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'Business promoter': How Ilir Beqaj was "amnestied" by SPAK for violations in the sterilization concession

2023-08-19 10:20:00, Aktualitet CNA
'Business promoter': How Ilir Beqaj was "amnestied" by SPAK
Director of the State Agency for Strategic Program and Aid Coordination (SASPAC), Ilir Beqaj speaking during a session of the Committee on Economy and Finance

The 3-year investigations of the prosecutors Edvin Kondili and Ened Nakuçi closed the circle of the accused with the former deputy minister Klodian Rrjepaj and the members of the commission, but the judge Erion Bani reasons that there are indications that the former minister Ilir Beqaj predetermined the winners, did not stop the conflict of interest and made trips with the beneficiaries of the concession - which, according to him, also raises doubts about the criminal acts of corruption.

By Aleksandra Bogdani and Klodiana Lala, Reporter.al

Three decades ago, Klodian Rrjepaj and Ilir Rrapaj were two classmates and students of the Faculty of Medicine in Tirana. They met again in Tirana twenty years later; the first as deputy minister of health and the second as a small entrepreneur in Italy, who called himself a "business promoter".

Rrapaj returned to his homeland in November 2013 to participate in the "Say yes to Albania" initiative - a meeting with diaspora doctors - and posed alongside Prime Minister Edi Rama, Health Minister Ilir Beqaj and his old friend Klodian Rrjepaj.

Then, Rrapaj appeared in a series of official meetings in Umbria, Italy in 2013-2014 alongside Minister Beqaj and Deputy Minister Rrjepaj, trumpeted in the media as "international cooperation", but according to a decision of the Special Court, the purpose the real one was the preparation of a concession for the sterilization of surgical equipment in favor of the businessman Rrapaj.

The sterilization concession is the most expensive public-private partnership contract of the 'Rama' government in the health sector, which has cost Albanian taxpayers around 76 million euros until the end of 2022.

After investigating for 3 years, the Special Prosecutor's Office, SPAK, requested in court the arrest of the former Deputy Minister of Health, Klodian Rrjepaj and the businessman Ilir Rrapaj, and softer security measures for the six members of the concession awarding commission.

Ilir Beqjaj's name was missing from SPAK's request, but after examining the evidence, Judge Erion Bani of the Special Court estimated that the violations of legal and by-laws rise to the level of criminal responsibility for the former Minister of Health.

He also assessed that the investigations were incomplete and the criminal prosecution should be extended to the former Minister of Finance, Shkëlqim Cani and four members of the Public Procurement Commission, KPP, who had previously dismissed a complaint against the winners.

According to the decision, the violations of the law in the procedures for awarding the concession were made with the "sole purpose of announcing the winner" of the companies belonging to Ilir Rrapaj and his Italian partner, Umbro Staccini.

The list of violations contains a feasibility study with false data in violation of the law; drafting the criteria in such a way that they fit the real situation of the pre-selected companies as well as Beqaj's inaction to resolve the conflict of interest between Rrjepaj as the chairman of the concession commission and Rrapaj as its beneficiary.

Legal violations were also found during the negotiation of the concession contract, which, according to the judge, were "clearly in favor of the company declared the winner, to the detriment of the interests of the state".

The court also appreciates that the two prosecutors of the case, Edvin Kondili and Ened Nakuçi, have been stingy even with criminal offenses; while assessing that there are sufficient indications to investigate active and passive corruption as well as laundering of the proceeds of criminal offences.

"On the part of the prosecution, a complete and comprehensive investigation must be done in this regard, a fact which does not result from the investigative report," reasoned judge Bani, who suggests that "for this, a property investigation is needed."

The evidence against former minister Beqaj

'Business promoter': How Ilir Beqaj was "amnestied" by SPAK
Ilir Rrapaj, Klodian Rrjepaj and Ilir Beqaj on dt. December 19, 2013, during the official visit of the Minister of Health to Perugia

In February 2014, the Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj, received a request from the director of QSUT, Ogerta Manastirliu - today the Minister of Health, to put into operation a modern sterilization center that had been sleeping for years in the new emergency hospital, but the request remained unanswered.

The capacity of the sterilization center covered about 60,000 surgical interventions per year from the 50,000 reported to have been performed in 2013, but was not put into operation because training of support staff was needed.

But even though he was informed about the investment made, Minister Beqaj gave the green light to continue with the concession procedures. According to a subsequent audit by the High State Control, the public sterilization center was expected to operate at 96 million lek per year, or almost 5 times less than the 558 million lek that the concessionary company billed in 2016 for the same service.

According to the Special Court, Beqaj did not take any measures to put the sterilization center into operation, as he had previously made the decision to provide the service with a concession.

