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Millions of euros wasted, Albanian institutions bear no responsibility for Tirana's sewage plant

Politiko 2024-11-08 22:42:26

Millions of euros wasted, Albanian institutions bear no responsibility for

Tirana is the only capital in Europe where sewage flows in the middle of it, in the Lana river. This situation is worrying every day for the residents, who will have to endure the unpleasant smell when they walk along the river that runs through most of the capital. However, the nuisance created by the bad smell is a secondary problem, if we were to weigh the risk that sewage presents to the health of the population and the spread of infectious diseases. But until today the Albanian institutions have not taken care of this part at all and the sewage continues to flow in the middle of Tirana.

To change this scandalous situation, which has lasted for several decades, what our authorities did not do, the Japanese government would do, which since 2008 offered to give help through a soft loan to first treat the sewage before to be poured into the river of Lana. This project would serve 350,000 residents of the capital, a number that has doubled today. Until the agreement between the Albanian and Japanese states was ratified and after several years of tendering procedures, in 2014 the works for the construction of the plant started. The winner was the merger of the Japanese company "Kubota Corporation" and the Italian company "Costruzioni Dondi" for a contract value of 81 million euros. If all had gone well, two years later, the plant would have been completed and the Lana would have been a clean river.

But the companies began to have delays with the implementation of the project, because the process of land expropriation was slow, a task that the public authorities have in the contract and in the law. "Dondi & Kubota" asked to postpone the deadline for the works by one year, the request was accepted by the minister at that time, Edmond Haxhinasto, and after a second request for more time, it was rejected by the minister who followed the direction of infrastructure, Damian Gjinkuri .

He even went further by terminating the contract with the "Dondi & Kubota" firms, citing the delay in the works, findings that came out after an internal audit in the ministry and from which three former officials from the ranks of the LSI were criminally charged. for abuse of office, the former director of the National Water and Sewerage Agency and two former coordinators. But on 27.06.2018, the prosecutor's office of Tirana requested the suspension of the criminal proceedings, without an author. And actually not in vain, because the problem did not lie with the predecessors of the Ministry of Infrastructure, but with those who decided to terminate the contract with the two foreign firms.

In an audit carried out by the High State Control in October 2019, at the National Water and Sewerage Agency, it was found that the union of operators "Dondi & Kubota" had carried out 70% of the works worth 56 million euros until the moment of the interruption of the contract for the project "Improvement of the sewage system of Greater Tirana". There were two main findings of the HSC: the Albanian institutions terminated the contract without first obtaining the approval of the financier, the JICA agency, as was signed in the agreement, and the suggestions of the Disputes Council were not taken into account, which argued that delays in the progress of the project they were caused by problems with expropriations, the liquidation of taxes, and the slow approval of permits for works.

But in addition to the work being left in the middle, the two companies have turned to the International Court of Arbitration in the Chamber of London and demand 90 million euros in compensation from the Albanian state. And in order not to go to this point, the High State Control asked the Albanian institutions to do their best to find the language of cooperation and re-connect the contract in order to stop the judicial process in arbitration.

But none of these recommendations have been taken into account and no one knows exactly what will be done with the sewage treatment plant.

6 years have passed since the contract was terminated and the site is closed. The only answer that the authorities give is the interruption of the works due to the breach of the contract and that all the necessary measures have been taken for the preservation and maintenance of the works built in order to preserve them.

But in fact the reality is completely different, because the sewage treatment plant is left to the mercy of fate. This was confirmed for "Piranjat" by the guards who work there every day, who said that the plant has already been amortized. The same thing was written in the 2019 report by the High State Control.

Meanwhile, in 2023 with decision no. 760 of the Council of Ministers, the funds that had remained undisbursed from the financing line and which constitute about 23% of the value of the loan became effective.

This means that the part of the loan that has not yet been used for the realization of the project has already been transferred to the account of the Albanian state. Thus, logically a new company should have been contracted to restart the works, but so far no one has put the water on fire. Even the director of the National Water and Sewerage Agency, Klevis Jahaj, who is responsible for the follow-up of this project, avoided the "Piranhas" at every moment and did not give any comment on what will happen to the sewage treatment plant. TV eye