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BIRN: From tenders to the construction business, how did the directors of the Municipality get rich

2024-03-31 21:05:00, Denoncim CNA
BIRN: From tenders to the construction business, how did the directors of the
The head of the Municipality of Tirana, Erion Veliaj and the former head of UKT, Redi Molla during an inspection in 2017

In April 2021, during the campaign for the parliamentary elections of June of that year, citizen JB, who thought she was working in a private company, communicates to a friend saying that someone had taken the administrator of the company 5D Konstruktion from Lapraka, requested that she appear in the election campaign, it is believed, for the Socialist Party.

"They took my boss from the Lapraka unit, knowing that the owner belongs to the state, and they told him, tell J. to engage with the elections," the employee was quoted in a decision for security measures of the Special Court.

The Socialist Party won that year's elections amid accusations of massive abuse of state resources, a controversial system of using administration workers to collect votes, and a voter list where every hundred citizens had an overseeing party official known as a "patronazist".

The system was obviously not limited only to public administration employees, but also to companies, nominally private, which, in fact, are accused of belonging to two directors of the Municipality of Tirana, Redi Molla and Mariglen Qato. The two were arrested by order of SPAK last week, while six other municipal officials were also charged with violations of equality in tenders and other criminal offences.

The 120-page file, prepared by the Prosecutor's Office to argue the requests for security measures before the Special Court of First Instance for Corruption and Organized Crime, details how Molla and Qato received dividends, while the nominal owner, a baker in Tirana, was paid in informally with a salary from the company he supposedly owned.

The prosecution also notes how, without any great effort to mask the criminal nature of the transactions, the company that won millions of euros in tenders and had millions of Lek in undistributed profits, was sold by one shareholder to another against the nominal price of the share, 100 Lek in total. The prosecution also claims that the violations committed by state officials to award public works contracts to this company were numerous, because the company was new and did not have any activity to justify meeting the tendering criteria, such as turnover or success. in the implementation of previous projects.

Wiretaps of communications between various employees of the company also suggest that Qato and Molla's ownership of the company was a secret that everyone knew, nor was there any very strong effort to keep it hidden. The wiretaps also feature a work environment dominated by strife and pressure, employees taking sedatives to help them sleep and a bizarre tax inspection in which tax inspectors "saw something they shouldn't have seen".

The history of the success of the company 5D Konstruksion originates according to SPAK from the public position of its secret shareholders. The company managed to win countless tenders in Tirana Municipality institutions, but was unable to win tenders in other public institutions under the control of other socialist officials.

The investigation also reveals that money believed to have been stolen from Albanians through rigged tenders was invested in the construction of palaces. Data from the National Business Center show that after 2021, the company started construction on five buildings, mainly residential buildings and a hotel in Durrës.

In fact, in relation to the hotel in Durrës, the company was also granted a special status granted by the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama, a status that exempts the company from taxes and charges taxpayers with covering the costs of basic services such as water, sewage, etc. .

The hotel in Durrës brings to attention the mayor of the Municipality of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, who, in the private communications of the employee JB, is described as nothing less than one of the shareholders behind the hotel, which officially results in the name of four other people.

"We are making this hotel," says the company's employee. "It's axle. our owner... Lali eri... This one." [SIC]

Asked by BIRN, a spokesman for the Municipality sent a comment from Mayor Veliaj in which the description is considered absurd.

"This is the third most absurd thing I have heard about myself. The champion remains the one who said that I am Ahmadinejad's son, while in second place is the guy under the window, who said that I made the pyramid schemes of '97, from high school. No, I have NO connection with any hotel, neither in Durrës, nor in Tirana, nor in the whole globe!"

Molla and Qato pleaded not guilty before the court on Saturday, in the session of validation of the security measure given earlier behind closed doors by GJKKO.

The electrician and the baker

BIRN: From tenders to the construction business, how did the directors of the
The construction site of the hotel by the Mediterranean Investment Group company in Durrës

Biseda mes punonjëses së nxehur, J.B., dhe një mikut të saj në prill 2021 gjithsesi është një nga provat për të cilat prokuroria thotë se tregojnë pronësinë e drejtpërdrejtë të Qatos dhe Mollës mbi  kompaninë 5D Konstruksion.

