HTM: Durrës 5B

During the last episode, the investigative show Plug on SYRI TV focused on the vote-buying scheme with corruption. This is to show you not only the corrupt schemes of how elections are manipulated with money from corrupt tenders, but also how, as a law enforcement institution, they become part of the scheme to hide, not investigate and the propaganda to protect this scheme.

SPAK announced that it has set up a Task Force to investigate electoral crimes, but how serious is Altin Dumani about investigating these crimes? Today we will tell you how the Socialist Majority has set up a “5D” scheme for each city, and SPAK has been aware of these schemes for 3 years, and not that it has not investigated them but has served as their shield. After Tirana, Durrës is the city with another flagrant “5D” scheme, where directors convicted of corruption, theft and forgery have held high state positions, and have even created companies to profit from millions of euros, which are then spent on buying votes in elections.

In Tirana, the corrupt scheme of Erion Veliaj and his Directors was christened with the name "5D", apparently in honor of the 5 directors involved. In Durrës, one of the schemes identical to "5D" is hidden behind the company HTM SHPK, which is owned by citizen Ilir Tabaku, a name that serves as a 'presta nome' for the real owner of this company, who is a name well known to the public, the socialist administration and in general in the city of Durrës.

Plator Mehmeti is the director of OSHEE who is behind this scheme. First, we will bring you a short and very concise CV of Plator Mehmeti, to understand what he represents and the promising data to be a director of this government....

The media has repeatedly denounced Plator Mehmeti, as having been convicted at least 4 times for charges of corruption, energy theft, abuse of office, violation of tenders or even falsification of documents. But even with such a long CV of convictions, he has never declared them, and this does not constitute a problem for the current government, promoting him to the highest positions of OSHEE. According to media denunciations, but also court documents, in 2007, Mehmeti was sentenced to 10 months in prison for abuse of office, violation of equality in tenders and falsification of documents. Mehmeti was arrested in 2007 and later convicted after, in collaboration with other KESH managers in Durrës, during the years 2003-2006, they caused 3 million euros in damage to the state. Plator Mehmeti has been convicted before, specifically in 2004. With decision No. 52 of the Durrës Court, Mehmeti pleaded guilty to the criminal offense of theft of electricity under Article 137/2 of the Criminal Code and was sentenced to a fine of 250,000 lek. Mehmeti was also sentenced by decision No. 229, dated 25.04.2006, of the Durrës Court for the criminal offense of forgery of documents committed in collaboration under Article 186/3 and 25 of the Criminal Code. He was finally sentenced to 1 (one) year in prison and a fine of 50,000 lek. The prison sentence was suspended and the defendant was placed on probation for a period of 2 (two) years. These convictions were constantly concealed by him, and for this, he was sentenced once again in April 2018, for the criminal offense of forgery of forms, stamps and seals.

Plator Mehmeti was sentenced to 4 months in prison, converted to probation. Even with such a rich CV of convictions, since the Renaissance came to power, Plator Mehmeti would be appointed Director of OSHEE Durrës, and would even enjoy the shield of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, or OSHEE, for denying the accusations that were publicly leveled against him.

But why did the government and the Socialist Party need a character with such a small fortune, at the head of an institution of particular importance, which turns over millions of lek every day. In the following, we will show you how, in the position of director of OSHEE, Plator Mehmeti managed to build the scheme and the HTM company that would receive 25 million euros in tenders, and the main source would be OSHEE, where he himself was the director.

The HTM company was founded in 2009 by citizen Ilir Tabaku, who turns out to be a character with strong leftist connections, and even with family members employed in the most important institutions of the city of Durrës, such as the municipality, the port, or even in companies that also benefit from state funds.

Two years after the establishment of the HTM company, the first trace of Plator Mehmeti's connections with Ilir Tabaku's company is also noted. Mehmeti buys 90% of the shares from Ilir Tabaku for the value of 90 thousand lekë, thus becoming the legal owner of this company. But after a year, another suspicious transaction takes place, where Mehmeti resells 90% of the shares to the founder of the company Ilir Tabaku for the same value he bought them for, i.e. 90 thousand lekë. On January 31, 2014, Tabaku decides to suspend the activity, only to reopen it a year later.

According to balance sheets filed with the National Business Center, for the years 2011-2013 this company had invoiced around 20 million lek or 200,000 euros from the sale of construction materials.

