When it comes to opening the state's coffers for large tenders, the Albanian Development Fund seems to have long found its preferred partner. The institution led by Dritan Agolli continues to pour millions of euros into the same company, turning the ADF into one of the largest sources of financing for the "Fusha" firm of businessman Shkëlqim Fusha. Recently, this institution has entrusted this company with another "supertender" worth 833 million lek, or over 8.8 million euros, for the regulation, aesthetic improvement and development of commercial and tourist areas along the coast of Durrës. The project is managed in cooperation with central institutions and the Municipality of Durrës, while the work must be delivered within 18 months.
8 companies expressed interest in this large contract, but the competition scheme followed a now-familiar pattern. Instead of choosing the best and most economical offer for the citizens' pockets, the ADF decided to disqualify 5 companies from the competition and declare the usual "Fusha" the winner, with a bid of over 653 million lek.
What makes the whole story even more scandalous is that the five companies that were eliminated from the competition had submitted significantly lower bids than the winner. If Agolli wanted to save millions of lek from the state budget, the options were on the table:
The company "GPG COMPANY" requested 113.7 million lek less than the winner to do the same job.
The merger of operators "ERGI" & "BE - IS" offered 87.4 million lek less.
The union "PE - VLA - KU" and "BIBA-X" requested 64.5 million lek less.
The union of "KUPA", "NDREGJONI" and "STERKAJ" offered 57.8 million lek less.
The entity "AGI KONS" requested 21.5 million lek less than the winning company.
To get rid of all these cheaper offers, Dritan Agolli and his commission used the same pretext for everyone, they seized on point 2.3.1 of the Special Criteria, claiming that none of these five companies had "successful experience in similar work". With a drop of the pen on this bureaucratic criterion, millions of lek that could have been saved were thrown in the trash, only for the money to go to the ordinary customer.
Of course, this is not an isolated coincidence. This procedure is simply the next proof that the company “Fusha” is the absolute favorite of the Albanian Development Fund, from which it has won dozens of tenders worth tens of millions of euros. Not without reason, according to Open Data Albania data, this firm continues to remain first on the list as the company that has benefited the most from public funds in all of Albania over the last 11 years.
But the greatest irony of this supertender lies in the facts that come from the doors of justice. Today, as he receives another 8.8 million euros from the state, Shkëlqim Fusha's name has been officially named as a defendant by SPAK in the file of the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj. The businessman is accused of "active corruption of high-ranking state officials" and the Special Court has imposed the security measure "compulsory appearance" on him, while investigations are uncovering secret financial transactions and camouflage of benefits through NGOs linked to the mayor's wife.
However, for Dritan Agolli's Albanian Development Fund, SPAK's investigations into corruption with public money do not constitute any obstacle to entrusting this firm with another bag of money.
