The Special Prosecution against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) has issued no arrest warrant for any politician or high government official in their latest round of arrests related to concessionaire contracts for the waste incinerators in Elbasan and Fier. There is no news about possible investigations into the third incinerator located in Tirana.
In a press statement on Tuesday, SPAK announced it has charged 12 people over corruption with waste incinerator contracts, including Socialist MP Alqi Bllako who worked as Secretary General at the Ministry of Environment when the government of Edi Rama awarded the Fier incinerator concession contract to the private company “Integrated Technology Waste Treatment Fier”.
SPAK has requested the Albanian parliament to strip the MP of his immunity and open the way for his arrest.
Bllako is suspected to have colluded with the then minister of environment, Lefter Koka (who was arrested last year), and the head of the expropriation committee Pellumb Abeshi to falsify documents in order to increase by 33 percent the value of land to be expropriated (111 thousand square meters) and awarded to the private company to construct the Fier incinerator, resulting in €133 thousand (ALL 16,288,344) damage to state budget.
Prosecutors seized an apartment from Bllako, over suspicions that he had allegedly received €120 thousand as a bribe.
In addition, SPAK issued arrests over abuse of office charges for six public administration officers who were members of the committee evaluating the private company’s bid, as well as for the company’s administrator.
The company is suspected to have reported manipulated expenditures at the amount of €1.2 million, which were allegedly paid to former minister Koka as a bribe. SPAK seized assets of the same amount from Koka. The former minister faces similar charges for the embezzlement of €3.7 million in the case of the Elbasan incinerator contract.
Prosecutors claim that in addition to corruption, those arrested have violated applicable laws and procedures to award concession contracts.
Four more local and central public administration officers were arrested for abuse of office in relation to the Elbasan incinerator.
In their reactions to the news of today’s arrest warrants, opposition Democratic Party and Socialist Movement for Integration urged SPAK to join the three cases in one, and investigate those whom they consider the masterminds of a corruption affair amounting to €430 million: Prime Minister Edi Rama, former ministers Arben Ahmeti and Damian Gjiknuri, Rama’s Secretary General Engjell Agaci, and Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj.
The opposition maintains that Rama and his subordinates colluded to conduct a major corruption affair by awarding three concession contracts for waste incinerators in Fier, Elbasan and Tirane to the same people behind different companies, in violation of the main applicable laws.
Opposition MP Jorida Tabaku accuses the group of politicians of having created a “structured criminal group” to embezzle the public money – a special stipulation under Albanian law for serious crimes. Last month, all four politicians accused – Rama, Ahmeti, Gjiknuri and Veliaj – vehemently denied allegations of “structured criminal group” in their testimonies before the parliamentary inquiry committee headed by Tabaku.
Rama and other ruling Socialist politicians maintained that they had fully complied with all legal requirements throughout the process of awarding the three concession contracts, and that any possible abuse of office to be found by prosecutors should be treated as the personal responsibility of public administration officers and private company employees.
In their report, opposition members of the committee claim to have provided evidence for legal violations, abuse of office, corruption schemes, tax evasion schemes through a network of fake companies, and money laundering schemes. They add that contracts for incinerators amounting to at least €430 million in public money were awarded to the same people without competition, in violation of several laws, and in coordination with number of ministries and other agencies.
Exit News was the first media to publish an extensive analysis of the projects in 2017 by Artan Rama, raising the alarm that a corruption scandal was likely to hide behind the affair.
As of today, the Elbasan incinerator has been completed, but the plant is non-operational and was seized by SPAK. The Fier incinerator is still under construction, while works for the Tirana plant haven’t started yet.
In all three cases, the terms for the completion of the works have been surpassed by several years. The government has paid the company more than €55 million for the Elbasan and Fier incinerators, and roughly €37 million for Tirana so far.
A network of dozens of other companies were created by the owners of the mother company, “Integrated Energy BV SPV”, to pay tens of millions for services that were never obtained.
The contracts estimate that at least €430 million in public money will have to be paid to private companies owned by the same individuals until 2047.
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