The reconstruction of the Prime Minister's Office building is not only costing Albanians millions of euros, but the tenders held for this purpose are also being accompanied by disqualifications of the most economically advantageous offers. After the so-called "Garden of Eden" project, which cost around 4.3 billion lek, another 534 million lek are now expected to be spent on works in the Prime Minister's Office basement, which include strengthening the building's structure, building a water tank, and reconstructing the archive with new equipment.
The tender was announced by the Albanian Development Fund, which had set a limit fund of 712 million lek. 15 companies participated in the competition, while 7 of them were disqualified. In the end, the winner was the company Senka sh.pk.
But what raises questions is the fact that the winning company had only the fifth lowest bid in the competition. Four economic operators had submitted more favorable financial offers, but were left out of the procedure.
Two of the disqualified companies, AGI KONS and INA, had bid about 60 million and 42 million lekë respectively less than the winning company. According to the ADF’s argument, both bids were considered “abnormally low”, as they were below the average level of valid bids and, according to the commission, did not correspond to normal market values.
However, even taking the justification for the disqualification of these operators for granted, the ADF seems to have once again overlooked the economic ranking of the bids. The institution did not even select the bid of RSM COMPANY, which ranked third in value and had bid about 38 million lek less than the winning company.
What prompted the ADF, among the bids considered valid and unqualified, to select the company that had presented a significantly higher cost?
Apparently, previous problems with justice do not constitute a reason to raise doubts in the awarding of public contracts. At least, this impression is created in the case of Senka sh.pk, which seems to continue to enjoy the trust of the head of the Albanian Development Fund, Dritan Agolli, despite the fact that one of its shareholders was convicted only a year ago by the GJKKO for falsifying documents and violating equality in tenders.
In June of last year, the Special Court Against Corruption and Organized Crime found two officials of the Kurbin Municipality guilty, as well as the shareholder of the "Senka" company, Donika Senka, in connection with the tender procedures for the Laç water supply.
Donika Senka, who owns 50% of the company's shares, pleaded guilty to the criminal offense of forging seals and stamps and was sentenced to 8 months in prison, a sentence that was later converted to probation.
