Author: Ina Allkanjari
Cleaning, plumbing, lighting, office furniture, reconstruction of cultural buildings to road projects. This is the essential purpose of the tenders announced by many municipalities not far from the local elections that will be held in 2023. The rush to open the portfolio comes at a time when the government has not issued any act to regulate the "campaign" of procurements during the pre-election period. In just the last four months, the number of local government tenders is counted in 46 such and have a value of over 100 million ALL. All these tenders are qualified as 'BIG' and their execution is carried out at a time when the country is facing an economic crisis.
Relying on Open Procurement data, "Sinjalizo" finds that from August to November of this year, "BIG" tenders capture a limit fund of 15 billion ALL. This figure is about three times more than a year ago, compared to the same period of time.
Specifically, from August to November 2021, municipalities announced a total of 17 tenders worth over 100 million ALL. The limit fund was about ALL 5.5 billion.
Aranita Brahaj, the executive director of the Albanian Institute of Sciences/Open Data Albania, tells "Sinjalizo" that the municipalities in the country have already entered the pre-election period. This phase coincides with the announcement of the date of the elections by the President, so public spending is accompanied by risks.
" At this moment, even public spending or contracting is associated with the risk of being used for influence and favors with an electoral background. The same risk of misgovernance at the end of the mayors' mandates accompanies the contracting procedure ," explains Aranita Brahaj.
On the other hand, economics expert Selami Xhepa recalls that past practices show that on the eve of elections, public spending becomes more massive. According to him, this is a way to lure the electorate.
" I do not attribute the increase in public spending on the eve of elections to the fact that we are dealing with a more important agenda of local problems than in previous years. I believe that this can be viewed simply in relation to the fact that next year we have an electoral process and it is undoubtedly required to 'attract' the electorate a little ," the economic expert explains to 'Sinjalizo'.
On the eve of the elections, tenders are announced until 2025
Although we are very close to the local elections and it is not yet known who will be in charge of the municipalities after the voting process, from a verification in Open Procurement we found dozens of 'BIG' tenders opened by the municipalities during the last months, which result in contract duration of 2-3 years.
This is also confirmed by the Director of Open Data, Aranita Brahaj, who emphasizes that it is being noticed that in this period of several weeks, several high-value procedures have been concentrated and, moreover, with long deadlines for the implementation of the contract.
" Cleaning, maintenance and other Services are being tendered for the next four years. It seems as if some mayors are rushing to "copy" their portfolios for the periods after their mandate. We are at the peak of the procedures and it seems that the December and January periods will be characterized by high-value tenders and long contract implementation deadlines ," adds Brahaj, while underlining that so far, we have no Government act that aims to regulate procurement in an electoral situation.
One of the tenders announced in October, with a completion period of 30 months, is that of the Mat Local Government , "Construction of the Lis Depot, Burrel transmission line". This tender is presented with a limit fund of approximately 582 million lek excluding VAT, and the specified implementation deadline is until 2025.
Another tender opened in September and with a 2-year contract duration, turns out to be "Construction of the Northern Terminal of Public Transport, Tirana" with the procurement authority being the Tirana Local Government . According to Open Procurement in the contract concluded with the winning operator, the limit fund turns out to be around 820 million lek excluding VAT.
The Kurbin municipality also appears during this period with tenders announced with a value of over 100 million lek and with a long-term contract duration. This is the tender with the object "Construction of the external and internal water supply network of the city of Laç", with a limit fund of around 450 million lek excluding VAT and a contract duration of 24 months from the date of signing.
Meanwhile, another tender announced just a few days ago on November 21, is that of the Cërrik Local Government , with a limited fund of around 116 million lek excluding VAT and a contract duration of 48 months. The object of the tender is related to the “Cleaning, collection and removal of waste in the city of Cërrik and its Administrative Units”.
25 municipalities with 'Big' tenders
Throughout the year 2022, the Municipalities have announced 87 tenders worth over 100 million ALL. The limit fund for the tenders announced throughout this year amounts to about ALL 27.6 billion without VAT.
" If it was once noted that small municipalities had few tenders and large municipalities had more, now it is evident that only large municipalities have tenders for investments ," says the director of Open Procurement.
Specifically, out of 61 municipalities in total, from the data collected in Open Procurement, only 25 of them appear to have opened the procedures in 2022 with 'BIG' tenders. It is about the following municipalities:
- Tirana 2. Kamez 3. Elbasan 4. Mat 5. Bulqize 6. Kurbin
7. Pogradec 8. Kavaje 9. Rogozhinë 10. Korçë 11. Lezhë 12. Kukës
13. Fern 14. Kruje 15. Vau i Deja 16. Berat 17. Vore 18. Mirdita
19. Mallakastër 20. Saranda 21. Durrës 22. Shkodër 23. Himare 24. Klos
25. Cerrik
Meanwhile, during the year 2022, according to Open Procurement data, it results that from 62 municipalities of the country, a total of 4,411 tenders with different values of the limit fund have been announced. In fact, the Fund limit throughout this year is about ALL 49 billion without VAT. Meanwhile, 2,831 tenders have been announced as winners so far, amounting to about 28 billion ALL without VAT.
