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Fier's incinerator, an affair that never ends

2024-12-31 19:45:00, Aktualitet CNA
Fier's incinerator, an affair that never ends
Fire incinerator

As we emphasized above, the incinerators are the biggest corruption scheme that has cost the Albanian taxpayers and the state hundreds of millions of euros.

A corrupt scheme that starts in Elbasan, extends to Fier and then to Tirana. Let's stick to the affair with Fieri's incinerator, which seems to have no end.

What happens?

Fier's incinerator has cost Albanian taxpayers about 60 million Lek, but it has not been put into operation for a single day and still does not burn waste.

But the scandal is even deeper.

In March 2021, the "Integrated Technology Waste Treatment" company, Fier, sent a letter to the Albanian government informing them that the Fier incinerator had been completed, but this is not true.

Why does the government not take it over after the company has handed it over as a completed project?

The Fier incinerator has not been completed, as 10% of the total investment, about 3 million euros, is missing.

According to administrator Farudin Arapi, another 2.8 million euros are needed to put it to work, money that has been refused to be paid by the government.

Prime Minister Edi Rama stated earlier that the amount of around 3 million euros would be paid by the Municipality of Fier and would be closed as a process.

But in fact this highlights another scandal within the corruption affair.

What business does Fier Municipality have to pay 3 million euros?

This amount must be paid by the company "Integrated Technology Waste Treatment", which has undertaken to build the incinerator, for which the government has paid a bag of money and the investment has not been completed, the incinerator does not work, it is out of order.

The municipality of Fier does not have to pay about 3 million euros investment for the incinerator of Fier, while the government has paid the company "Integrated Technology Waste Treatment".

So it is clearly shown that the figures were not correct, that there were abuses and corruption and that the investment did not go all the way.

There was also an Investigative Commission for this corrupt scheme in March of 2022. The Fier incinerator and the concession company "Integrated Technology Waste Treatment Fier" were seized in March of 2022, after the Special Prosecutor's Office brought charges of corruption and abuse of office against former - the Minister of the Environment, Lefter Koka, the former socialist deputy, Alqi Blako, as well as the businessman Klodian Zoto.

APPEAL DECISION FOR THE FERN INCINATOR

The Special Court of Appeal has returned the file for the Fier incinerator for retrial. It will be another panel that will consider the file regarding the defendants who are part of this case. This is the first time that the second instance of the Special Court reverses a decision approved by the first instance. This decision does not affect the termination of the security measure against the defendants.

The sentences that were overturned on December 19, 2024 were handed down on September 25, 2023. It was the first instance of the Special Court that sentenced 12 defendants in this case to a total of 45 years in prison, including the former minister Koka with 6 years and 8 months in prison, Bllakon 2 years and 8 months and the highest sentence for businessman Klodian Zoto with 8 years jail

For this file, 3 defendants were declared innocent, for whom SPAK requested to be convicted in the Appeal of the Special Court. The lawyers of Abren Dervishaj, Juri Imeraj and Arjola Kodra requested that their innocence be upheld, but the Appeal decided not to accept either their request or that of SPAK, returning the case once again from the beginning.

The defendants are accused of abuse of office, of officials performing public duties and abuse of office of a high state functionary or corruption. Investigations into the Fier incinerator were closed in December 2022.

In addition to the propaganda that says that the incinerators are to serve the citizens, behind them we have an incinerator that is unfinished because it needs other money for investment like the one in Fier, we have the incinerator in Elbasan that does not work and is a boiler with oil and it takes about 2 million euros per year for maintenance and in Tirana we don't have an incinerator at all.

The only sure thing that will follow these incinerators even in the new year of 2025 is the fact that they will continue to burn not waste, but public funds, through a mafia scheme that is eroding the pockets of Albanian citizens every day./ CNA





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