"From the analysis of all the first evidence in their unity, the court considers that the former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj, in cooperation with the person under investigation, Klodian Rrjepaj, had made the decision to provide the sterilization service with a concession and had selected in advance, who would win this concession...," reasoned judge Bani, adding that the predetermined winners were Ilir Rrapaj and the Italian citizen Umbro Staccini.

According to the file, Beqaj was aware of the close friendly relationship between his deputy and Rrapaj, as well as the involvement of the latter in the preparation of the feasibility study, which then paved the way for his victory.

From the seizure of Rrjepaj's e-mail, the investigators single out two emails sent by Ilir Rrapaj in February and March of 2014, through which he sends two studies of the University of Perugia, which were then included in the feasibility study.

"Dear Fra'! This is the text I warned you about, which Vanesa wrote to me about. Take a look and let us know. I hope your ear pain has subsided a little now," Rrapaj wrote to Deputy Minister Rrjepaj.

On the same day, on March 17, 2014, the deputy minister forwarded the email to his boss, Ilir Beqaj, in his official and private email.

Also within a week in June 2014, Rrapaj and his Italian partner came to Tirana and returned to Italy, while the two heads of the Ministry of Health, Beqaj and Rrjepaj also traveled to Italy.

On June 15, 2014, Beqaj, Rrjepaj and Rrapaj returned together to Tirana from Rome on the same airline.

"Just one month after the plane trip, Rrapaj creates the company Investital in Pristina, which would then become the winner with 40% of the concession. This company was also founded only one month before the order of the Minister of Health "On the establishment of the concession granting commission" was issued and there was only one employee, Ilir Rrapajn," the decision states.

The investigations have also revealed communications and joint trips of Minister Beqaj with the beneficiaries after the granting of the concession, which according to judge Bani should constitute evidence for further investigations in terms of the criminal offense of corruption.

On September 25, 2016, former minister Beqaj and the administrator of the concession company, Almir Daca, traveled on the same plane of "Austrian Airlines" to Vienna, while on May 23, 2017, Beqja and Rrjepaj returned to Albania from Rome on the same plane with Ilir Rrapaj and Umbro Staccini.

The last trip in the file was identified on March 13, 2018, when Beqaj, Rrjepaj, Rrapaj and Staccini returned with the same car from the Morin customs between Albania and Kosovo.

Falsification of costs

'Business promoter': How Ilir Beqaj was "amnestied" by SPAK
Ilir Rrapaj and Prime Minister Edi Rama during a meeting at the Brigades palace in the framework of the "Say Yes to Albania" initiative

In addition to predetermining the winners and their involvement in the preparation of the feasibility study, the Special Court argues in the decision that the costs of the sterilization process have been artificially inflated, to present the concession as a more favorable procedure than public procurement.

In the calculation of service costs, expenses for medical medications are also included, which inflated the figures by 56%. Also, the court estimates that in the feasibility study, the number of anticipated interventions was deliberately reduced from 63 thousand to 50 thousand operations per year, resulting in an increase in prices for each of the intensity of interventions in the financial statements.

The lack of data verification in the feasibility study by the Ministry of Finance is one of the reasons why Judge Bani directed the prosecution to investigate the role of the former Minister of Finance, Shkëlqim Cani.

In November 2014, Cani refused to give the agreement for the concession on the grounds that "there is no clear argument why granting a concession is a more favorable procedure than public procurement". Also, he requested that the comparative analysis should be carried out in a clear and distinct manner for each service planned to be granted by concession.

But a month and a half later, Cani approved the funding proposal in principle, although there were no changes to the feasibility study.

"Also, the answer of the Ministry of Finance remains unclear regarding the fact that it looks at the documentation only from a formal point of view. If the latter looks at the documentation only from a formal point of view, can an unsigned document be considered formally in order," Judge Bani questions, referring to the fact that the feasibility study was not signed by the members of the concession awarding commission. .

After a session of questions at the Prosecutor's Office on Thursday, Cani told reporters that he had given the approval after the legal criteria had been met and denied knowing businessman Ilir Rrapaj, while former minister Ilir Beqja did not respond to BIRN's request for comment.

In the 348-page decision, SPAK's investigations are also questioned regarding the registered criminal offenses or the lack of property investigation, for which the judge directs the prosecutors to continue the investigations.

According to Bani, from the administered acts there are sufficient indications for the Special Prosecutor's Office to continue the investigations for the criminal offenses of active and passive corruption as well as those of laundering the proceeds of the criminal offense.

"This will prove whether all the criminal activity planned in detail by the persons under investigation was done simply because of the close relations of the persons under investigation, Klodian Rrjepaj and Ilir Rrapaj, as well as because of the personal acquaintances of this citizen... with the minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj or as a result of the irregular benefit derived from the corruption of the officials who participated in this procedure," concludes Bani in the decision.





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