After isolating the southeast of the country for several days and torturing citizens through alternative routes, due to uncontrolled excavations for Corridor VIII, the Albanian Road Authority (ARRSH) has decided to reward the responsible company with a non-competitive tender.
On March 13, the ARRSH announced the tender for “Emergency – preventive measures against landslides in the area called Ligata e Bicit, Dragostunjë”, worth 937 million lekë. According to the documentation, the intervention aimed at the bend of Dragostunjë to prevent any further collapse.
But just six days later, the ARA announced the winner of the contract to the company “ANK” through direct negotiation, without any prior notice of the contract. The law provides for direct negotiation only in emergency situations, which must be justified by the responsible institution.
The irony is that the emergency had already passed, as the segment reopened on March 3 and state representatives one after another “blessed” the reopening of the axis. However, the ARA remembered ten days later to announce the tender for “emergency measures” and award it through direct negotiation.
Even if the segment required other emergency measures to be safe for traffic, then why did the ARA rush to reopen it ten days before making this procurement? Shouldn't the safety of citizens be guaranteed, so that passage is then allowed?
However, the company "ANK", which won the tender with a bid of 94% of its value, is the same one that carried out the works in this area for Corridor VIII. The suspicions are that uncontrolled excavations may have caused the previous collapse. While the expertise of state representatives blamed... the weather.
The result? The ARRSH takes millions of lek out of the budget to pay the company, at a time when the emergency had passed, citizens were tortured on alternative routes and, in the end, millions of lek go to the government's alleged past mistakes.
In this story, the blockade is suffered by the citizens, the torture is suffered by the citizens, and the bill is paid by the citizens.
The winner is the company owned by Agim Kola, brother of former SP MP Ndue Kola, who until some time ago was also a co-owner. Surprisingly, wherever this entity works, roads collapse. We recall that this company was the one that built the Korça-Ersekë axis that later collapsed. And, although they are failing in the works, this has not diminished the trust of the institutions during the socialist government to entrust them with many public tenders.
