Next month, the Municipality of Tirana will start the development of 4 new car parks through the public–private company managing the car parks in the city, Tirana Parking.
On November 13, the municipality and Tirana Parking announced the winners of the 4 tenders for “consultancy regarding the study and planning of car parks in 4 areas of Tirana.”
The winner of 3 of the tenders is Taulant shpk, one of the main companies linked with the Rama government and its so-called “Urban Renaissance” project. Taulant was previously contracted to redesign the central square and Palace of Culture in Gramsh, the cinema and Renaissance memorial in Gjirokastra, the renovation of the Ballet School in Tirana, and many other projects.
As the tender procedures below show, we are once again dealing with legally questionable procedures and possible fraud:
Paid car park, Avni Rustemi
The maximum budget for this tender was 270,000 lekë (~€2,000), which received two bidders: Taulant shpk with 260,500 lekë and A.Sh. Engineering with 220,000 lekë. Even though the latter offer was lower and should have legally been declared winner, the Municipality of Tirana awarded the tender to Taulant without any additional explanation, with a bid at 96% of the maximum.
Paid car park, Sabaudin Gabrani
For this tender the maximum was 1.2 million lekë (~€9,000), with again to bids from Taulant (1,140,000 lekë) and A.Sh. Engineering, which wasn’t asked to present an economic offer because its technical offer “hadn’t passed the minimum threshold of 70 points,” in the technical evaluation.
In other words, the company that in the Avni Rustemi tender was able to gather the necessary technical points, wasn’t able to so in this particular, and otherwise similar tender. Therefore, Taulant became the winner by default, with a bid at 95% of the maximum budget.
Paid car park, Artificial Lake Dam
In the case of this tender, the maximum budget was 971,000 lekë (~€7,200). Again both companies presented an offer, and again A.Sh. Engineering didn’t meet the minimum threshold of 70 points on the technical offer. Taulant received the tender for 780,000 lekë, at 80% of the maximum budget.
Paid car park, Infosoft building
In this tender with a maximum budget of 555,000 lekë (€4,200) Taulant competed with another company, H.M.K. Consulting shpk. In this case Taulant for unknown reasons failed to provide an economic offer, which made H.M.K. the default winner, with an offer of 552,000 lekë, or 99% of the maximum available budget.
The procedures in all four tenders – the selection of the highest bid for Avni Rustemi, the incomplete technical offers for Sabaudin Gabrani and the Artificial Lake Dam, and the missing bid for the Infosoft building – suggest a pre-orchestrated division of the tenders, with the actual procedures merely providing a semblance of legality.
The winning companies, Taulant and H.M.K., have a month after signing their contracts to provide their consultancy on the paid car parks.
