Zoto and Mërtiri left 22 million euros in debt to the Tirana incinerator

2023-12-16 09:32:00, Aktualitet CNA

Zoto and Mërtiri left 22 million euros in debt to the Tirana incinerator

Illustrative photo

From the affair of the incinerators, new facts are revealed every day.

The disappearance of tens of millions of euros of income from the incinerator through transfers and cash withdrawals from the previous owners is not the only financial damage done to the Albanians.

Because there is another side. It is that of the debts left on the companies.

A report filed in court on the financial condition of the concessionaire company Integrated Energy BV shpk at the time of its being taken into state administration on July 31 of this year, Integrated Energy BV shpk shows that it had a total of 2.2 billion or about 21.5 million euros in debt backward.

The company has nearly 10 million euros in loans from banks, another 9.5 million euros in bank loans, another 962 million lek in liabilities to suppliers and over another 2 million euros in unpaid taxes in the form of principal.

According to the report, the previous owners of the company, Klodian Zoto and Mirel Mërtir, in addition to emptying all the company's accounts, also millions of euros in debt, which are now charged to the state and Albanian taxpayers.

Official data from the state treasury show that from the approval of the Tirana incinerator concession until the moment of seizure by SPAK, the public budget has paid a total of 6.6 billion lek or about 65 million euros for the company Integrated Energy BV shpk.

Beyond the income paid from taxes, the company has benefited from tens of millions of euros more from the soil and inerts that are deposited by the builders, bringing the total figure to 100 million euros.

Until it was taken over by the state administration, it turns out that the company invested a little more than 23 million euros in the Sharra landfill. While the rest went to operating expenses or evaporated.

In the investigation file submitted a few days ago to the court, SPAK prosecutors say that the money was transferred abroad through suspicious transactions, but also through cash withdrawals being transported in bags.

Currently, the fate of the incinerator concession remains up in the air. The company is seized by the state, but its ownership remains with the private shareholders until the final decision of the court after the trial of the case on the merits.

But despite the decision, the financial bill on Albanian taxpayers has already materialized. Not only through the tens of millions of euros that disappeared, but also the other 21.5 million euros that the company charged to the state.