HTM would remain suspended for more than a year, only to be reactivated in September 2015, a year after Ardian Çela would be appointed as General Director of OSHEE and Plator Mehmeti as Chief Engineer of OSHEE in Durrës, a region where Çela is one of the main political leaders of the Socialist Party.

It seems that the electoral commitment also required financial support, so the company, with a modest turnover for the construction sector, was reactivated in 2015, and along with the new status of Ardian Çela and Plator Mehmeti, the success of the HTM company began.

Within a few months, from its activation in September 2015, the HTM company, invoices a full 36 million lekë or 360 thousand euros. So, in 4 months, this company invoices approximately double the turnover of the three years taken together, when Ardian Çela was not yet the director of OSHEE and Plator Mehmeti the Chief Engineer of Durrës.

From this time on, the HTM company would only recognize increasing turnover and profits, multiplying them from year to year, similar to those of 5D in Tirana.

The explosion of managerial skills is capitalized on in the 2016 balance sheet, when this company invoiced 293 million lek, from which it earned 104 million lek net, i.e. with a profit rate of 30%.

It seems that Plator Mehmeti's several years of experience in OSHEE has influenced the HTM company to expand its activity in 2017 by including renewable energy sources.

And this expansion immediately proved successful, with the HTM company billing 614 million lek in 2017 alone, achieving a profit of 183 million lek, a profit equal to 3 years of turnover for the same company, when the Renaissance was not in power.

While the main or only source of income for this company were the multi-million tenders from state institutions, the appetite is increasing even further, with the expansion of activity in another sector, that of water supply and sewage. In 2018 and 2019, according to documents submitted by the Central Bank of Albania by employee Mirgen Merollari, the HTM company also operated in the water supply sector, which, as results from the evidence provided, each expansion of activity was then accompanied by a larger tender.

One of the most serious abuses, which has left shocking evidence for the justice system, occurred in May 2019.

This month, the HTM company registers a secondary address with the Durrës Port Authority. According to the documentation submitted to the Central Bank, this address is registered as a legal obligation for the contract concluded with this institution for “Service for the maintenance of electrical energy assets for four years”. There is no data on this procedure in OpenData as another tender for this service won by this company in 2023 is reflected. But interesting data is obtained from an audit of the High State Audit Office at the Durrës Port Authority.

This report expressly states that this procedure is in flagrant violation of the law and is considered a damage to the institution. According to the KLSH, the damage calculated from the award of the tender in a fictitious manner and moreover to a company that did not even meet the criteria caused a damage of about 105 million lek or 1. 1 million euros.

In the conditions when there are no other operators in the competition, KVO should cancel the procedure, analyzing the causes, changing the criteria to increase the number of participants and developing a new procedure to avoid the illegal use of public funds in the amount of 105,384,000 lek, in violation of Law No. 9643, dated 20.11.2006, “On Public Procurement”.

While the KSHA analyzes this abusive tender and the HTM company as the winner of the competition, it also brings to attention several other tenders that this company has won from OSHEE. These interesting data are obtained at the moment when the HTM company presents, for fulfillment of criteria in the tender, the contracts and cooperation with the AL-ASFALT company. The latter in 2016 alone has benefited not a little, but 5 million euros of tenders in just one year from OSHEE, where Plator Mehmeti, the owner of HTM, was the chief engineer. If we refer to the KSHA findings for 2016, the HTM company and AL-ASFALT have used the same scheme as 5 D in Tirana. Al ASFALT has won from OSHEE, the tenders "Installation, assembly of the electrical network control system, transformation cabins in Durrës", value 292,728,000 lek. Expansion of the 20kv network in the youth sector with a new exit F.16.SP from the ns.t Spitalle with underground cable lines with new 20 kv cabins and TU network", worth 174, 979,555 lek. "Construction and reconstruction of cabins, MV-TU distribution electrical network in Kavaja", worth 29,213,126 lek. And if we refer to the audit of the Albanian Supreme Audit Institution and the official documents of these companies, signed before a notary, the tenders in OSHEE were won by AL ASFALT and then the works were carried out by subcontracting by HTM of the director of OSHEE Durrës. And when the contracts were renewed in 2023, HTM appears on the scene as a co-winner of the tender from OSHEE for "Maintenance of electrical energy assets for 3 years together with AL ASFALT.

