According to research conducted by Faktoje.al, four statements made by Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj relating to construction permits in Tirana were found to be false. This means that over 1.4 million square metres of construction permits were issued by Veliaj’s office in 2018 alone.
On 10 April 2019, Veliaj appeared on a show on Top Channel where he made a number of claims that his predecessor, Lulzim Basha had issued more per sqm of construction permits than him. He also claimed that half of the area he granted was for public works.
These are the statements he made during the show:
- “Lulzim Basha has issued 650 thousand square meters of construction permits in 2014
- “I have granted 500,000 square meters of building permits in 2018
- “Half of the building space allocated for construction in 2018 is public works
- “Public Works, New Bazaar, New Boulevard
Faktoje.al found that in 2014 during Basha’s tenure as Mayor, 292,068 sqm of building permits were granted, some 2.2 times less than Veliaj claimed. It was then ascertained that Veliaj had given some 1.4 million sqm of permits, almost three times more than he admitted to.
The platform then contacted INSTAT to ask for data on public works for 2014 and 2018 but were told that they only publish data relating to private projects. This means that the 1.4 million sqm of permits that Veliaj issued were for projects such as apartment buildings, hotels, and offices, and not any public projects as he had claimed.
Faktoje.al then contacted the Municipality of Tirana for information on who granted construction permits for the public works Veliaj claimed were included in his total. They confirmed that the permits for Skanderbeg Square and the New Bazaar were issued by the Territorial Development Agency in 2015 and 2016, not in 2018 as Veliaj claimed. It also found that the permits for the New Boulevard was issued in 2013 and the New National Stadium Complex was issued in 2016.
