How the parcel ended in Lipjan to non-existence tender

The municipality, based on the tender announced in 2009, has given companies “B-Indigning”, owned by Luan Prenk, Besim Smajlin, respectively.

The earth would be exploited for 99 years and a pharmaceutical hub would be established, as well as a plant for vegetable cultivation.

Instead, however, hospitals, a high school, a warehouse, a hotel center, are built there, and a multistory object is also being built.

Government officials say changing business owners to municipal property is illegal.

Authorities in Lipjan say the case in question has already been handed over to the investigative bodies, but the REL, through contacts with the prosecutor, could not confirm that.

How did the “Rezonion” get in?

With the law in Kosovo, the municipality has the right to provide land use on the basis of the project that companies themselves design. The municipality, then, selects the best racing company, respecting certain criteria.

When the Lipjan municipality provided several parcels in 2009, including the controversial parcel, the company “Rezonance” has not participated in the tender.

Luan Prenku, the beneficiary of half of the parcel of about four hectares, says that, due to the financial difficulties for the implementation of the project presented in the tender, he has sold business shares to the company “Rezonance”, whose owners are Ramadan Idrizaj and Arian Idrizaj from Pristina.

His shares in this company have gone past the next land beneficiary in Lipjan, Besim Smajli.

They have done so with authorization to swimmer Ramadan Bulnjak in Pristina in January 2013. This document says that “authorise rezoning) that to municipal authorities in Lipjan all necessary procedure actions to implement the project.

Bulnjak said briefly about REL that authorization “is done with the consent of the” parties. Retired for two years, he said he did not remember the details of the deal.

Although the tender was won in 2009, the two companies have not made any investments in parcels.

Prenk tells Radio Free Europe that he does not remember at what price he sold his shares to the company “Rezonency”, which was then represented by Ramadan Idrizaj.

When [the buildup of the owners] was done, those shares I had in the firm were symbolic... He has paid them and has taken over the land to build pharmaceutical storage. On the contrary, the land would be returned to the owner, because the owner is the Lipjan municipality of “, says Prenk, adding that this is the legal “action”.

Radio Free Europe also made efforts to negotiate with Besim Smajli, owner of the company “B-Enging”, but he wasn't available.

From the company “Rezonance” did not answer REL questions about why they did not participate in the tender and how they exploit municipal land.

You get these answers in the Municipal Framework [at Lipjan]”, said Arian Idrizaj, one of the company's owners “Rezonance”, in an electronic response sent to Radio Free Europe.

What do you say in the deals of winning companies and municipalities?

In the 2009 tender, two companies have been the “task force” and “B-Indigning”.

The agreement on the exploitation of this land has been signed between the Lipjan municipality and these two companies in October 2009.

In the company's agreement “Punitor”, owner Luan Prenkin ʹ, provided by REL, it is said that within a two-year term, “Private partner will build the facility for development of the Intertributive Pharmaceutical Centre”.

In the other agreement, however, Besim Smajlin offers 540 working days for implementation of the project to build early vegetable greenhouses.

In both of these agreements, the private partner writes that he takes in in invisibility in exploitation and that he has the right to use it only for the realisation of the supposed projects in the document.

In the agreement, it is also said that the contracting authority should make the project's implementation supervision and “if the private partner fails to meet the obligations, which come out of the agreement, the municipality will turn to the exploitation of”.

Agreements with the winning owners have been signed by Procurement Office manager in Lipjan, Ragip Zamenu, in the presence of then chairman of the Lipjan municipality, Shukri Buja.

Switching Owners

The “task force” figures in the Agency for the Registering of Kosovo Business since February 12th 2009 ) about nine months before receiving the tender B-Ingenjierig” was registered to this agency on March 23rd 2009.

Explain: In Lipjan Community documents, the company “B-ingyning” is written in some cases, and in others “B-Indigning”.

Officials from the Ministry of Industry, Intervention and Trade in Kosovo confirm to Radio Free Europe that both businesses have changed the owner on September 23rd 2010, passing over to Arian Idrizaj and Aija Idrizaj, who also own the “Rezonency” company.

These companies have initially announced the Lipjan municipality that they have financial difficulties in implementing projects, while the municipality, in 2012, according to documents it has secured. REL has begun the contract-reconnection procedures with them.

But a year later, in February 2013, the Procurement Office in Lipjan, respectively, has asked the relevant department to stop the contract break procedures, and the owner continues the work.

The request was also approved with an act of decision by the then chairman of the Lipjan municipality, Shukri Buja.

According to this act, the Directorate for Geodesy and Cadastre in Lipjan was tasked with taking all necessary actions in connection with the company's registration procedure “task force” and company “B-Ingigning”, already with new owners, as users of the parcel in Lipjan for 99 years. The census was done in the public books of the Lipjan municipality.

In the statement, it was also said that operators could start work on implementing their project, the general and special hospital for alcoholism and drug addict respectively.

During 2013, the two companies have also received permission from the municipality for the construction of the other hospital complex, “Rezonion”.

MAPL: The law does not allow the earth to be carried to the third side

Kosovo's Ministry of Management and Power (MAPL) makes monitoring and implementation of the Law for providing for and exchanging real estate for the municipality.

Officials from this ministry say of Radio Free Europe that legislation in effect does not allow property, which is being taken into exploitation at the mayor's decision, to be carried to the third party.

“If the supervisory authority [in this case MAPL] considers that a decision or act of the municipality is not in accordance with the Constitution and laws, it may require that the municipality reconsider its decision or act”, say by the MAPL.

REL asked the former Lipjan leader, Shukri Buya, what legal basis he signed the constitution, but he did not answer.

I can't be promoted because it's been too long. If there are irregularities, there are investigative and prosecutorial organs, and I have no connection to this affair”, said Buja.

Article 22 of the Law on Property Exploitation said that “in the case of failing to realise the dynamic contract plan for the use of Komuna property, exceeding contract-defined deadlines, the mayor of the municipality makes a decision to cut the contract. With this decision, the Assembly of the Communists is announced”.

Is there any substance in the investigative organs?

Radio Free Europe has reported nearly nine years ago on these parcels in Lipjan, and municipal authorities at the time have stated that they were unjustly changed by the owner and that the case will be prosecuted at the law bodies.

Lipjan Mayor Imri Ahmeti, who took office in 2013, told him REL on 17 October 2014, that there are doubts about the procedures of giving in real estate exploitation, and therefore the Lipjan Community has raised cases in the investigative bodies in Pristina.

According to him, carrying property to the third side is unfair.

On February 7 of this year, REL spoke again with Ahmeti, who continues to be chairman of Lipjan. He said that since then, there is no decision or information on the matter from the justice organs.

The REL asked Ahmeti for the number of subjects he claims to be in the investigative organs, but he didn't offer it.

Kosovo Special Prosecutor told the REL that “does not case” for names included in this article, respectively: Ramdan Idrizaj, Arrian Idrizaj, Luan Prenku, Besim Smajli, or University of Medical Sciences “Rezonca”.

For the same names, REL also addressed the Founding Prosecutor in Pristina, which said that “is impossible to identify the request with the required” data.

The Rezonance” has received permission for construction from the Lipjan Community after 2015. During this period, Imri Ahmeti was chairman of the municipality.

In the REL question of how building objects was allowed when, according to him, the subject is in the justice organs, Ahmeti replied:

There were previous decisions in concrete case, which we found such and followed as such”.

According to real estate agencies, a bear in the industrial zone in Lipjan, the Pristina-Ferizaj magistrate, respectively, costs between 16,000 and 25,000 euros.