State audited into the million contract with Limak

For Minister of Infrastructure Paul Lekaj, the contract to extend the Airport's Pista, there is no problem with the law. But this contract, which envisions investing 33.6m euros from citizens' taxes in Aeroport, is expected to be audited by state audiences.

The National Audition Office, in response to the Economic Bulletin, has warned of auditing this contract, which has raised many doubts in public opinion.

On the basis of the Public Procurement Law, each contract must be reported by the contracting authorities on the Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (KRPP). But this rule hasn't been implemented in the Airport Pista extension contract.

This he had personally accepted in an earlier response to the Economic Bulletin.

The contract in question does not figure in the signed contract report, which we have received from the KCPP. In such cases, the auditing failure is determined based on the CRPP reports, which are official reports”, the Mlaj Centre said from the ZKA.

In cases when a contract is not reported to the KRPP, then the National Audition Office is obliged to send the case to the prosecutor to hide information. The ZKA also has a memorandum with the State Attorney.

The Economic Bulletin has asked the ZKA to take this case to the Prosecutor.

Because the case in question has not been subject to auditing so far, at this point we cannot comment your questions. If in future audits the National Audition Office will audit this project, the findings and the evental recommendations will be made public”, Mulay from ZKA said, giving clear indications that this contract will enter audit procedures.

In an earlier response to the Economic Bulletin, the National Audition Office had cast strong doubts about the entire process, saying that the Ministry of Infrastructure never presented this contract to audiences.

Mulaj has said that the audience team has conducted general tests and based on reports of signed contracts, which were taken in the CRPP, the Ministry of Infrastructure has not reported any contracts with negotiated procedures in 2015 or even in 2016. In 2017, however, 14 road maintenance contracts were reported. But among them, according to Mulajt, there was no finding of any contracts for extending the airport's Pista.

This statement by the Auditor Office increases even more doubts about this investment, which amounts to 33.6m euros and will all be from Kosovo taxpayers' money, even though it manages a private company by 2010.

Although it is about a public investment, the whole process until the signing of this contract has been conducted in a completely non-transparent manner. Besides being kept secret at the time of the signing, the contract has not been published to this day by the Ministry of Infrastructure, which is its signatory side.

The Economic Bulletin has provided a copy of this contract, where all the obligations the Government of Kosovo has made to meet this 33.6m-euro investment with Kosovo taxpayers' money are in detail.

“The Ministry of Infrastructure and Limak Kosovo Airport J. S.C. have agreed to conclude a public contract for work as follows: “The flow of the runway, the establishment of the landing system and radiocommunication system at Pristina International Airport Adam Jashari”, said at the introduction of the contract.

The contract is aimed at extending the airport runway by 500 metres, as well as purchasing some other equipment needed to boost the landing and radiocommunication system.

The Economic Bulletin has requested clarification at the Ministry of Infrastructure, which is the signatory side as well as the Ministry of Finance, but none of them has yet to be answered.