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VOA: Tirana's incinerator, Agaçi, over three hours in the Special Prosecutor's Office.

2024-05-17 21:44:00, Aktualitet CNA

VOA: Tirana's incinerator, Agaçi, over three hours in the Special

In Albania, the General Secretary of the Council of Ministers, Engjëll Agaçi, was today at the Special Prosecutor's Office as part of the ongoing investigations into the Tirana incinerator. Mr. Agaçi stayed for over three hours to give explanations about the procedures followed by the government, for the initial approval of the bonus to the company that undertook the construction of the incinerator, and then of the contract.

The preliminary investigations of the Prosecutor's Office have revealed that the Council of Ministers gave the bonus of 8 percent to the company "Integrated Energy BV", based in the Netherlands, which was not registered as a subject in the National Business Center, as required by law, although a fact of this was pointed out to the Ministry of the Environment by the then Minister of State for relations with the Parliament, while remarks were also made by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice. While, according to the acts of the Prosecutor's Office, the final contract is connected not with "Integrated Energy BV", but with "Integrated Energy BV SPV", registered on the day of signing the contract, on August 31, 2017.

On leaving the Special Prosecutor's Office, Mr. Agaçi stated that he was summoned as a "person who has knowledge", without providing other elements. He has been among the people put at the center of the opposition's accusations, related to the issue of incinerators.

Two days ago, the Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku was also in the Special Prosecutor's Office, who stated that "this file has made a big and small mess and it's time to clear it up, to separate the good from the bad once and for all." evil, honest work from unforgivable abuse"

At the end of April, the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, stood for almost 7 hours in front of the investigators of the case. When he came out, he said, among other things, that "we had a total exhaustion, regarding the issue of incinerators", and that he believed that everything had been clarified. Put in the center of accusations, mainly by the opposition, Mr. Veliaj has denied being involved in the Tirana incinerator case with which, as he said, "the only thing that connected me was the cleaning of the city".

Accusations were also issued against Mr. Veliaj by the former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj who said that some of the mayor's actions "are those of a de facto owner" of the incinerator. Mr. Ahmetaj was involved in the investigation of the case of incinerators, after suspicions about his relationship with the two entrepreneurs Mirel Mërtiri and Klodian Zoto, who are considered by the prosecution as the "de facto" owners of the Tirana plant, unlike the other two in Elbasan and Fier.

The former deputy prime minister has repeatedly rejected the accusations of his involvement in the incinerator procedures, stating that he did not sign any document for them, and that he even opposed that in the case of Tirana, the project be financed from the state budget. He is abroad in Switzerland, since last summer, the parliament was asked to authorize his arrest and then issued an arrest warrant for several criminal offenses ranging from "abuse of duty" to "failure to declare assets", "corruption". or "money laundering". Suspicions of financial benefits and influence to favor concessionary contract procedures for incinerators weigh on him.