Author: Dallandyshe Xhaferri
On the eve of the end-of-year holidays, "Sinjalizo" monitored the expenses of five municipalities in the country, regarding decorations and the purchase of the Christmas tree. From year to year it turns out that Korça, Tirana, Elbasan, Belshi and Mallakastra opened their wallets to light up even during the earthquake, when three cities of neighboring countries in solidarity with Albania offered financial support from their funds. On the other hand, the tenders have been marked with a red flag because some of them were won without competition.
“Last year, the Municipality of Korça spent 5,800,000 lek on decorating the city for the end-of-year holidays, otherwise about 50 million old lek” – this institution says in its official response. According to the local government, the budget of this institution has reached the value of 1,942,685,590 lek.
" For 2022, the Municipality of Korça is spending 4,695,600 lek on decorations ," the written response to "Sinjalizo" states, while during the research in Open Procurement it turned out that on November 17 of this year, this municipality opened the competition for the tender with a limit fund of 1,110,277 lek just for the decorative Christmas tree. This tender with a red flag was won without competition by the economic operator "Selvije Abasllari" with a value of 1,049,000 lek.
Also, the tender for holiday decorations opened by this municipality on November 15 of this year was won without competition by the same economic operator. Its limit fund is 2,916,580 lek, while the only competing company won it ten days after the announcement with a bid of 2,860,000 lek.
"Sinjalizo" noticed during its research that even in 2021, there was no competition from competing companies for the same tender. The tender with the same fund limit was won by the economic operator "Iceberg Communication" sh.pk with a competitive bid of 2,867,000 lek.
Elbasan municipality, tender for spruce after the earthquake
According to public data in Open Procurement , in 2019 the Municipality of Elbasan opened a tender with a limit fund of up to 1,400,614 lekë for the beautification of the city during the end of the year. Only two companies participated in the competition, while “DIXHI PRINT-AL” was declared the winner for the bid worth 12,581,150 lekë. This tender was opened by the Municipality of Elbasan after the earthquake of November 26, while that year the municipalities of Tetovo, Mitrovica and Prizren did not invest in the decoration of the cities so that the predicted monetary values could come as donations to residents affected by the earthquake in Albania.
Two years later, in 2021, the Municipality of Elbasan has not invested in the decoration of the city, according to the official written response that this municipality has given to “Sinjalizo”. “ It has spent only on the maintenance of the depreciated parts of the decoration materials, only 178,000 lek ”, - it is stated in a response to “Sinjalizo”. In Open Procurement it turns out that on November 22 of last year this municipality opened the tender for the maintenance of the decorations, which was won by “IL-AD Company” after a bid of 147,700 lek. The tender does not specify the number of operators that participated in the competition, while the information is made public that there were no complaints after the announcement of the winner.
"This year, the Municipality of Elbasan anticipates investing 520,000 lek for the maintenance of the end-of-year decorations in the city , but it has not yet been realized ," it was stated at the time of receiving the response.
Municipality of Tirana
For almost six years, the Municipality of Tirana has been opening a tender for approximately 0 million old lek every year to donate the fireworks spectacle during the New Year's Eve. According to public data in Open Procurement , for 5 consecutive years, only the economic operator "Alba Fire" sh.pk has been announced as the winner of the tender, while in 2021 this company competed alone, winning the tender with a bid of 2,900,000 lek.
Also, in November of this year, the Municipality of Tirana opened the tender for materials in the lighting network. According to the data made public, the 12th of this month was the deadline for companies to be part of the competition, while Monday was also the day of the tender. Until the moment of writing this article in Open Procurement, neither the winning company nor the companies that have become part of the competition have been made public. The limit fund of this tender goes up to 60,758,600 new lek. But the procedure is specified as open on the monetary level.
Through a written response, the Municipality of Tirana has informed "Sinjalizo" that "the total fund allocated for the decoration service of the city of Tirana" includes the implementation of annual events based on VKM 420/2016 'For the approval of the state ceremonial of the Republic of Albania'. This fund is included in the realization of 7 annual events for 2021, when the municipality's budget was 2 ALL. Meanwhile, 272,148,855 annual events have been held for 42 according to the approved calendar.
Belsh Municipality, new 3,490,000 ALL for decorative trees in 2022
The Municipality of Belsh has announced in response to the request for information from “Sinjalizo” that 622,080 new lek are expected to be spent on the decoration of the city this year. Meanwhile, the Open Procurement reflects the tender opened by the Municipality of Belsh for decorative trees for 2022. The limit fund of this tender was up to 490,000 new lek, while there was no competition in the competition for the announcement of the winner. The only company participating in the competition was “AGRO-KORANI”, which won the tender with the offered amount of 2,947,000 new lek.
Also, this municipality has announced that last year 696,000 new lek were spent on decorating the city during the end of the year, while on December 24 of last year, the municipality opened the tender for the fireworks on New Year's Eve. The competing companies had only one day to submit the tender documentation for the tender with a value of 60,000 lek. This tender was won by the economic operator "Tufik Kurti", meanwhile it is not known how many operators took part in the competition, for the progress of which no complaints have been registered.
Mallakastër municipality
The municipality of Mallakastër is one of the smallest in the country with a population of 27.062 inhabitants, according to the 2011 census. According to the document provided by this municipality through a request for information, its budget in 2021 was up to 969,021,450 ALL, meanwhile the tender for the purchase of decorations for the holidays went to the value of ë,0ë0,019.7ë lek.
Contrary to what appears in the overview of tenders financed by the municipality, the public data on Open Procurement shows that this tender was not won by any company and the process was canceled. The explanation given for the cancellation of the tender is the failure to provide any suitable offer.
Previously, in 2018, only two companies competed for the tender with a limit fund of 2,447,500.00 lek, among which the operator with the bid of 2,800,00 lek was declared the winner.
Not only expensive trees, but also energy costs
Since September of this year, the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy informed the citizens about having a complete package for dealing with the energy crisis in the country. Part of this package was the decision of the Energy Regulatory Entity (ERE) in Albania, which predicted the price increase for the band above 800 KWH to 42 ALL/KWH for consumers who exceeded the limit of using 800 KWH of electricity per month .
Although this measure has not yet come into effect as announced in October, the minister's personal profile on the social network Facebook has not lacked the occasional publication of awareness-raising videos about saving electricity.
Asked by "Sinjalizo", the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy announced that during the last three years at the end of the year in the country, the consumption of electricity in the country has increased by 10%.
" The average daily consumption for the dates 1-20 December in recent years has been around 20.000 MWH. While for the dates 21-1 December, consumption increases to around 22.000 with a maximum increase of 25.000 MWH. So, the overall consumption increases by 10%, " the response states, while emphasizing that the electricity used for lighting the squares is financially covered by the municipalities.
" The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy has already proposed the normative act for reducing consumption during the state of emergency in supply, which has established several mandatory measures for reducing consumption ," the written response continues, while underlining that this measure includes the interruption of intercity road lighting and a 15% reduction in consumption in public institution buildings.
