EU: The Albanian government blocked our tender for the electronic Cadastre

2023-08-28 13:04:00, Aktualitet CNA

In September last year, the European Union concluded a 1.85 million euro tender for the establishment of the integrated cadastral and land information system in Albania (referred to as ACLIS).

The contract, which is part of a program for the establishment of the new electronic system of the Cadastre and the total digitization of properties, was won by a merger of two companies, the Slovenian Synergise and the Albanian Datech.

But as soon as the companies were about to start work, the Albanian government and the State Cadastre Agency notified the European Union of its cancellation because they would do the tenders themselves.

""Albanian authorities informed the EU about further parallel development of the existing IT system and launched a new tender for its improvement and maintenance. As a result, the activities within the ACLIS project/contract have been stopped until a solution is reached through a mutual agreement between Albania and the EU," the office of the EU delegation in Tirana confirmed to Oligarkia.al.

The whole project is in doubt

The 1.85 million euro contract that the European Union awarded to the companies Synergise and Datech was only the first of several such. They are part of a project with a total value of 15.7 million euros financed by a grant from the European Union.

This system envisages the establishment of the new electronic system of the Cadastre and the complete digitization of the cadastral map, the property register and every transaction in the real estate market in Albania. Now this whole project worth 15.7 million euros is in doubt.

"Currently, discussions with the Albanian government are still ongoing. At the beginning of next week we expect to receive an official response/request from the Albanian government. We recommend that you address your request to the relevant Albanian authorities for further assistance," the EU delegation replied.

The portal asked the State Cadastre Agency why it decided to stop the EU contract for the establishment of the new electronic property system and proceed with a parallel tender for the development of the existing system, which the EU says is problematic and with outdated technology . But by the time the article was published, he had not received an answer.

AKSHI factor

As soon as the Albanian authorities notified the European Union of the blocking of the property project, on June 26 the National Agency of the Information Society suddenly announced a tender worth 4.4 million euros for the improvement of the existing system of the State Cadastre Agency.

Only three days after the announcement of the tender, the prime minister, the head of AKSHI and the new head of the Cadastre held a joint public activity to prevent radical changes in the Cadastre.

"On Monday, July 3, the Cadastre is no longer accessible. From Monday none of you will do anything. No one within the Cadastre will answer them. Everything will be online without any physical contact," Rama addressed the deputies and ministers of the SP.

While the head of AKSHI said that now the whole process will be digitized. "We will have security for every action, for every change where the citizen will be notified of every change made to his property," said Karçanaj.

The day of this activity is also the day when the digital system of the Cadastre collapsed. Since July 3, the Cadastre system has almost stopped working and citizens are facing endless delays with the services provided by the Cadastre.

The three events are not unrelated. The cancellation of the EU project, the opening of the tender by ANA and the collapse of the Cadastre are cause and effect of each other. Actions, which many suspect that apart from greed for tenders, hide even more occult purposes than that. Those related to the safety of Albanians' property. These are doubts that SPAK should clarify because someone is putting their hands in the Cadastre./ Oligarkia.al