Scandal with the tender of 17.2 million euros from AKSHI / Denunciation, here's who benefited from the agency's corrupt affairs

2023-05-02 10:26:00, Aktualitet CNA

Scandal with the tender of 17.2 million euros from AKSHI / Denunciation,

Illustrative photo

In a statement to the media, the head of the Department of Order and Security, Avenir Peka, accused the National Agency of Society and Information of abusing tenders.

According to Peka, AKSHI a few months ago opened a tender worth 5.5 million euros, which provided for a private company to connect Cadastre, Taxes and ISSH with the internal governmental intranet network, laying the relevant infrastructure as well as providing internet service with term of 24 months for these institutions.

Peka said that the tender was subsequently canceled by AKSHI, which justified the cancellation by saying that the tender documents contained important errors and deficiencies.

He underlines that, five days ago, AKSHI republished the procedure with the same object, but with a limited fund of 17.2 million euros. So more than double the value of four months ago.

Statement by the head of the Department of Order and Security, Avenir Peka.

4 months ago, the National Agency of the Information Society opened a tender worth 5.5 million euros. This tender envisaged that a private company would connect Cadastre, Taxation and ISSH with the internal governmental intranet network, laying the relevant infrastructure and providing internet service for these institutions for a period of 24 months. Then the tender was canceled by ANA, which justified the cancellation by saying that the tender documents contained significant errors and deficiencies.

Five days ago, AKSHI republished the procedure with the same object, but with a limited fund of 17.2 million euros. So more than double the value of four months ago.

What stands out is the increase in value by around 12 million euros. It cannot be left without also mentioning the fact that even for the cancellation of the tender, it was not presented in detail what the "significant errors and deficiencies" are, contrary to Article 38 point 2 of VKM no. 285, where it is cited that the notice of cancellation must contain at least the REASONS for the cancellation, in addition to the legal basis.

However, if the object of the tender is the same, what is the reason for multiplying the limit fund? How did AKSHI calculate the limit fund for this procedure, given that for the first procedure, in the technical specification document drawn up in October 2022, point 5.1 cites:

- The service will be offered in state institutions, throughout the territory of Albania.

While in the documents of the second tender re-announced after the contract notification form, 55 institutions are displayed which will benefit from the service.

So, in the first procedure, the service would be for a wider range of coverage, as defined by AKSHI "in the entire territory of RSH", while in the second re-announced procedure, only 55 institutions will benefit from the service. Consequently, the limit fund should have been 5.5 million euros or less.

This action contradicts the law no. 162, on Public Procurement", article 34, article 35, article 36 and VKM no. 285 "On the approval of public procurement rules".

In terms of the development of procurement procedures, not only in the case above, but as a whole, AKSHI uses classified contracts, and in the role of the contracting authority concludes contracts with repeated operators, while the services are different. This by limiting competition and not giving access to operators in the market to participate in the procedures it publishes. The drafting of DSTs and the technical specifications and qualifying criteria are carried out in such a way that they lead to certain names of client operators, among which we mention:

- Advanced Business Solutions shpk (Gerond Meçe, close friend of Armand Frang who is also Edi Rama's cousin) 33.3 million euros from 2015-2022, also with classified contracts)

-AES communication Shpk (Jani Angjeli), 7.4 million euros 2014-2022 (with classified contracts);

- ALBANIAN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS (Brothers Dulaku and Benjamin Feinberg) 10 million euros 2014 – 2022;

-AlbaScan shpk (Elton and Elison Jorgji) 4 million euros 2015 – 2022

- ALISSA ALBANIA shpk (Dulaku Brothers) 2.9 million euros 2019 – 2022 with classified contracts;

-Intech + shpk (ILIR BEQJA) 8.5 million euros from 2014-2022;

-PRIMUS ALBANIA (owned by the company in Zagreb Primus Adriatic with owner Hrvoje Çabrajic;

In September 2018, just 2 months after winning the much talked about tender for the new invoicing system for the business, 15.2 million euros from the Albanian government, the company Jehona shpk was sold to an unknown Croatian company named "Primus Adriatic".

The tender was considered higher than the market prices, while the owner of "Primus Adriatic" was revealed to be the businessman from Croatia, Hrvoje ?abrajic, accused and investigated for fraud during the exercise of business activity and partner of Prime Minister Rama's adviser, Zoran Milanovic .

At that time, it was reported in the media that Romana Vlahutin, EU ambassador in Tirana, had a hand in the much talked about tender.

As you can see, the latest tender is just one of the many corrupt affairs of ANKSI. In the 10 years of the government of Edi Rames, this institution has turned into one of the biggest financial pits of the Albanian state, where services are procured at prices up to several times higher than the market.

We call on law-enforcement institutions to intervene immediately to suspend this corrupt procedure, and the Prosecutor's Office to immediately start investigations./ CNA.al