Tender for luxury
Some of the tenders announced by municipalities in the country are related to non-priority projects, despite the financial crisis the country is facing. Just a few days ago, specifically on November 22, the Tirana municipality announced the tender procedure for decorative trees, with the object ' Purchase of perennial trees' with a fund limit of about 200 million lek, or in other words 1 706 736.11 Euro.
Within the framework of tenders announced during this period and their facilities, expert Selami Xhepa, tells "Sinjalizo" that the selection of projects must pass through a filter of democratic control, which according to him means local parliaments, that is, municipal councils.
" Control filters are missing, which is a very important element to guarantee the accountability of public spending even at the local level. These are issues that are not simply related to the episode, they are related to continuity, to the democratic deficit of local institutions and to the weaknesses of the capacities to plan and manage projects efficiently, which is a general structural weakness of Albania ," emphasizes the economic expert.
Tirana Municipality announces the tender with the highest value
The Municipality of Tirana is one of the local institutions that counts dozens of tenders carried out throughout this year with a value of over 100 million ALL, some of which have the highest cost of tendering compared to other municipalities in the country. Specifically, from a search in Open Procurement, it is established that this municipality has a total of 17 tenders announced for the last 10 months, where the limit fund for the tenders announced is in the amount of 7.7 billion ALL without VAT.
The highest value tender for which the procedure has been announced so far is the Construction of the "Tirana Theater Building", which results in a value of 1,854,828,635 lek excluding VAT.
This tender was opened in October of this year and the duration of the contract is estimated to be 27 (twenty-seven) calendar months starting from the date of signing the contract.
With a limited fund of ALL 1,018,105,630 without VAT, the tender with the second highest value announced during this period is again from the Municipality of Tirana. It is about the tender with the object "Reinforcement of individual residential units and residential units in buildings (palaces) in Tirana Municipality", part of the Reconstruction Program. This tender was opened in September 2022 and the winner was announced in October.
Another expensive tender of the Municipality of Tirana, which appears to have been opened in the summer of this year with a limited fund of 820 million lek, is for the new terminal at the Kamza flyover, which is expected to be completed in 24 months. The aim of the project is to build a new bus terminal.
This tender has been classified by Open Procurement as 'Red Flag', which means the disqualification of all competing operators except the winner.
Red flag tenders
Albanian law allows procurement procedures with a single competitor, although they are then accompanied by red flags and suspicions are thrown against them.
According to the explanation of Open Data Albania, often these procedures, rather than a lack of competition in the market, show the possibility of formulating criteria and deadlines for the submission of documents in favor of a premeditated company. According to them, these tenders deserve to be considered exposed and risky. Procedures are marked with a red flag and the further explanation is that this is a fact, event, or set of circumstances or other information that may indicate a potential legal compliance concern or exposure and risk.
From the filtered data, from the Open Data Albania database, during the period January-November 2022, municipalities have developed 16 tenders worth over 100 million lek and with the " RedFlag " marking, which indicates a potential risk of irregularities and corruption in the competition.
Meanwhile, throughout 2021, municipalities have conducted 29 tenders worth over 100 million lek and with the " RedFlag " mark.
The economic expert, Selami Xhepa, shows that in Albania it is necessary to establish supervisory authorities in order to reduce the level of procurement abuse.
" The fact that there is no audit of procurement practices causes the level of procurement abuse in these projects to continue. This is unfortunate because even in the European Commission's progress reports it is always emphasized that Albania has problems with public procurement practices that are not open, not transparent, not competitive, in the absence of competition, which produce in the analysis of public funds a great waste, higher prices and significantly affect the reduction of the efficiency of public spending ," the expert says.
Meanwhile, Brahaj emphasizes that over 15% of the tenders carried out in these 6 months are marked with a red flag and are mainly high-value tenders. According to her, the situation is even more problematic because some major municipalities continue to procure contracts related to reconstruction.
" Although three years after the Earthquake, the reconstruction program continues to be implemented with limited procedures (no competitive bidding and no competition in the electronic system). As a result, each of these tenders is in a high risk position for clientelism. Red flag tenders are increasing in November and unfortunately their value is very high compared to other tenders ," emphasizes the director of Open Data Albania.
