The Municipality of Gjirokaster has failed to provide any information on the proposed bypass project.
On 23 March, Exit sent a freedom of information request to the Municipality asking a series of questions about the proposed bypass project. Amongst questions, Exit asked for the proposed project plan and other supporting documents.
The answers sent by the Municipality said they had these reports, but did not attach them to the email. Exit requested they be sent, but no response was received. In the meantime, Exit spoke with Vice Mayor Jorida Muho. During a phone conversation, she repeated on more than one occasion that she would happily prepare and send over the requested documents, adding it must have been a mistake of the staff member who replied to the initial request.
After one week, the documents had still not been sent. Exit sent a reminder but the documents didn’t come. The following day, another reminder was sent to which the Vice Mayor replied that Exit should send another freedom of information request.
“Can you please send a new one where you request to have a copy and I’ll prepare the info requested?”
Exit explained that the request had already been sent, plus the Vice Mayor had repeatedly said she would send them, but the message remained ignored.
Meanwhile, the Municipality on 2 April that all work had stopped on the bypass and nothing would be done until the final decision. Exit presented the Vice Mayor with two photos taken that day, showing workmen at the site.
The Vice Mayor claimed “It’s election time, you never know if these photos are real, you know someone could have just gone there and taken them”, suggesting that they were staged. She then claimed that they were there “just tidying up” and she would go and check on the situation and report back. This didn’t happen.
On the subject of whether the Municipality sought permission from UNESCO, the Vice Mayor remained adamant that she had. She shared a screenshot of an email signature from a “Junior Professional Officer” at UNESCO, with who she said the plan had been shared and discussions had been had.
Exit had spoken to the Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Chief of UNESCO Europe and North America who both said they had only been notified of the project’s commencement and ongoing work, by “civil society”. They added they had contacted the Albanian government but were yet to receive a response.
