smaller values, which seem to be even more manipulable, are not being developed. Over the years, a narrow group of companies has been created that receive tenders in certain sectors of the administration.

However, the disposal of the firm has become more difficult, leaving many public sectors in operational difficulties.

In the annual report for 2023, SPAK evidenced that corruption in the public administration is quite widespread in PPP procurements and concessions.

The scheme of laundering corruption money, according to the SPAK report, is quite complex, since in the case of the violation of the equality of public tenders, its purpose is not only to create a fictitious scheme among high public officials to hide corrupt acts, but, above all, it also serves as a scheme for cleaning the proceeds of criminal offences.

According to SPAK, the public functionary first agrees with different legal entities, which will be included in the scheme to realize the formal side and to benefit from public funds contrary to the law.

Then, these funds are transferred in the form of payments to commercial companies, which are related to the high public functionary and other persons involved in this corrupt scheme.

These funds, from the accounts of the companies, are then transferred to other accounts inside and outside the country, being invested in movable or immovable assets.

The tendency is for the presentation of the money laundering scheme to be organized in such a way that the multitude of legal actions and financial transactions carried out by the legal entities benefiting from these funds appear to be legal actions.

These financial actions are fragmented into dozens of transactions in the form of payments to companies, which are subcontracted to perform various works according to their specialty.

“Në fakt, në disa raste, kompanitë e nënkontraktuara janë pjesë e së njëjtës skemë dhe kontrollohen nga të njëjtët individë, që kanë organizuar këtë skemë korruptive. Kompanitë nënkontraktuese themelohen dhe drejtohen nga persona, që janë të afërm ose persona të besuar të atyre që i drejtojnë këto skema korruptive”, njoftoi SPAK.

Pasi fondet kalojnë në kompanitë nënkontraktore, ato transferohen jashtë vendit ose investohen në pasuri të tjera nën emra fiktivë, por, të cilat shfrytëzohen nga zyrtarët e korruptuar, ose të afërm të tyre.

Kryesisht, si ndërmjetës është një funksionar tjetër publik, i cili ka të dhëna mbi kriteret e fondit publik të çelur.

Ky i fundit ndërmjetëson me personin juridik fitues të tenderit publik. Të gjithë personat e përfshirë si ndërmjetës veprojnë së pari, për të mbuluar natyrën e vërtetë të veprimit të paligjshëm, dhe së dyti, për përftim material, por dhe përfitim në formë dhënie aksesi të paligjshëm në fonde të tjera publike.

KLSH gjen një “mal” me probleme tek investimet publike

Në vitin 2022, përfundoi investimi i godinës së Pediatrisë infektive në QSUT, në vlerën 26 milionë lekë, por Kontrolli i Lartë i Shtetit, që ka verifikuar projektin, është shprehur se nuk është arritur zgjidhja e qëndrueshmërisë së godinës me rrezik të lartë në rast tërmeti.

Gjithashtu në një tender tjetër, KLSH gjeti se, zhvillimi i procedurës së prokurimit ishte bërë me negocim pa shpallje paraprake të njoftimit të kontratës me objekt “Mirëmbajtje e pajisjeve mjekësore për përballimin e nevojave ekstreme.

Në të gjitha procedurat e prokurimit për periudhën objekt auditimi, për mirëmbajtjen e pajisjeve mjekësore, blerjen e pajisjeve mjekësore dhe barnave, është vendosur kriteri favorizues i kualifikimit: autorizim nga prodhuesi.

Kontrolli i Lartë i Shtetit njoftoi Kuvendin nëpërmjet raportit vjetor 2023 se në procesin e planifikimit buxhetor nuk respektohen afatet në përgatitjen dhe nxjerrjen e akteve nënligjore lidhur me kalendarin e menaxhimit të shpenzimeve publike.

Në vitin 2022 janë konstatuar 29 raste, ku projektet e investimit 2-3-vjeçare të miratuara për Projektbuxhetin Afatmesëm (PBA) 2021-2023, nuk reflektohen në PBA 2022-2024, ose reflektohen me vlera konsiderueshëm më të ulëta, me qëllim ruajtjen e tavaneve të miratuara dhe alokimin e fondeve për projekte të reja.

Janë gjetur 16 raste, ku projektet e investimit miratohen fillimisht në PBA 2021-2023, si projekte të reja me vlerë të ulët dhe më pas rriten në PBA 2022-2024 me vlerë të konsiderueshme.

Sipas KLSH-së, buxheti është ndryshuar me akte normative para muajit korrik, në mungesë të dokumentacionit bazë dhe atij shoqërues, i cili kërkohet nga Ligji organik i buxhetit, si në rastin e projektbuxhetit vjetor, si dhe pa respektuar afatet përkatëse.

Gjithashtu, KLSH vëren se gjatë raportimit dhe monitorimit të buxhetit: janë konstatuar problematika në kryerjen e shpenzimeve korrente, sipas kodeve të produkteve buxhetore, ndryshime midis objektivave të produkteve të buxhetit.

Problems have been identified in the detailing of public investment projects by normative act. "Investment projects with the description 'Frozen Fund' are identified, details of funds without a specific project in the initial opening" says KLSH.

Also, in recent years, there is a low trend in the value of capital investments made with foreign sources of financing, highlighting the lack of an active role of the Ministry of Finance and public institutions benefiting from these financings, as well as the lack of an analysis deeper into the implementation of projects, to determine where and if improvements can be made, especially in relation to their implementation and monitoring.

The concentration of investment payments increases in December, indicating mismanagement

The country's public finances have suffered from the concentration of investment payments at the end of the year, but this trend in recent years has been further strengthened after 2014 (see chart: total annual plan for capital investments, annual fund and realizations by December) .

For example, in 2001, the amount of public investments in total was 43 billion ALL, where about 20% of them were paid in December. During the years 2005-2008 there was a high concentration of public investments in December, which reached from 40-50% of the total investment funds.

This trend calmed down after the completion of the works on the National Road from 2008-2012, but started the upward trend after 2014 and especially after the pandemic, in 2020.

The Albanian government is taking out a World Bank loan of about 87 million euros for the "Development of Public Finances", which was intended to increase the effectiveness of budget management in the field of the budget, but the issue of investments remains a hot point that seems to have worsened further.

Official data refer that in 2014, about 28% of the public investment fund was allocated in December, from 12% that was this indicator in 2013.

Nearly a quarter of public investment was released during December between 2015-2020, but in 2022 about 43% of investment funds were allocated in December and in 2023, nearly 38% of funds were concentrated in December. This trend seems to be the same this year as well, since in the first two months of 2024, capital investment funds from domestic funds were almost zero.

The High State Control informed the Assembly of Albania these days that the investments with internal sources of financing are realized mainly in the months of November and December, affecting their performance.

"Problems have been found in the detailing of public investment projects with a normative act, without passing to the PBA 2022-2024, as well as the reduction of investment funds at the time of the conclusion of the contract and the reallocation of these funds to other public investment projects with obligations backlogged, or in process from previous years", - notes the High State Control./ Monitor