The Public Procurement Committee (KPP) announced a Salillari shpk joint venture as the winning bidder for the controversial tender to reconstruct a square in Tirana. The government had previously awarded the tender to Dunwell Haberman for €18 million, a shell company that had forged documents.
Salillari’s winning bid amounted to €14.5 million. The same company has also won a tender for the construction of an adjacent ring road segment for €12.6 million. In addition, it has already completed part of the ring road for about €29 million.
This was the third time the government opened calls for the same tender – reconstruction of the Shqiponja Square. The joint venture between Salillari shpk and Bajram N shpk won the tender after they filed a complaint when the government awarded the tender to another of its favorite companies in July, Vëllezërit Hysa shpk.
The tender was first launched in September 2018. The government awarded it to Dunwell Haberman, and then cancelled it in December 2018 after media revealed that the company had forged all documents. Another tender worth €12 million was also awarded to the same company.
Few weeks later authorities launched a second call for bids for the same ring road segment. In March 2019, less than three months later, it cancelled the call as “none of the submitted bid offers met the criteria.”
The government then opened a third call for bids in July 2019. It disqualified 5 of the 8 bidders and awarded the tender to Vëllezërit Hysa shpk for €14.6 million. Salillari shpk and Alb Building shpk, which had both submitted lower offers (€14.5 million and €14 million) but were disqualified, filed a complaint in August. The public procurement committee has now decided to award the tender to Salillari.
This decision makes makes Salillari the biggest beneficiary from the Tirana Ring Road projects. The government has awarded it contracts worth €56 million in three Tirana ring road tenders.
That’s not all though. Being a government and municipality favorite for public works, in the last three years Salillari got at least €120 million in contracts.
- In 2019, the government awarded Salillari €1.8 million for reconstruction works on the Italia Square, in front of the new national stadium.
- In September, 2018, Municipality of Tirana signed a public-private partnership contract with Salillari on a 33-year concession for the construction and management of the main bus station in Tirana. The total cost amounted to €18.8 million.
- In December, 2017, Salillari won the bid for redesigning the children park and the construction of the underground parking lot in Elbasani Street, for an amount of €2.2 million.
- In 2016, Salillari (in a joint venture with Kastrati shpk) also got a tender worth €48.5 million for the Rruga e Kombit concession contract.
- In 2016, Salillari got three re/construction contracts worth €2.5 million, including some additions made in 2017 to the same projects.
