In any normal country, the international arrest of a businessman accused of extorting public institutions would be enough for the state to raise the alarm and check every contract signed with his companies. In Albania, the opposite is happening: Ermal Beqiri is in a cell in France, awaiting extradition to Tirana, while his companies continue to be declared winners in Albanian state tenders.
The irony becomes even more serious when the next tender is related to AKSHI, the very agency that according to SPAK became one of the main sources of profits for its network. On September 4, the Centralized Purchasing Operator, led by Jonaid Myzyri, announced the winners of the companies “NSolution” and “HORIZON” for AKSHI’s internet service. So, the man who is accused of having benefited millions from the public tender system, continues to be fed by the same system and by the French cell.
Tender documents show how public competitions in Albania have become a fictitious decor, where the winner has his name written before the papers are even opened. For a purely routine service like the internet, with a limited fund of 22.4 million old lekë, six companies entered the competition. Three of them gave significantly cheaper prices than Beqiri's firms, but in the game of Albanian tenders, the best price is often simply an obstacle that must be swept out of the way.
The company "UNION" requested only 16.3 million old lek, "ONE Albania" submitted a bid of 16.9 million and "Abissnet" 17.1 million. And yet, the institution chose to declare the bid of the arrested businessman's company the winner, with a price of more than 19.5 million lek. Why save 315 thousand lek from citizens' money, when it can be forgiven again to the man surrounded by the most serious corruption charges?
This whole story becomes even more grotesque when you remember how Ermal Beqiri built his technology “empire.” For SPAK investigators, he was the mastermind behind a complex network of firms like “Soft & Solution,” “Horizon,” or “iTirana,” which tried to cover their tracks behind fictitious owners in order to capture every tender for AKSHI that the state issued.
The scheme was simple but effective: tailor-made letters and close official connections, which according to SPAK brought him over 18 million euros in the last four years alone. But today, while his file bears the stamp of “structured criminal group”, the machinery of his business in Tirana seems to have found the magic formula to work on its own, without even needing the presence of the owner himself.
After SPAK issued an international arrest warrant and he fled the country, his flight to freedom was cut short in French skies by a careless act. While piloting his private jet, Beqiri trespassed into the restricted airspace over the Penly nuclear power plant. The French gendarmerie forced him to immediately land the aircraft and, during a document check, discovered that the “disoriented” pilot was wanted worldwide by Interpol. From that moment on, his luxurious journey ended in Amiens prison.
Now that Beqiri is awaiting extradition to Albania, his dazzling life of luxury, paid for with public tender money, has also come to light behind bars. In France, authorities have frozen a historic castle worth 2.6 million euros in the Oise region, cars with dizzying prices, a private jet and over 2 million euros in his bank accounts.
The Ministry of Justice has started the paperwork to bring him before the Albanian court. But the question that remains hanging is much bigger than Beqiri's own fate: how is it possible that a state that claims to be fighting corruption continues to forgive millions in taxes to the same companies, proving that the system here continues to work at full speed even when the owner is in prison?
This question will have to be answered by Jonaid Myzyri of OPB and his boss, Edi Rama, who these days is busy with the various platforms he has set up to gain the trust of Albanians. Until then, the tenders continue to provide their answer: in Albania you can be handcuffed abroad, Interpol can search for you, extradition can await you, but if you have been part of the right system, the state does not forget you. Bring the tender to the cell.
