The “53-million case”, the Court is expected to declare a verdict against Paul Lekat and the other three

The Pristina court today is expected to declare the Act on former infrastructure minister Paul Lekaj, his political adviser, Eset Berisha, Secretary General of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Negoti Shatrin and the director of public procurement, Besim Tahiri, in connection with the 53m euros paid by the Kosovo Government has paid “Bechtel-Enka” for extending the completion of the works on the highway to Kaproferi Xhaferi.

Each alone is accused of misusing official duty in co-ordination.

I am expected to take the case from Judge Violet Namman with members Vesel Ismajli and Musa Kondzhel.

The prosecution had sought maximum detention for the accused, while defending the release of defendants at the hearing when final words were said.

The Special Prosecutor on February 4th of 2022 had filed charges with former Infrastructure Minister Paul Lekaj, political adviser Eset Berisha and Secretary General of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Nebih Shatri and Besim Tahiri, concerning the execution of 53m euros for the company “Bechtel-Enka”, which was contracted to build the “Arbferi”.

According to the indictment, Paul Lekaj, Negoti Shatri and Besim Tahiri have deliberately exceeded their competencies and failed to fulfill their official duties by the 29 days of 2017.

According to the abuse prosecutor, it occurred at the moment when the upper ones signed the agreement to extend the completion of the work deadline for another 347 days, for the “Arbean Xhaferi”, or known as R6.

The completion of the highway with the basic contract, which was established in 2014, was to conclude on January 18, 2018, and with the new agreement made by defendants, the contract would now be concluded by the end of December 2018.

This agreement, according to the prosecution, was linked by the defendants without financial cosotos that was in conflict with the Public Procurement Law and the Status and the Code of Conduct of the Interministerial Steering Committee. Not specifying the cost in the deal, the prosecution says the defendants have made the way clear to the company “Bechtel & Enka” to apply for payment.

The indictment says Lekaj had hired his political adviser, Eset Berisha, to deal with negotiations with the company “Bechtel-Enka” to set the value of the agreement, which they had set open. According to the prosecution organ claims, Paul Lekay has done this without the consent of the Inter-ministerial Steering Committee.

That requirement, worth 63m euros, was submitted on November 27th 2017, then according to the prosecution, had dropped to 53m euros after talks Berisha held with the construction company. And which at the recommendation of the Interministerial Steering Committee, the Government of Kosovo had approved the application in June 2018.

According to the accusation, the competent bodies for the development of negotiations, making the decision and determining the financial cost related to this project were owned by the Intermanagement Committee, which was chaired by Pal Lekaj and the Project Impulation Unit.

According to the prosecutor, payment for the 53m euros was in full opposition to the recommendation of the project's supervisory company, which was contracted by the Ministry of Infrastructure, “Hill International”. According to this recommendation made in 2017 by “Hill International” had said the only amount to be paid to the construction company was 14,778,654.87 euros along with the other two requirements that stood at 36.3m euros in equipment and another 10 million in the name of obstructing the project (the last two requirements, <x4Hil<5>, considered as unbased). That recommendation, according to the Prosecutor, had been ignored by accused Paul Lekaj and Eset Berisha. /Kallex