32 Infrastructure Ministry officials receive salaries without even going to work

During the review of the audience's report, where Minister Infrastructural Arba Abrashi reported to the Commission for Public Finance, Commission Deputy Chairman Enver Haliti said that the Ministry of Infrastructure has so far paid about 50m euros for “Bechetel&Enka”, while additional jobs have not been done by this company on the “Arba Xhaferi<3> highway.

The 53 millionth issue to Buchtel&Enkaʹ and the contract the Ministry of Infrastructure and this company have had, we see that this fee is over, very little value left. Was there order with that annex-contact, so that's what Bechtel& Enka's been looking for additional tools for the continuation of street work, and as far as we know there's been no extra work on that highway. It is meant to be built and two new keys, but they are still built, while the deal has been 53m, while by now 48m and 675 thousand euros have been paid”, Haliti stressed.

Minister Abrashi was unable to respond to the “53 million” case, but promised to prepare a written answer for that.

No, at the moment I have no explanation, I can come up with an explanation or writing and whatever other form. It's specific because it's a deal that was reached two years ago, in 2018. We look at the letters, the contracts, so it's probably about extra work”, Abrashi said.

And there was an explanation from the audience. Cerkin Morina from the National Auditing Office at this meeting said there is this agreement reached by the ministry with the company “Bechtel&Enka” in September 2018, so far about 50m euros have been spent.

About 53 million, based on an agreement that was signed between the Ministry and the consortium “Bechtel&Enka” on September 5, 2018. This agreement has extended the working deadline at the request of the ministry because they have not had sufficient funds. For any extension of the deadlines, the consortium has punitive fees, totaling 53m and 100,000 euros. These vehicles have been allocated to 12 installments, of which 49 million 880 thousand have been paid, while 4 million and 400 thousand euros remain, Morina stressed.

While MP Eman Canman said that the found for the worse management and bad standings by former Prime Minister Paul Lekaj had to be addressed to the prosecutor and that the AAK deputy must now be in prison.

MP Nundhamni said the Ministry of Infrastructure had committed 32 employees to its entities in municipalities, for which there is no evidence confirming their return to work.

These are some findings that are found in the Ministry of Infrastructure and are really disturbing, which is one of the ministries with more and more serious findings. One of the questions about you is that I know the former minister is not in prison, he's an MP in the Assembly, but I want to ask you whether he's still going to jail because of such legal violations and so much budget damage. The other question is what steps you took to stop the payment or financing of the parallel structures made by this ministry since 2016 and whether or still to finance these parallel structures”, Cantman asked.

During the report, Minister Abrashi stressed that it is unfair to assume the responsibilities of past governance, until he added that they are obliged to implement the recommendations issued by the audience, which most of these recommendations have been implemented.

The minister said that this year we are not sharing salaries for employees of the Serb community's parallel structures.

For the past year, the audience has rightly criticised for not continuing their work, but we have addressed it. Now we don't talk about parallel structures, but about public officials whom we are sharing tasks within the possibilities and requirements we have as minister. This year it's a problem to deal with productivity because of pandemic”, Abrashi said.

MPs also express interest in the issue of automotive counterparts.