A few days ago, 60 students of the Rifat Manjani high school in Shupenza, Bulqiza had to be admitted to the hospital after a non-functional heating system channeled its fumes directly into the classroom, suffocating the students.
10 of the students experienced serious health issues while a teacher and a student were transported to Tirana to receive additional medical care.
Controls of the heating system after the incident showed that the system had never been tested. If it had been switched on only once, it would have been clear that the tubes on the stove had been connected in the wrong way, channeling the smoke into the school rather than outside of it.
The two tenders for the Rifat Manjani high school
In August 2016, the Municipality of Bulqiza opened a tender for the renovation of two schools in the village of Shupenza, one of which was the Rifat Manjani high school. The renovations included a new heating system and had a maximum budget of about €355,000.
Seven companies took part in the public procurement procedure, but as has become standard, six of them failed to send in a complete offer, thus becoming disqualified. This made Ndregjoni shpk the winner by default, even though the company had presented the second highest bid.
A second tender was opened for the supervision of the project, at a sum of about €13,000, but apparently neither of the two winning companies was able to notice that the tubing had been installed incorrectly, or run the obligatory test of the system.
In fact, the companies hurried their work to “finish” it during the electoral campaign, when the renovated buildings were inaugurated without any attention to the actual work, which now led to the asphyxiation of 60 students. None of the companies or officials involved has taken responsibility.
