By Boldnews.al
In the center of Tirana is working intensively to rebuild the “Skanderbeg” square, but the lack of transparency on how this project has been realized and how much it is costing, raises strong suspicions of abuse of public funds. Boldnews.al learns to be a Belgian Belgian novel of the 51N4E who has redesigned the 2011 capital city project, but turns out to be a copy of a square in Toronto.
Former Tirana City Director in 2010, Mihal Cico said on the show “Unekspozuar” that for the implementation of the Skanderbeg Square project they referred to a square in Toronto, called Yonge Dundas Square. “The square in Toronto has almost the same size as the square created by the Belgian studio 51N4E in 2010. We saw this square and were similar to each other,” says Cico.
Boldnews.al teaches that Yonge Dundas Square in Toronto, created in 2002, is almost identical to what the Belgian 51N4E studio designed in 2010, which is being implemented today by Mayor Erion Veliaj. The Toronto Square is surrounded by several shopping malls offering activities and services to Canadian citizens, just like the 2010 Belgian studio project that had foreseen in “Skanderbeg Square” a shopping mall between the National Museum and the Bank of Albania.
The “Scanderbeg” Square project foresees a slight, not very visible and pyramidal slope. The same thing is done at Yonge Dundas Square in Toronto, where there is a slope that runs up to 1.5 meters. The duplicated project resembles the road traffic, where in both squares is a ring for the mobility of cars.
But the tradition of copying continues today by mayor Veliaj. The latter has added to the “Skanderbeg” square an underground parking that will give the vehicle drivers a choice. Though it was introduced as a novelty of Veliaj, in fact it was duplicated again by Yonge Dundas Square which also has an underground parking.
This duplicate project of the Tirana center will cost the Albanian pockets over 12.6m euros until the completion of the works. Below are tenders developed for “Skanderbeg Square Retraining”:
– Skenderbej Square Urban Qualification, Phase I – Funded by the Regional Development Fund – ALL 533,403,000 – RANGE SHPK
– Surveillance of Works for the Object: Urban Qualification of Skanderbeg Square – Financed by Tirana Municipality Income – 4,209,570 ALL – 51N4E
– Construction of underground parking, Scanderbeg Square – 224,992,000 lekë – SHPK RANK
– Supervision of works for the facility: Construction of underground parking, Scanderbeg Square – Financed by the Tirana Municipality Fund – 2,142,432 ALL – 51N4E & GEOSAT GROUP
– Urban Qualification of Scanderbeg Square, Phase II – 979,884,648 lekë – The tender will take place on 27 December.
Boldnews.al learns that the 2011 project designed by Belgian architects 51N4E cost around 11.5m euros, including a shopping mall and observation tower. At that time mayor Edi Rama spent about 4.3m euros on underground works that are still functional today for the Veliaj project. If we subtract this investment from Mayor Rama and make an estimate, it turns out that today’s project should not cost more than 7m euros.
But in fact, today, Mayor Veliaj is implementing a project of 12.6m euros, which is the same as 2011 but many times more expensive. Adding here also 4.3 million euros of investments made by Rama for underground works, this square exceeds 16 million euros.
Meanwhile, the addition of underground parking with a value of 1.6m euros does not justify this incredibly high figure of the Veliaj project compared to that of 2011.
In total, over 20m euros have been spent on the construction, demolition and later reconstruction of the center of Tirana in the last 6 years. Of these, 4.3m euros in 2010 for Belgian Mayor Rama project were subsequently suspended as works by Mayor Basha in 2011. The latter also spent 4.5m euros in 2012 for the temporary rehabilitation of Skënderbej Square, while expected to rebuilt by mayor Veliaj with a value of 12.6 million euros.
Rommel Belgian friends
The 51N4E Belgian company with founder Peter Swinnen, a Flemish Government advisor, is known for links with Prime Minister Rama. The name of 51N4E faces a number of projects behind which is Edi Rama. She is the designer of the prime minister’s villa in the village of Surrel, Dajti Street, and the multi-storey tower projector (TID) built on Abdi Toptani Street by one of Rama’s close friends (today Plazza Hotel).
But this Belgian architectural studio has employees from close associates of Rama and his family members. In the architectural studio 51N4E reza Rea Xhillari, daughter of Linda Basha, wife of the Albanian prime minister. But finally, the name of Xhillari is with the Belgians 51N4E also collaborated Anri Sala, one of the closest friends of Rama who has assisted in painting the facades of the capital. Falma Falsha, COD leader in the prime minister and one of Rama’s early friends, is part of this studio.
In April 2015, a scandal broke out in Belgium with the founder of 51N4E, with a tender conducted for the feasibility study for realization of projects in Albania.
Peter Swinnen, head of the Flamani Center for Architects, a Flemish Government advisor and founder of the 51N4E studio, was under investigation because a tender of the “Atelier Albania” initiative of Edi Rama had given a friend of his friend a conflict of interest known Albanian Prime Minister.
He was accused of favoring the tender for the feasibility study of projects in Albania studying Centrum voor Stadsontwikkeling CVBA, led by Patrick Janssens.
Janssens, chairman of the Flemish Socialist Party in Belgium, and mayor of Atnwerpit, was part of the competition jury for the Lungomare project – Vlora’s promenade.
Even in the selection of Janssens in the Lungomare competition, the threads lead to 51N4E.
