In February 2017, then Minister of Interior Affairs Saimir Tahiri opened a tender for procedure for police uniforms, shoes, insignia, and accessories at a total value of 1,292,618,666 lekë (~€9.5 million). Nearly 75% of that sum was reserved for only the uniforms.
This was, in fact, a second tender, because in 2016 Minister Tahiri had organized a previous tender for the police uniforms, which were present during two separate public ceremonies in which hundreds of policemen were dressed up in the new designs.
An earlier tender from January 2016 for police uniforms for the State Police Directorate had been won by Marsi & Al shpk at the value of 110,301,000 lekë (~€808,000). These new models were presented during a large ceremony called “The Police of the Next Generation.” In September 2016, it then appeared that Tahiri had canceled the contract with Marsi & Al because of the low quality of the uniforms.
The “corrected” new uniforms were presented, during another large ceremony, in November 2016, at which Minister Tahiri explicitly thanked the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for “his support,” implying that the Turkish President would personally help with providing a suitable (Turkish) company to produce the uniforms, which in fact are copies of the Turkish police uniforms.
It now appears that also this second tender, after two public presentations and in spite of the personal involvement of the Turkish President, has also recently been canceled because none of the offers fulfilled the tender requirements. The cancelation was published officially last week in the Public Procurement Bulletin.
Recently, President Erdoğan has also promised to personally “help” the Albanian government to set up a new national Albanian airlines company.
