The Vlora landfill will be constructed, via a loan from German bank KfW, by the Albanian company Integrated Technology Services.
According to a Germany Trade & Invest announcement, the call for bids closed on August 8, 2019 and the winner was announced on June 12. A consortium made up of Integrated Technology Services and JV Bulfaro won the €9.8 million Vlora landfill tender. The landfill must be built within a year and a half.
Albanian institutions did not release any information regarding the tender’s criteria, the participating companies, and which institution picked the winning company.
The government received €21 million for the construction of the landfill and wastewater treatment for the city of Vlora. The funds came from a €12.5 million loan from the German state-owned bank KfW, as well as two external grants valued at €7.5 and €1.3 million.
A Ministry of Finance notice released on December 15, 2016, describes the landfill as having a 350 thousand tonnes capacity. Part of the investment will be the construction of a landfill gas collection system, a wastewater treatment plant, a recyclable waste division plant of 60,000 tonnes per year capacity, and organic waste compost plants of 4200 tonnes per year capacity.
On February 28, 2020, the government approved the permit for the construction of the Vlora landfill.
Integrated Technology Services Risks Monopolizing the Country’s Waste Processing Industry
Integrated Technology Services is owned by Klodian Zoto.
Since 2014, the Rama has awarded a concessionary contract to this company yearly, mainly with regards to the construction of waste incinerators in the country. The company also manages landfills and waste processing plants in some of the country’s largest cities like Tirana, Elbasan, and Fier.
The company appeared for the first time in the summer of 2014, under the name Albtek Energy shpk and the ownership of Stela Gugallja.
A few weeks later, Albtek Energy won a tender, wherein no other bidders participated, and signed a €22 million government contract for construction and operation of the first incinerator in Albania, near Elbasan. The tender for construction of the incinerator was directly negotiated under the justification that the waste situation in Elbasan constituted an emergency. The company has managed the incinerator since 2015, and will continue to do so until 2022.
The incinerator can handle 120-140 tonnes of waste per day, a capacity sufficient for burning all of Elbasan’s waste, and those of the surrounding cities.
In October 2015, Albtek Energy and Integrated Technology registered a secondary office both located in the same address: Elbasan Waste Plant Construction Site.
Integrated Energy was not satisfied with sharing in the Elbasan incinerator. Like Albtek a year earlier, it submitted an unsolicited proposal to the government to build an incinerator in Fier.
On November 30, 2016, the company won a 6-year long, €28 million concessionary contract for the construction and operation of the Fier incinerator.
A year later, on August 31, 2017, via the same means, the company ‘won’ the concessionary contract for building and operating the Tirana incinerator. The contract will last 30 years, from 2007 to 2037, and cost €140 million.