The HTM company would experience a financial boom in the last 5 years, where it would become one of the most successful companies in the country, which from 2019 to 2023, the last year of submitting balance sheets to the Central Bank, would account for a turnover of 25 million euros, all of this from tenders and Albanian taxpayers' money.

Initially, we will focus on the turnover of this company, and then take one by one the tenders won, most of which turn out to have been won by OSHEE, where Plator Muhameti is the director.

For 2018, the HTM company has an invoice of 177,000,000 lek and a profit of 24,000,000 lek. What is noted in this balance sheet is that the company owns land worth 300,000 euros and buildings worth 2.1 million euros.

In 2019, the big change will also begin, where in addition to tenders from OSHEE, the company will be the favorite of mayors and socialist directors, who will contract it for various works. This year HTM declares 355,300,000 lek turnover and a profit of 80,000,000 lek. Also this year, the company declares that it has purchased shares in another company.

According to data from the Central Bank, the HTM company is a 100% shareholder of the BE-IS Energy company.

And although the shares were purchased in 2019, the contract was deposited in 2020 at the Central Bank.

The value of the shares is 105,000 euros, but verifications show that this company owns a concession for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant. For this year, the balance sheet also declares a bank deposit worth 150,000,000 lek.

In 2020, HTM has a turnover of 287,000,000 lek and a profit of 46,000,000 lek.

The deposit amounts to 210,000,000 lek.

For 2021, the tenders won and turnover tripled and the billing from HTM is declared at 61,000,000 lek and profit at 117,000,000 lek.

The following year continued with further growth, with a turnover of 800 million lek and 83 million lek profit. The value of the land this year amounted to 480,000 euros.

The decline begins again in 2023. While Prime Minister Edi Rama dismisses Ardian Çela from OSHEE and the departures begin in the dome of this institution, the HTM company also feels it directly with a halving of its turnover in the last 2 years. For 2023, this company declares a turnover of 375 million lek and a profit of 35 million, which again remains one of the unattainable turnovers for thousands of Albanian businesses in that sector.

If we focus on the tenders won by this company, it turns out that most of them are without competition and with red flags, which means violations in the tendering procedure. Millions of euros have been obtained by energy institutions, KESH, OST and OSHEE itself, where Plator Mehmeti is the director.

The tenders from the Directorates under Belinda Balluku were taken precisely during the financial boom of this company, that is, from 2019 to 2023, and are estimated at millions of euros. Most of the tenders, as it appears from the procurement documents, are without competition.

Transmission System Operator OST

REF-79325-09-08-2023

Value 49,134,792 lek, date 08.09.2023

Transmission System Operator OST

REF-50916-11-23-2022

Value 2,276,949 lekë, date 23.11.2022

Transmission System Operator OST

REF-58919-05-26-2020

Value 2,146,240 lekë, date 26.05.2020

Transmission System Operator OST

REF-43741-11-18-2019

Value 16,639,000 lek, date 18.11.2019

Electricity Distribution Operator

REF-15806-03-28-2019

Value 14,960,000 lekë, date 28.03.2019

Transmission System Operator OST

REF-20569-05-06-2019

Value 2,715,200 lekë, date 06.05.2019

Sh.A Albanian Electric Power Corporation Tirana

REF-20445-05-03-2019

Regional Directorate of OSSH Burrel

REF-83956-10-16-2023

Value 142,000,000 lek, date 16.10.2023

Regional Directorate of OSSH Shkoder

REF-92707-01-04-2024

Value 108,608,000 lek, date 04.01.2024, tender with Red Flag

Regional Directorate of OSSH Berat

REF-96178-02-22-2024

Value 8,669,423 lekë, date 22.02.2024, tender with Red Flag

Transmission System Operator OST

REF-54982-12-23-2022

Value 2,646,956 lekë, date 23.12.22, red flag tender

Electricity Distribution Operator

REF-89661-03-10-2021

Value 44,985,000 lek, date 10.03.2021, red flag tender

But not only from the directorates of the Ministry of Line where Platro Mehmeti is the director, but also for the Municipality of Durrës and other institutions of the coastal city, where Mehmeti is part of the electoral headquarters, HTM turns out to be the preferred company for fat tenders, and almost all of these tenders are without competition...

