The scandal with the Qukës-Qafë Plloçë road/ Abuses increased the costs, another 90 million dollars are needed

10 Korrik 2020, 07:32, English CNA

The $ 125 million project for the Qukës – Qafë Plloçë road, 43 km long, financed by the Islamic Development Bank, requires an additional $ 90 million investment to be completed. Road costs have multiplied because the interruption of works has caused great damage, but also because another segment (lot 3) has been left without funding.

The Albanian government has asked additional funds from the Islamic Bank, justifying the cost with changes in the project and unforeseen costs, said an official source for CNA.al. In fact, it was the intervention in the project and the delays that caused these damages, which are estimated at almost 70 per cent of the initial cost of the road.

The investment

Qukës -Qafë Plloçë is an investment started in April 2013, through a loan, but in September of that year with the political rotation everything stopped. The Renaissance government stopped the tender, demanding that this road not be financed, but that the funds be transferred as loans.

The contract with the bank was clear, and the government withdrew from its request. Then tenders were held for 3 lots, but immediately after the start of works began the problems. The road clearly had ?enemies?. From deputies of the Korça region, to important ministers, maybe even the Prime Minister Rama himself, who although he inspected it several times, seemed skeptical about the project.

The Rama government, at the time when the Ministry of Infrastructure was headed by Edmond Haxhinasto, although a concrete and funded project, intervened several times, causing delays at great cost. They allegedly consisted of project changes, while works were being carried out.

?Instead of removing the eyebrows, they seem to have raised their eyes?, this popular expression is very convenient for this case. A brutal intervention without thinking, with a project that should have been completed two years ago in 2018, has been left without funding.

A road left unfinished, which today requires almost 90 million dollars, 60 of which in the 3rd lot, and almost 30 million dollars are investment for the second lot, for slips and deviations, due to the abandonment of works. So, the road costs have been increased simply and only by the irresponsibility and abandonment that has been done to the investment by certain segments of the government.

Interventions and damages

Interventions in the project and everything else, ie interruptions, blockages of funding, slowdown of Works, have started during the time when the Ministry of Infrastructure was headed by Edmond Haxhinasto, and the damage caused to the state budget in this investment look colossal.

There are $ 90 million expected to be provided as additional funding over the initial project. But who pays for these staggering costs?

The road will provide funding, and for at least two years can go to completion. But will anyone ever be held accountable for wrong policies and damages? All are consequences in the state budget and the huge costs, that will be paid from the pockets of taxpayers, as all are loans and interest repaid from the budget.

Edmond Haxhinasto and the former director of roads, probably sleep peacefully in their homes and continue their political activity. But someone must bear legal responsibility for a crime worth tens of millions of dollars at the expense of Albanians.

Needless to say, the facts speak for themselves, the wrong policies of former road director and former minister Edmond Haxhinasto neglected a $ 125 million investment, adding costs to the $ 90 million.

And this is only because they hated that investment, and wanted at all costs project changes, tenders, millions of extra dollars, for their own interests, and not for the successful completion of a project that gives great impetus to the movement towards the south-eastern area in the country. /CNA.al

The official link of the article is this:

Skandali me rrugën Qukës-Qafë Plloçë/ Abuzimet shtuan kostot, duhen edhe 90 milionë dollarë