Delays of asphalt produced poor roads

In many cases, road construction in Kosovo is a process that lasts for years and that in the end does not match the original project.

This find results in a report by the National Auditing Office, the office that has audited 11 road projects in Pristina, Prizren, Ferizaj and Malisheva.

Although it was predestined that the Mirusha Falls in Malisheva street was completed within 120 days, it did not end in even 1,339 days.

Regarding the construction of the Mirusha Falls, measuring 3.1 miles [3.1 km] long and 6m long, the road had not yet been completed, until June 2021, when this audit had been conducted, even though 42 months had passed since the signing of the contract, while it was designed to extend 120 days of work (4)x1>, says the report released on August 30th.

Another route, in this case supported by the Ministry of Infrastructure, was designed to connect the villages of theIstog municipality, known as the Vojnik Path Osojan, although it began in 2016, has not yet ended.

This three - mile - long [3.6 km] road, measuring 20 feet [6 m] in width, was intended for 155 days at the initial stage.

The work had continued on this section of the road until June 2017, when they were interrupted indefinitely.

Because this road is only partially realised was property problems since this road was a completely new route and it was presuming that the entire truck would go through private property, which had not been expropriated before signing the” contract, the report said.

For 90 days, effective work was designed to complete the work on the Rahovec Street, which was 12,35 km long and 6.8m wide, but had not finished in two years.

According to the Auditor's findings, from the first day of the start of work on rehabilitation of this road, more than 1,000 calendar days or 33 months had passed and the work had not yet been completed.

The report also cites several projects that have stalled and construction of which has been suspended indefinitely.

Based on the findings of this audit, it turns out that the construction of local and regional roads is accompanied by many difficulties, beginning with lack of cost-for-profit analysis, inadequate planning of activities, insufficient budgeting, expropriation problems, as well as problems with the drafting of key projects, as well as uncertainty as with reference to road construction standards.

For this reason road construction has been marked by delays of up to three years, and some had not finished until five years after their departure.

Few fines for companies violating contracts

Arifi, senior researcher near the organisation INPO, which monitors the area of public procurement, says it is difficult to find an infrastructure project in Kosovo that has been carried out according to criteria and in the optimum timeline.

He says that institutions -- whether local or central -- fail since the start of tenders and determining criteria.

“logs do not always occur from unknown to specified work or project. The releases have been initiated since the initiative of the” procedure, Arifi tells Free Europe Radio.

Airiff says there is great lack of qualified staff who are responsible persons in municipalities to decide who is the winner of the contracts, as well as who are responsible for monitoring the implementation of projects.

And we don't have a quality management, I say, not always as contract manager and as a supervisory commission, assigned competent people, people in the field and second is the fact that municipalities face lack of adequate staff, which could manage a” contract, he says.

Arifi says that on the basis of monitoring they have conducted on infrastructure projects, despite companies having slipped from initial projects, as well as in the event of failure to implement the project, no convictions have been imposed on them.

Pronunciation of sentences due to poor performance, as well as unreasonable delays in the completion of projects, is seen by law, but according to Arifi, this does not find application in practice.

Radio Free Europe has tried to speak to the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environment, Space Planning and Infrastructure, Hysen Patience, who has been dealing in particular with the quality of asphalt on the streets of Kosovo, but has not responded to REL's interest.

Who is guilty of poor quality?

Road construction in Kosovo, especially locals, for Naser Kabashi, professor at the Faculty of Construction and Architecture, is conducted without a literal analysis, as well as with a serious lack of monitoring of project implementation.

Professor Kabashi says the streets in Kosovo have a poor quality, as, according to him, as early as the initial phase, non-competants who decide on tenders are involved.

Another negative aspect affecting the poor realisation of infrastructure projects, according to Professor Kabashi, is also the goal of the cheaper price rather than quality.

“In the process of evaluating the tendering documents or applicants, should it be people who are professionals because what are we doing now? We have already released the level and we see only one approach, we see only the price, and we do not analyze the technical side that contractors offer at the moment of application”, Kabashi says.

Professor Kabashi says that to get better roads, institutions must take care of the initial phase to better prepare tender documentation.

According to him, the asphalt laboratory control that is located on the streets of Kosovo should also be increased.

The asphalt's subx0> must be permanent from the moment of road base preparation until the end of the asphalt”, he says.

According to official data, road construction in Kosovo gets a significant share of capital investment spending.

During the period 2017-2019, just the construction and improvement of regional and local roads were spent over 343m euros. / REL