There are dozens of municipal bidding that are given to a single competitor, bringing abuse and intimidation to the mayor’s friends.
Aranita Brahaj, Executive Director of Open Data Albania, a financial transparency portal, has also published a table with tender data for the ten left municipalities where it heads Tirana. “Tendering to a single competitor” is usually not the result of a lack of competition. They also come as a result of placing any tender that favors certain companies … “, writes Brahaj.
Although the procedure is entirely legal, it leaves room for abuse.
From the published data comes to the conclusion that in most municipalities, the winners of the tenders are defined and the procedures are purely formal. In this way, mayors favor people close to them or those who helped them during the local election campaign.
Concretely, these proceedings were followed by Berat, Vau i Dejes, Rrogozhinë, Shijak, Poliçan, Tirana, Cërrik, Devoll and Gramsh municipalities. In all tenders it is seen that the limit fund with the announced value of winners is almost the same. In total the limit fund is 115,152,650 new lek without VAT, while the declared winner is 113,540,176 without VAT. The difference for the ten tenders is only 1,612,474 lekë. Another tender was developed in the Municipality of Tirana by Directorate No.2, for the purchase of concrete slabs, for joints and borders. The limit fund is 11,250,000 leks. Company ARIEIL SHPK has offered 11,178,600. This company was the only bidder. The highest value tender is the one developed in the Gramsh City Hall for the Maintenance of Martyrs’ Cemeteries. The limit fund is 22,550,000 leks. KURORA SHPK Company has offered 21,980,035 ALL and has been awarded the winner. In the approximate value are also tenders developed by other municipalities.
Of the 10 new administrative units that have made bids with a limit fund over 5 million ALL, 9 are administered by majority representatives and 1 by the parliamentary opposition. Procurement Open Data Albania data are based on the portal for Transparent Procurement and include the country’s 61 units of government.
This portal has information on public procurement developed from July 2015 and onwards. In total, in this period of time there are 1290 proclaimed procedures with a limit fund of 11.92 billion ALL. Each of these procurement procedures is listed on the Transparent Procurement portal, Tender section. The Municipality of Tirana is the municipality with the highest value of the limit fund for procurement in this period. Tirana has announced 129 tenders worth 2.28 billion ALL. With a large difference in value Tirana Municipality follows the Municipality of Durres with 50 procedures and value of the limit fund 931.79 million lekë. Fier Municipality is third in value according to the limit fund. This municipality has 59 announced tenders but with a limit fund of 899.85 million ALL.
In the list of 10 municipalities with the highest tender limit are the municipalities of Korça, Saranda, Berat, Divjaka, Gjirokastra, Kavaja and Librazhd. While the 10 municipalities with the smallest values of the limit fund announced for tendering are Ura Vajgurore, Mirdita, Perrenjasi, Delvina, Libohova, Fushe – Arrëzi. Pogradec, Tepelena, Dropulli, Memaliaj and Pusteci.
