The government executes the municipalities

By BETI NJUMA 

Today, on a scorching blackout day where the eyes and the mind are chasing after a ball, the last amendments of VKM NO. 408, DATED 13.5.2015, OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS "FOR THE APPROVAL OF THE TERRITORY DEVELOPMENT REGULATION" have entered into force. .

It is the decision that ultimately kills the country's municipalities, local decision-making and autonomy, and the vision of local elected officials. It's the decision that will also kill architects and all the new generations of designers coming out of universities. 

From today, with the amendments of VKM 408, in Article 19 "Construction permits for which KKTU is responsible": 

- to the letter "ë" of point 1, i.e. the competences of KKTU for approval of permits are added to the others and the objects as follows:  

 "multifunctional construction complex, tourist complex, over 5000 m3". 

 This is SCREAMING. So all municipalities from now on will issue construction permits ONLY for buildings up to 5000 m3, as far as is possible, a 5-story building and 300 m2 building area. More precisely, almost as much as the 5-story buildings built before the 90s. 

With this change, permits larger than this volume will be concentrated only in the hands of one man, Prime Minister Edi Rama So, our Prime Minister, in addition to politics, international engagements, painting, sculpture and podcasts, has also opened a new work front for himself, that of the examiner and approver of any architectural project in the country larger than a 5-story building, leaving the 61 municipalities in the country with their fingers in their mouths!

From today, the mayors will no longer have any competence for important construction permits. Municipalities are thus only transformed into tax collection institutions that will grant permits of the third category, for warehouses and floor extensions. 

Where did local autonomy go? What about the visions of the Municipalities for the development of the cities where they were voted? With these changes, the work of 61 municipalities will now be done by AZHT and KKTU. Which means hundreds of qualified, non-partisan staff will be needed to do the work of current municipal officials. Paradoxically, now that the work and powers of the municipal administration are reduced, the government is raising salaries by unifying them, from Vermoshi to Konispol. 

Neither more nor less DICTATORSHIP! 

Second, thanks to the new changes that came into effect today, the next decision that returns us to communism is the construction of TIP housing in rural areas. "TIP project" means the projects designed and approved by the relevant local authority for housing and residential purposes in rural areas, in accordance with the planning documents in force." This article violates the right of every individual who lives in rural areas to have the house he wants, of course by following the law. On the other hand, this decision excludes many old and new architects, who are denied the right to practice their profession privately. It is beyond any logic that in 2024 with your money and on your land, (since these are not social housing that the state will forgive) to build an object designed for everyone the same. Class struggle in democracy. 

After increasing the tax on free professions, including architects, now the government is putting them out of work, while designers have been waiting for years for the easing of procedures and deadlines for granting construction permits, the removal of realtors and corruption.

What makes this VKM even more painful is that the murderous changes passed silently without anyone's opposition. The mayors were silent, submitting in the most amateurish way possible. The mayors of the opposition did not react either. If they were informed then this is disability. If they were not informed, then this is illegal and abusive. Interest groups, architects and urban planners who in all normal countries are called to protect and design the future are also silent.

In Albania, these categories are either not interested in helping this country, which is heading towards destruction in many areas, or they line up with their heads high and without blushing at the side of the government. And there was no way it could happen otherwise in this case too!

The specialists in the field, the architecture pedagogues and the non-existent association of architects are silent. Those who should have been the first to raise their voice, to oppose and inform the public opinion, forgetting that they are the first to suffer from this next VKM.