How the PPA ignored investigations into concessions, Balluku blocked the filling of vacancies in the Agency

Journalists from the Vetting show on News24, referring to the Supreme Audit Office, have discovered that the Public Prosecution Agency has not investigated the concessions.

According to the report carried out by the Supreme State Audit Office at the Procurement Agency for the period 2021-2023, there are problems with the verification of concession contracts.

According to the SAI, the Public Procurement Agency has not conducted any administrative investigation into these concessions, has not replenished the staff for this sector and above all, there is no document for this agency to prove the reasons why these verifications were not carried out. The report reveals that the impasse has arisen as a result of the failure to submit documents to the Concession Handling Agency (ATRAKO) by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, which is headed by Belinda Balluku.

With the changes of 2021, the Public Procurement Agency, which has been headed by Reida Kashta for 7 years, has added the Sector for Monitoring Concessions and Procedures in the Field of Defense and Security. This sector conducts administrative investigations, by verifying the implementation of the legality of concessions and procurement procedures in the field of defense and security after the signing of the contract.

According to the report carried out by the Supreme State Audit Office at the Procurement Agency for the period 2021-2023, there are problems with the verification of concession contracts.

Specifically, in 2021, the contract for the concession of Vlora Airport was signed, for which verifications should have been made, even though it violated the 2-year deadline, which, under the previous law that was in force, this contract should have been verified.

In this regard, the Procurement Agency has stated that the matter has been referred to SPAK, but the auditors have stated that the PPA has not submitted any documentation to prove the causes.

But this is only from one of the concession contracts, as in 2022, 3 other contracts were signed, for which no verification was carried out by the Procurement Agency for the "Milot-Thumanë" road concession, the "Kashar-Pezë-Lekaj" road concession and the "Lekaj-Konjat-Fier" road concession.

According to lawyer Erjola Përlesi, one of the reasons we have so many violations in the tender process is related to the work of public institutions themselves, which do not conduct audits and do not report violations in tenders.

According to the SAI, the Public Procurement Agency has not conducted any administrative investigation into these concessions, has not replenished the staff for this sector and above all, there is no document for this agency to prove the reasons why these verifications were not carried out. The report reveals that the impasse has arisen as a result of the failure to submit documents to the Concession Handling Agency (ATRAKO) by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, which is headed by Belinda Balluku.

The audit even reveals that the Procurement Agency has not made any request to fill this staff, raising suspicions that the blocking of the verification of concession contracts was intentional.

In February 2024, Myzyri appeared at SPAK, where he stayed for about two hours, the reasons for which remain unclear in this case.

In this situation of irregularities with public procurement procedures, foreign investments remain at low levels. Thus, in 2023, out of 4007 procedures that were finalized with contracts, the number of foreign companies that were declared winners is only 18.

According to procurement expert Muharrem Çakaj, in the conditions when Albania seeks to be part of the European Union and seeks to open the market, this number is relatively small.

"This is an alarm bell that the procurement system in Albania is closed, the procurement system is controlled and here we have neither transparency nor competition," expert Çakaj told "Vetting".

According to the chairman of "Albania Becomes" Adriatik Lapaj, behind this whole situation of market closure there may be reasons related to the short political ties with the country's government, which in themselves may also be a cause for camouflaged corruption.

The facts reflected above show that in Albania, it has become common to violate all the rules for fair competition in all processes, especially in those related to public procurement. Each of the officials from the lowest levels of state administration to its top, is aware of his journey, of every cent that he has unfairly benefited to the detriment of public funds of the poorest country in Europe. BW