The investigations launched by SPAK seem to be insufficient to prevent the companies of the individuals under investigation or persons associated with them from continuing to benefit from public funds. Recently, the Electricity Distribution Operator, an institution under the authority of the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Enea Karakaçi, has finalized a procurement procedure in which a company associated with Ermal Beqiri, the businessman wanted by SPAK for abuses with tenders of the National Agency for the Information Society (AKSHI), was declared the winner.
The procurement procedure had as its object "Maintenance and assessment of vulnerability, as well as exposure to cyber risks for IT systems data", with a limit fund of 694 million lek or about 723 thousand euros. The purpose of this tender announced by OSHEE was to contract an economic operator, who for a 12-month period would take charge of monitoring vulnerabilities in computer systems and assessing the risks that threaten state data from cyber attacks.
The development of this competition has raised strong doubts about the legality and fair competition, due to the scheme used by the participating operators. Four companies were registered in the procedure, but two of them did not submit any economic offer, creating indications that their inclusion was done purely formally to meet the minimum number of participants foreseen by law. Among the companies that entered the competition without submitting a financial offer was precisely "Soft & Solution", owned by businessman Ermal Beqiri.
At the end of the process, OSHEE declared the winner the company "Communication Progress", which is owned by Gentian Likaj, identified by investigators as the cohabitant of Ermal Beqiri's sister. The bid with which this company was declared the winner amounted to about 92% of the limit fund.
According to the SPAK investigation file, Gentian Likaj is a well-known name in the justice system and is suspected of having served as a trusted person to continue the scheme of benefiting from public funds, at a time when Beqiri's main companies fell under the red light of the authorities. In recent years alone, the company "Communication Progress" has benefited over 21 million euros through procedures that allegedly had predetermined criteria.
Due to these suspicious transactions and close ties to those involved in the AKSHI mega-scandal, Likaj has been officially included in the investigation files and questioned by special prosecutors on charges of corruption and manipulation of public procurement.
However, his status as a person under criminal investigation has not stopped OSHEE, under Minister Enea Karakaçi, from entrusting the company in question with the institution's cybersecurity and a new contract of 723 thousand euros.
