The show "On Target" on News24, published details from the SPAK file on the Vlora Airport affair, related to violations of the tender procedures which resulted in no competition and was initiated by the government.
In the material published during the show "Në Shënjestër", SPAK revealed that the contract would be negotiated directly between the government and three Turkish companies, a procedure that would be followed by the contract negotiation committee, established by order of the Prime Minister.
In the first violation, identified by SPAK, it results that the Concession Commission did not consider the fact that one of the three operators had not signed the authorization for the representative of the concession group who would sign the contract with the Ministry of Infrastructure, which in this case was citizen Valon Lluka.
According to the file, which the show 'Në Shënjestër' has secured, it turns out that it was precisely Valon Ademi's '2A Group' company that did not sign the power of attorney authorizing one of the companies to create the temporary union of operators to participate in the competition for the Vlora Airport concession.
Not only that, but as we will show below, at the time when Edi Rama and Belinda Balluku, in March 2021, announced the conclusion of the contract with the concessionaire company, this company did not yet officially exist.
According to data from the Central Bank, the company 'Vlora International' was officially founded on May 17, 2021, or a few weeks after the Prime Minister and his deputy announced the conclusion of the contract for the concession of the construction of Vlora Airport.
A company whose statute also envisaged 'designing' as one of its first actions, a process on which the show 'At the Target' will shed light in the future.
Meanwhile, what is striking is that the share capital of the company in question was only 10 thousand euros.
Where in this case, the Vlora Airport concession procedure is similar to that of the Tirana Incinerator concession, where the winning company was registered with the Central Commercial Register on the day the concession contract was signed.
But in this case, the situation is even more flagrant, as one of the partners of the concessionaire company 'Vlora International Airport' admits that the contract was signed on April 20, 2021 between the shareholders of 'Vlora International Airport' and the Albanian government.
At this point, it remains for SPAK to investigate whether or not the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and a series of officials committed violations of the law by entering into a contract with the three shareholder companies of the 'Vlora International Airport' company, when this company did not exist.
So, SPAK's data shows nothing other than that '2A Group' had not signed the power of attorney to authorize the merger of economic operators,
but at the same time, the contract was signed between the company's shareholders and the Ministry of Infrastructure before the concession company was established.
The second criminal fact is that the Concession Award Commission ignored one of the criteria of the standard tender documents, that of 'Economic and financial capacity'.
According to the data in the file, it turns out that the three companies, 'Mabco Construction', '2A Group' and the Turkish company 'YDA Group', have not submitted financial balance sheets as requested by the standard tender documents.
The third element, which constitutes a criminal violation according to SPAK, is the fact that the concession commission has again tolerated the winning companies of the competition, which have not fulfilled point 2.3 of the standard tender documents, which required that each shareholder should present in detail the capital structure up to the final beneficiary.
Neither Pacolli's company nor the 'YDA Group' have met this criterion. And failure to meet this criterion constitutes a legal violation, which was committed by the members of the Vlora Airport concession commission.
The fourth violation committed by the commission is again related to point 2.3 of the standard tender documents, on technical capacity, sub-point 4.
Excerpts from the documentary
Competition for the Vlora Airport tender which opened on December 20, 2019.
Where interested companies would have a deadline to submit their bids until March 12, 2020.
So for a period of less than 3 months.
But even though the tender was opened in December 2020, what was seen next was that until March 2021, the tender was delayed by several decisions by Belinda Balluku.
Which suspended the procedure due to the covid-19 pandemic.
As well as by the Public Procurement Agency, due to a complaint made by an interested operator, but which subsequently did not participate in this process.
But despite delays in March 2021, the government announced the winner of the concession, which would be the merger of three companies: 'Mabco Construction', '2A Group' and 'YDA Group'.
The formal contract was finalized on April 20, 2021.
But while the Rama government had already reached an agreement with the concessionaire for the construction of Vlora Airport, at this very time another company, which we will discuss in more detail below, 'AL-DE Corporation', filed a complaint with SPAK precisely for the fictitious nature of the competition.
A complaint filed on the basis of which in 2021, the Special Prosecution Office conducted a series of investigations, taking 7 officials as defendants.