Municipality of Durres

REF-34456-11-16-2017

Value 5,796,640, date 16.11.2017 tender with Red Flag

Municipality of Durres

REF-24343-05-29-2019

Value 43,950,000 lekë, date 29.05.2019, tender with Red Flag

Municipality of Durres

REF-54971-03-26-2020

Value 130,146,289 lek, tender with Red Flag

Municipality of Durres

REF-13516-07-18-2024

Value 6,923,008 lekë, date 18.07.2024, tender with Red Flag

Durrës Regional Water Supply and Sewerage Company

REF-17919-09-04-2024

Value 97,733,260 lekë, date 04.09.2024, tender with Red Flag

Durrës Road Enterprise

REF-63060-06-29-2020

Value 4,350,000 lekë, date 29.06.2020, tender with Red Flag

Sh.A Water Supply and Sewage Durres

REF-70805-05-23-2018

Durrës Regional Water Supply and Sewerage Company

REF-17919-09-04-2024

Value 98,897,960 lekë, date 04.09.2024, tender with Red Flag

In addition to the municipality of Durrës, in the 3 years of success, the municipality of Tirana also became a tender barn for HTM. And then the activity spread to other municipalities run by socialists. 

Tirana Municipality

REF-88503-02-26-2021

Value 305,684,203 lek, date 26.02.2021

ECO Tirana

REF-16038-12-21-2021

Value 66,198,080, due 21.12.2021, tender with Red Flag

Local Government Këlcyrë

REF-91451-03-29-2021

Value 249,483,204 lek, date 29.03.2021

Regional Water Supply and Sewerage Company Pogradec Sh.A

REF-70609-05-25-2023

Value 4,607,000 lek, date 25.05.2023

Berat Municipality

REF-49735-11-14-2022

54,488,310 lek, date 14.11.2022

In the three years, 2022, 2023, 2024, the HTM company, although constantly denounced in the media for abusive tenders, will also absorb millions of euros from the Albanian Development Fund or the Port of Durres, other institutions under the control of Belinda Balluku.

Text overlay and effects with Tender Tables

Albanian Development Fund

REF-24421-10-14-2024

Value 208,333,230 lekë, date 14.10.2024

Albanian Development Fund

REF-43498-09-27-2022

Value 206,188,896, date 27.09.2022, tender with Red Flag

Durres Port Authority

REF-64946-04-05-2023

Value 85,348,800 lek, date 05.04.2023

For the period 2019-2024, according to data in Open Data Albania, this company has benefited from 671,539,194 lek in payments from the State Treasury. Meanwhile, most of the payments from the state budget have been received through other companies with which HTM has collaborated in winning the tender.

During this golden period, Ilir Tabaku also bought 50% of the shares together with citizen Dorian Baba in the company J-ENERGY. Baba also turns out to be an official of OSHEE, which further expands the network of OSHEE employees and directors involved in this scheme.

So from a bankrupt company in 2014, with minimal turnover, HTM, after being sold and bought between Plator Mehmeti and Ilir Tabaku, is suspended. And then with the coming of the Renaissance to power and the appointment of Mehmeti as director of OSHEE, the company begins to flourish. Millions of euros received in violation of the law, in conflict of interest and without competition go straight into the pockets of social officials who are normally there to guarantee the efficiency of the funds. In addition to the screaming corruption, the abuse of millions of euros of funds, everything has one goal, providing dirty money to buy elections. The people mentioned in this material also turn out to be the key figures of the Socialist Party for the city of Durrës.

So far we have only followed one line, but it does not end there. In the following we will show you that HTM is not the only company absorbing millions of electoral euros, but there are even more...

REAR shpk is another company with ownership and undeniable ties to Plator Mehmeti, which has also benefited from hundreds of millions of lek from public procurements, or the sole purpose of its existence has been precisely the circulation of millions of lek obtained from tenders. 

Even in this case, the company hides behind a fake name, but behind it, Plator Mehmeti's family members also turn out to be employed in the company.

REAR Shpk was founded in 2005 by citizen Nebi Meçaj. Meçaj, although today he is employed as a cook and his wife is an invoicer at the UKD, in 2005 he founded an import-export company for electrical materials, and by coincidence he chose to use the combination of the names of Plator Mehmeti's daughters as the name for the company. Redona Mehmeti and Arba Mehmeti, who also happen to be employees of the company founded by a cook. But not only that, but part of this company are also Adnad Mehmeti, Plator Mehmeti's brother, or today the REAR company is owned by Spartak Mehmeti, cousin of the director of OSHEE. Simply put, according to official documents, the entire family circle of Plator Mehmeti, is employed in the company of a cook. Or at least this is how camouflage is attempted in front of the justice institutions, which have turned a blind eye to the abuses of millions of euros.

