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The Municipality of Tirana tried to cover up the waste management crisis

2024-09-21 09:47:00, Denoncim Arbjona Çibuku

The Municipality of Tirana centralized the cleaning service to the public company "Eco Tirana" through an unclear process. Veliaj accused the private individuals of withdrawing from the contracts and intentionally sabotaging the cleaning of Tirana, but the companies themselves and the agreement between the municipality of Tirana and the company "Eco-Tirana" show the opposite.

"The fall and glory of Eco-Tirana"
Created in 2016, the complicated history of "Eco Tirana" began when the Municipality of Tirana entered into a service contract with the company for the cleaning and differentiation of urban waste in the city. Six years later, at the height of the debates about the corrupt scandal of the incinerator, this initiative has not yet been implemented. Initially, this company carried out the cleaning for the "Red Zone", but the situation with the waste in the crossroads this summer worsened until it could not be "hidden".

The Municipality of Tirana tried to cover up the waste management crisis

The mayor of the municipality, Erion Veliaj, accepted the situation, stating that "this happened after the private companies that operated, withdrew from providing the service", but the companies themselves deny such a thing.

"The company Fusha shpk has not withdrawn from any private/state service contract for which it was contracted. Our company has completed the service contract in full compliance with the terms and technical specifications of the contract," a representative of the Fusha company told Citizens.al. The other two companies did not respond to a request for comment from the Citizens.

The Municipality of Tirana tried to cover up the waste management crisis

From the reading of the contract concluded between the Municipality of Tirana and the company "Eco-Tirana", which Citizens.al has, it appears that, contrary to what Veliaj has publicly stated, there was no sabotage of the cleaning by private individuals. This is because the contract officially turns out to have been signed in March 2024. Even the movements to hand over the cleaning of the entire city to "Eco-Tirana" started a year ago.

With the decision of September 27, 2023, the municipality added the territory to Eco-Tirana for the first time, then made another change on November 15, 2023. Another decision of February 2024 extends the cleaning territory for Eco Tirana to 5 areas. The contract was finally concluded on March 8, 2024.

The Municipality of Tirana tried to cover up the waste management crisis

The documents show that the municipality was aware of the transfer of cleaning from the old companies to Eco-Tirana and that there was no unexpected sabotage, so the critical situation with the waste during the summer months could have been avoided.

Experts, on the other hand, find it doubtful that the cleaning will be transferred to "Eco Tirana", which has so far only cleaned a quarter of the city.

Eco Tirana is a concessionary company where the municipality of Tirana owns 51% of the shares, while 49% is owned by the Italian company "AGSM AIM" that previously bore the name "AGSM Verona SPA".

The Municipality of Tirana tried to cover up the waste management crisis

The fate of this new contractual relationship becomes even more unclear, if we refer to the Open Data data, where it appears that "AGSM AIM" has started liquidation procedures since 2021 and is currently a company in liquidation. The financial statements show that since 2016, when the company that owns half of the shares of Eco Tirana was created, it has declared negative balances with losses of millions of Lek per year, except for 2019 when it declared a profit of 38 thousand Lek, adding to the doubts about the way how the cleaning of the city will be managed.

"Monopoly of garbage"
In early September, as Tirana had been occupied for days by mountains of garbage, Mayor Veliaj declared that the cleaning had been sabotaged. He accused the private companies that were contracted by the municipality of not cleaning the city and announced the centralization of this service in the hands of the municipality.

"From today, the cleaning will be carried out by the Municipality of Tirana, through Eco Tirana. The transition from the private sector to the municipality of these areas was sabotaged with the support of the politics of dirt and slime", said Veliaj in a post on social networks.

The Municipality of Tirana tried to cover up the waste management crisis

The city of Tirana is divided into 7 cleaning zones (3 eastern, 3 western and the Red Zone in the center of Tirana), where private operators operate with business contracts. In December 2016, the company "Eco Tirana" started operating in the "Red Zone".

The municipality of Tirana has planned to spend 2.9 billion lek (29 million euros) on urban waste management in 2024, 47% higher than in 2020. The waste management program includes salaries for the city's cleaning sector, collection, transportation and waste disposal.

Until September, this service was offered by three private companies and Eco Tirana.

Referring to the contracts, in the span of one year, the three private companies have benefited from a fund of 1.5 billion lek for the cleaning of Tirana.

The contract of "Alko Impex Construction", with the object "cleaning service of Tirana area III", ended in March 2024 and had a value of 501 million ALL.

Ante Group had a contract worth ALL 426 million to provide cleaning services.

While "Fusha shpk" also had a contract signed in March 2023 with a duration of 1 year, with the object "cleaning service of the Tirana IV area" worth 631.9 million ALL.

However, cleaning in Tirana continues to be problematic, recently this situation escalated, where during the 3 months of summer, mountains of garbage were seen in all the neighborhoods of Tirana.

On social networks, citizens began to share the situation with the waste in their neighborhoods. They joined you and the open questionnaire from Citizens.al where they witnessed a worsening situation in all the neighborhoods of the capital.

36 citizens responded to the call, testifying through photos and videos, that for several weeks and in many cases for months, different neighborhoods of Tirana had been occupied by garbage. Citizens reported problems in almost the entire territory of Tirana, but the areas most affected by bad waste management seem to be, Astiri, the "5 Majit" area, "Lapraka", "Fusha e Aviationioni" and "Parku i Autobuse ".

The Municipality of Tirana tried to cover up the waste management crisis

A family in Tirana pays 480 lek a month in tax for waste cleaning, but this tax is not returned to the service. A year ago Citizens reported on the waste situation, where it turned out that costs for cleaning were increasing, but the problem with waste is still serious.

In 2021, the municipality of Tirana itself conducted a survey where it collected the opinion of the citizens regarding the cleaning of the city.

According to this document, published on the official website of the municipality, citizens think that the cleaning of the city is average, while the most dissatisfactions are related to the number of containers and the hygiene around them.

In this document, it is written that "every day, cleaning service operators wash a surface (road) of about 1,978,550 m2 and wipe a surface (road) of about 2,979,836 m2, as well as about 148 containers per day are pulled to wash and disinfected"

Spending on waste management in 2024, according to the forecast in the budget, had doubled compared to 2017, before the Tirana incinerator project began.

A report of the High State Control found that the Municipality of Tirana has paid an additional 26.5 million euros in the last three years, in addition to the cleaning cost of 3.9 billion lek.

The citizens of Tirana will now pay only two cleaning companies "Eco Tirana" and "Integrated Energy" for the incinerator that does not exist and is under investigation for corruption./ citizens.al