Author: Klevis Paloka
How do police body cameras work, the Ministry of the Interior asked almost five years ago, presenting the device as the last word of law enforcement. The device was considered capable of recording, with high quality up to eight hours maximum, had an SOS emergency button and not only with a 110-degree viewing angle, but easily mounted on the belt, chest and shoulder. It also had to be water and weather resistant, have a battery backup and display GPS coordinates. But often the policemen returned to the department with the statement "the camera is out of battery", "The camera was damaged by the rain". As it was planned that the body cameras would be carried especially by the policemen of the "Shqiponja" Forces, after the murder of Klodian Rasha it was discovered that none of the policemen of this sector had a functional camera or even installed in their uniform. An investigation launched by the SCBA, did not shed light on the problem of the use of the apparatus, for which no official voice argues what percentage of these cameras are in use, how many of them are out of order and what are the costs for their maintenance .
Unofficially, people within the police feel freer to speak and tell the truth. "For 3-4 months we no longer use body cameras during the service, which control the area that our police station has to patrol in Tirana”, this is how a police officer of Police Station No. 3 in Tirana says anonymously.
The police officer says that the entire commissariat no longer has body cameras for patrolling. "In our police station, it has been about 3-4 months since they removed them from us, and they did not give us any reason why this happened, but as I communicated with my colleagues, the same thing happened to them as well.", the policeman ends his story.
But when did body cameras go live?
Body cameras for police officers were put into operation in February 2016, and at that time they were described both by the then interior minister, Saimir Tahiri, and also by the prime minister, Edi Rama, as a radical transformation of the relationship between the police and citizens. .
In his speech during the presentation of these body cameras for police officers, Prime Minister Edi Rama described it as an irreplaceable opportunity for complete transparency in all the activities of law enforcement.
"This program of the technological revolution in the State Police is an irreplaceable opportunity, to realize a complete transparency in all the activity of our law enforcement forces. Transparency gives opportunities to leaders, gives opportunities to employees, gives opportunities to citizens, gives opportunities to communities, gives opportunities to partners to read every aspect of this activity and confronts the State Police with the opportunity to realize the great ambition every day, to was a police that has no difference with the police of the European Union", expressed Prime Minister Rama.
While the interior minister of that time, Saimir Tahiri, described these cameras as the most powerful instrument against corruption.
"It is the most powerful anti-corruption instrument and I am very proud that the Albanian Police is the first in the Balkans to apply this instrument, putting us before the responsibility and before the obligation to do much more, to increase the security standard, to fight informality, illegality, criminality and above all to build the solid and constant trust of the citizens of the State Police. We believe that technology and innovation are the best ways to modernize the State Police, to increase the standard of its service, to increase the citizen's guarantee in front of the State Police employees, to have police officers who do not abuse their duty , police officers worthy of gaining the trust of citizens", stated former minister Tahiri.
So even though more than 5 years have passed, the State Police continues not to provide information about the tender developed for the purchase of these body cameras.
"The tender for body cameras for police officers was developed by the former Directorate of Centralized Procurement in the Ministry of the Interior and is included in the category "Classified", it is stated in the official response of the State Police.
But he discovered the affair in this tender through a detailed inspection State High Control, which affected one by one the violations that, according to the audit, had been made for this tender.
During the audit, KLSH brought to light the fact that at the beginning it was said that the tender procedure was done in violation of the order of the minister of the interior.
"In the tender procedure with the object "Multifunctional system of body cameras for State Police patrols" worth about 541 million ALL, it was found that the procedure was classified "secret" at the security level "Limited", contrary to the requirements of the Order of the Minister of Internal Affairs no. 459, dated 26.8.2015 and Law 6943, dated 20.11.2016, as amended. The reasoning used for this classification, because "Film material (Audio/video) is a product that is produced after the end of the tender procedure and is judged to have served as an artifice to avoid open competition and to discriminate against the participation of economic operators others in this procurement”, is quoted in the KLSH document.
Negative effects on the financial bill
Another finding of the HSC is related to the impact on the state budget.
"In the implementation of this procedure, irregularities and deficiencies were found, accompanied by negative financial effects for the State Budget, which reach at least 189 million ALL. This negative effect results in the calculation of the limit fund, by comparing the prices offered by local economic operators and the prices offered/combined by local economic operators with published international prices. The working group set up by the Contracting Authority did not document the references that served to calculate the full value of the project (including the limit fund), the causes of the change, from the value of 838,005,339 ALL, to the final value of the project of 540,533,139 ALL, in opposition to article 59/2 "Calculation of the limit value of the contract" of the Decision of the Council of Ministers No. 914, dated 29.12.2014 "On public procurement rules" amended, and specifically with the requirements and criteria defined for application with projects to the Regional Development Committee”, explains KLSH
Seven times saltier price
But the most important finding of this report was the fact that the prices used by the contracting authority were up to 7 times higher than the published international prices and that even though the tender included the item "maintenance", the winning operator had no opportunity to perform this voice.
"From a test of published international prices as well as offers received from well-known local market operators for certain components of this system, it was found that the prices used by the Contracting Authority were up to 7 times higher than the international prices of published, reflecting an increase in the limit fund in the amount of ALL 189,155,670. In the estimate of the tender "Multifunctional system of body cameras for State Police patrols" the item "Maintenance" worth about 38,000 thousand lek per year is also provided. While it was established that the winning economic operator does not have the opportunity to perform the item "Maintenance", since in the documentation presented by him, there is no cooperation agreement, manufacturer's authorization, or/and qualifications and training with the subject "SI", from which bought "Multifunctional cameras". Based on this fact, the high value of the "maintenance" service, the continuity of the performance of this service, the fact that the Contracting Authority has in its organic structure about 90 IT employees, the transfer of the maintenance service outside the institution for three years with payment in the value 114 million ALL reflects inefficiency in the use of human and financial resources", is denounced in the audit on the suspicious tender.
A denunciation that ended up in SPAK
These findings and financial analyzes of KLSH, ended up in the form of a criminal complaint against the officials who were involved and signed the tender.
"On the irregularities found in the tender procedure with the object "Multifunctional system of body cameras for State Police patrols", the Supreme State Control with letter no. 871/13 dated 10.01.2017, submitted to the General Prosecutor a criminal complaint against 7 employees of the State Police Directorate, of which 4 AMSR employees, D. GJ. and F. Sh., in the capacity of the group for the drafting of the terms of reference, the calculation of the limit fund and at the same time members of the procurement unit, while 3 employees ED, EK and SH, in the capacity of members of the bid evaluation commission, for consumption of the figure of the criminal offense "Violation of the equality of participants in public tenders or auctions", provided by article 258 of the Criminal Code".
But even though almost 4 years have passed, there is still no investigative result for this criminal report made by the HCLA. Unofficial sources show that this criminal complaint was first passed to the Prosecutor's Office of Tirana. While the latter at the end of December 2020 announced its lack of competence and passed the investigative dossier to the SPAK Special Prosecutor's Office, which for reasons of investigative secrecy does not disclose the course of the case.