Two years after its establishment, in 2007, chef Nebi Meçaj sells the shares for 100 thousand lek, and the buyer is Emiljano Haxhiu. This is where the identification and first connection between the REAR company and Plator Mehmeti begins. Emiljano Haxhiu turns out to be the brother of the traveler Ermira Mehmeti (Haxhiu). From Plug's investigation, it turns out that the ex-wife of citizen Plator Mehmeti has the name Ermira but the surname Berisha. There is no other woman with the same father and mother and the surname Mehmeti or Haxhiu. So with this logic, the ex-brother-in-law becomes the first holder of shares in the family company. In May 2011, the first transaction within the family is carried out, where Emiljano Haxhiu sells 100% of the shares to Plator Mehmeti for 19,000,000 lek. According to the filed documentation, Plator Mehmeti made the payment by bank transfer. But from the investigation of I Plug it turns out that Emiljano Haxhiu has sued citizen Plator Mehmeti because according to a notarial contract dated 04.05.2011 he owes him 11,000,000 lek. So the banking transactions turn out to be fictitious. In November 2011, another suspicious transaction is carried out within the family where Plator Mehmeti sells his father's shares, Qani Mehmeti, for 5 million lek, while the company's capital was 35 million lek or 6 times greater than the figure for which the company passed from son to father. Although the contract for this transaction is notarial, the data in this contract are false. On 30.09.2013, after Rilindja came to power, Plator Mehmeti also leaves as administrator of the company, now owned by his father. And in his place, Ilir Tabaku, who was at the same time the owner of the HTM company, was appointed administrator.

During this period, after Plator Mehmeti took office at OSHEE, this company would also be denounced in the media for receiving abusive tenders. One of them was worth 300 thousand dollars from the Electricity Distribution Operator. According to the denunciations of the time, the tender for the purchase of transformers and materials for emergency needs raised doubts about the method of selecting the winner.

In October 2018, suspicious transactions within the family continued. Qani Mehmeti, for health reasons, donated 100% of the shares to his wife Teuta Mehmeti.

In October 2019, Teuta Mehmeti, again for health reasons, donated shares worth 63,000,000 lek to her husband's nephew, citizen Spartak Mehmeti, who, although the owner of a very profitable company, turns out to be an employee at a Customs Agency. From 2006, when it was founded, until 2023, the company's turnover is estimated at over 1. 3 billion lek or 13 million euros, and the income is mainly from public procurement. Meanwhile, for the period 2019-2023, when HTM recognizes its flourishing with almost 25 million euros of tenders, the company REAR declares income only from renting. According to data on LinkedIn, Plator Mehmeti, who was removed from state duties today, turns out to be an employee of the company REAR, a company founded by a chef, sold and bought several times within his family and whose name bears the initials of his two daughters. 

balances

Year Turnover Profit

2006 16,629,000

2007 49,098,000 5,072,000

2008 103.987.000 15.597.000

2009 125,715,000 10,235,000

2010 152.971.000 15.591.000

2011 121.226.000 18.530.000

2012 90,493,000 15,920,000

2013 79,793,000 8,200,000

2014 129,926,000 9,124,000

2015 155.580.000 17.152.000

2016 116.972.000 23.900.000

2017 92,040,000 14,095,000

2018 15,700,000 600,040 deposit 30,000,000

2019 5,200,000 -2,000,000 --------

2020 8,724,000 4,500,000 --------

2021 12,588,000 4,051,000 deposit 30,000,000

2022 12,420,000 2,246,000 deposit 30,000,000

2023 8,260,000 2,151,000 deposit 30,000,000

So a second-level director, convicted several times for abuse of public funds and theft, turns out to be the direct and indirect owner of two companies, which during the Renaissance period are estimated to have generated 38 million euros. But the greatest merit of Plator Mehmet, Dorjan Baba, Ilir Tabaku is not only the abusive absorption of millions from citizens' taxes, but the engagement and good management of this money during electoral campaigns. And while SPAK informs us about the establishment of the Electoral Task Force, let's hope that he will have watched this show, to understand that electoral crimes are not investigated with media reports but investigations, which block the millions of corruption that alienate the will of citizens at the very beginning. /syri.net

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