“Nga provat e administruara, të vlerësuar në raport me njëra-tjetrën, rezultojnë të dhëna që mbështesin faktin se shtetasit Redi Molla dhe Mariglen Qato janë personat që kontrollojnë dhe drejtojnë  aktivitetin e shoqërisë tregtare, janë personat që marrin vetime për veprimtarinë e shoqërisë tregtare, për punësimin apo largimin e punonjësve, për pagat e punonjësve, janë persona që në disa raste kanë arkëtuar shuma monetare në shoqëri  për veprimtarinë e saj të përditshme, janë persona që kanë marrë përfitime financiare nga aktiviteti tregtar i shoqërisë,” citohen prokurorët në vendimin e gjykatës.

Megjithatë, në letra kompania u regjistrua në vitin 2016 nga një elektricist nën emrin Igor Elektrik. Kompania fitoi tenderin e parë në maj 2016, as një muaj nga  data e themelimit dhe autoriteti kontraktor ishte vetë Ujësjellës Kanalizime Tiranë SHA, kompani e drejtuar në  atë kohë nga Redi Molla dhe ku kryetari i komisionit të prokurimit ishte Mariglen Qato.

Dyshes së pronarëve iu desh që të mbyllin sytë për të dhënë kontratën me vlerë 5 milionë lekë, pasi kompania e sapokrijuar nuk mundej të plotësonte kriteret më minimale të tenderimit, të tilla si pasja e mjeteve për të bërë punën apo pasja e një aktiviteti të mëparshëm. Prokuroria i ngarkoi Qatos edhe akuzën e mosdeklarimit të interesave private, pasi  në formularin tip të procesit të prokurimit, deklaroi se “nuk ishte” në kushtet e konfliktit  të interesit.

Prokuroria vëren gjithsesi se pavarësisht se ishte pronar i një kompanie që shpejt fitoi tenderë dhe bëri para të madhe, elektricisti gjatë të gjithë kohës vijonte të punonte me një nipt personi fizik, përmes të cilit paguante sigurime shoqërore për veten. Por fitimet nga tenderët duket se janë mjaftueshëm të bollshëm sa kompania, brenda pesë muajsh nga themelimi, zhvendosi zyrat, nga një apartament diku në periferi në rrugën  Sitki Çiço, te qendra Kondor në  rrugën “Babë Rexha” në Tiranë.

Në vitin 2016, viti i parë dhe i pjesshëm i aktivitetit, kompania realizoi të ardhura në masën 77 milionë lekë. Në vitin 2017, kompania realizoi të ardhura në masën 175 milionë lekë dhe fitime neto në masën 6.1 milionë lekë. Dhe pavarësisht se paratë ishin  aty, prokurorët  thonë se pronari fillestar shiti 75% të aksioneve të kompanisë përkundrejt çmimit 75 lekë (shlyer jashtë zyrës noteriale).

The buyer, citizen Muhamet Petriti, turns out to be a baker in Tirana. According to the prosecution, he receives a salary and pays social security at a bakery business owned by his wife. He does not appear to have real control over the company he owns. The administrator of the company, Nestor Muhametllari, does not have his number, while in one case when he needed it, he took it from Alfred Qato, the brother of the arrested director Mariglen Qato. In this case, the administrator orders Alfred Qato that the "owner" goes to make a withdrawal at the bank, while the number of communications between the owner and the administrator is extremely small. On the contrary, the prosecution notes that the administrator has over 1,000 phone calls and missed calls with the Qato brothers.

Partner 1 and Partner 2

The prosecution provided what appears to be strong evidence that Molla and Qato, the two arrested directors, were de facto owners of the company. In documents found with the administrator, including service blocks, the two are referred to as Partner 1 and Partner 2 with detailed accounts to show how much money one and the other received from the company's profit dividends.

A notepad seized from the office and another seized from the administrator's home show the true owners of the company. Then, documents seized from the company's financial computer show the directors as people who have benefits or regular payments from the company.

"It turns out that Partner 1, or otherwise O1, referring to the documents found in the company's seized computers is the same person (R) that the citizen Nestor Muhametllari refers to in his notes, who is the citizen Redi Molla," notes the prosecution. In the company's internal documents, citizens Mariglen Qato are referred to as (M) or Partner 2.

The 5D Construction company had an income of 22 million euros for the period from its foundation to 2022, the last year for which the balance sheet has been filed with the National Business Center./ BIRN





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