The charge was for the criminal offense of 'Violation of Equality in Tenders'.
The show 'Në Shënjestër', which has revealed part of the accusation, also included episodes where it is suspected that officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure have committed serious breaches of duty.
The investigative actions carried out have resulted in the members of the concession/PPP award commission not having ascertained the lack of necessary documentation for the merger of the winning economic operators 'Mabco Construction SA-YDA Group' and '2A Group' shpk, but having qualified and subsequently declared it the winner in violation of the rules of the competitive procedure.
But let's focus more specifically on these violations, how the international competition for the construction of Vlora Airport ended in fictitiousness.
In the first violation, identified by SPAK, it results that the Concession Commission did not consider the fact that one of the three operators had not signed the authorization for the representative of the concession group who would sign the contract with the Ministry of Infrastructure, which in this case was citizen Valon Lluka.
According to the file, which the show 'Në Shënjestër' has secured, it turns out that it was precisely Valon Ademi's '2A Group' company that did not sign the power of attorney authorizing one of the companies to create the temporary union of operators to participate in the competition for the Vlora Airport concession.
Not only that, but as we will show below, at the time when Edi Rama and Belinda Balluku, in March 2021, announced the conclusion of the contract with the concessionaire company, this company did not yet officially exist.
According to data from the Central Bank, the company 'Vlora International' was officially founded on May 17, 2021, or a few weeks after the Prime Minister and his deputy announced the conclusion of the contract for the concession of the construction of Vlora Airport.
A company whose statute also envisaged 'designing' as one of its first actions, a process on which the show 'At the Target' will shed light in the future.
Meanwhile, what is striking is that the share capital of the company in question was only 10 thousand euros.
Where in this case, the Vlora Airport concession procedure is similar to that of the Tirana Incinerator concession, where the winning company was registered with the Central Commercial Register on the day the concession contract was signed.
But in this case, the situation is even more flagrant, as one of the partners of the concessionaire company 'Vlora International Airport' admits that the contract was signed on April 20, 2021 between the shareholders of 'Vlora International Airport' and the Albanian government.
At this point, it remains for SPAK to investigate whether or not the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and a series of officials committed violations of the law by entering into a contract with the three shareholder companies of the 'Vlora International Airport' company, when this company did not exist.
So, SPAK's data shows nothing other than that '2A Group' had not signed the power of attorney to authorize the merger of economic operators,
but at the same time, the contract was signed between the company's shareholders and the Ministry of Infrastructure before the concession company was established.
The second criminal fact is that the Concession Award Commission ignored one of the criteria of the standard tender documents, that of 'Economic and financial capacity'.
According to the data in the file, it turns out that the three companies, 'Mabco Construction', '2A Group' and the Turkish company 'YDA Group', have not submitted financial balance sheets as requested by the standard tender documents.
The third element, which constitutes a criminal violation according to SPAK, is the fact that the concession commission has again tolerated the winning companies of the competition,
which did not comply with point 2.3 of the standard tender documents, which required that each shareholder present in detail the capital structure down to the ultimate beneficiary.
Neither Pacolli's company nor the 'YDA Group' have met this criterion. And failure to meet this criterion constitutes a legal violation, which was committed by the members of the Vlora Airport concession commission.
The fourth violation committed by the commission is again related to point 2.3 of the standard tender documents, on technical capacity, sub-point 4.
Tender violations
According to the criteria, companies participating in the competition would have to declare that:
'They had renovated ten runways in the last 10 years, built at least 2 terminals in the last 15 years, expanded or renovated 10 terminals in the last 10 years, and built at least 1 air traffic tower in the last 15 years.
But if we look at it, this criterion has not been met by any of the companies participating in the competition for Vlora airport.
Despite these violations, the three companies were declared winners, which seemed to have been predetermined.
Meanwhile, SPAK has so far charged 7 officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure with 'violation of equality in tenders'.
But beyond the SPAK investigation, the show 'Në Shënjestër' reveals that the violations reported by the investigations so far are only the tip of the iceberg.
With facts, we will show you that the Vlora International Airport concession is a similar affair to that of the Llogara Tunnel, where former Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku was named as a defendant, or like that of the Porto Romano tender, which has already failed as a procedure.
