Author: Dallandyshe Xhaferri
Municipalities are spending more and more money on "year-end holidays". The lack of competition and maintenance of decorations increases expenses through tenders, where the winners are either alone in the competition or win with the "limit fund".
On the eve of the end of the year, "Sinjalizo" monitored the expenses of four of the municipalities in the country for the purchase of holiday decorations. This year the municipalities of Tirana, Korça, Elbasan and Durrës have together invested over 70 million new lek in the lighting of the Christmas and New Year lights, but the tenders are accompanied by "red flags" due to the lack of competition. Investments in the beautification of cities have multiplied over the last 3 years, while the offers of the companies participating in the tenders are close to the limit of the funds provided by the municipalities.
Korça triples the expenses for end of year
This year, the municipality of Korça has more than tripled the expenses for the festive decoration of the city for the Christmas and New Year holidays. According to the response to the request for information, the municipality planned to spend over 15 million lek on the decoration of the city, but unlike two years ago, the capital of the Southeast has not been supported by any private sponsor for turning on the "lights" at the end of the year.
The Municipality of Korça tells "Sinjalizo" that the decoration of the city for the end of last year cost over 4.6 million ALL, an amount close to 2021 where the decoration of the city was 4.4 million ALL.
"All the elements related to the end-of-year celebrations, from the decoration to the festive calendar, are and are constantly increasing for Korça. Thus, unlike other cities that have decorations only in one pole, Korça has them spread across almost all parts of the city, and in the areas frequented by locals and visitors," says Belina Themeli, Deputy Mayor of Korça Municipality, for "Sinjalizo".
Pano Soko, an economic expert, tells "Sinjalizo" that the problems associated with tenders for year-end decorations are related to the lack of competition among operators and the low budget of tenders, compared to other sectors.
"Since these tenders are small in size, they are out of the scope of observation of the relevant institutions, whether within the institutions that organize them, such as internal audit, or other institutions of control and law enforcement, such as the Supreme State Audit Office or other institutions," says Soko, adding the lack of competition as a result of the lack of local operators that deal with organizing events and beautifying cities.
But according to the public data of Open Procurement Albanian, in the last three years the tenders opened by the municipality of Korçë for the decoration of the city have been accompanied by "red flags" showing problems in the tendering process.
This year, the Korça municipality opened a tender worth 5.9 million lek for the purchase of decorative light strips , but there were only two bidders in the competition. The winner was announced as the operator “Selvije Abasllari” with a bid of 5.6 million lek. According to the official explanation, the other competing operator did not meet the criteria of the special qualification requirement , although the winner’s declaration document states: “The economic operator has submitted samples of the materials, but they are not according to the technical specifications described in this criterion.”
At the end of 2022, the same economic operator has won without competition the tender with a limited fund of 1 ALL for the installations of the end of the year holidays (decorative spruce of the end of the year holidays). The value of the tender with the same description has tripled this year, reaching the value of 110 ALL.
Another tender accompanied by a red flag is the one for the purchase of festive decorations . The Municipality of Korça opened the tender with a limit value of 4,583,333 lek in November of this year, but this tender was won by the economic operator with a value of 4,477,000 lek excluding VAT. Within the 10-day deadline, 4 economic operators participated in the competition, of which only the operator “FALGEO” was declared the winner, while an explanation was given for the loss of the competition for only one of the operators, although the process was accompanied without complaints.
In 2022, the municipality of Korça opened a tender with a limit fund of 2,916,580 lek for the purchase of festive decorations and it turned out to be won without competition by the operator “Selvije Abasllari”. Also, in 2021, the municipality of Korça opened a tender with the same description, for festive decorations, with a limit value of 2,910,000 lek, being won without competition by the economic operator “Iceberg Communication” sh.pk
According to these public data, during the period 2021-2023, the municipality of Korçë has spent over ALL 10.2 million only on holiday decorations through companies that won tenders.
Tirana, two tenders with red flags
The Municipality of Tirana this year has opened 3 tenders with a total value of 28.5 million ALL for the decoration of the capital for the end of the year holidays. Two of these tenders have been marked with "red flags" by the analytical filters of Open Procurement Albania.
In November of this year, the municipality opened the first tender with a limit fund of 9 million lek, which was considered by the analytical filters of open data procurement with a “red flag” due to the lack of competition. This tender was won without competition by “SEZON DEKOR” with the winning value excluding VAT of 8 471 160 lek. The second tender opened on November 9 of this year for the Purchase of Decoration Services for the New Year with a limit fund of 10 million lek, was again won without competition by another operator, “Iceberg Communication shpk” with a bid of 9.9 million lek.
The Tirana municipality's almost annual tenders worth 2 million lek or 2.9 million lek for year-end fireworks have been won from the 2016-2021 period by the same and only competing operator, "Alba Fire shpk".
Elbasan,a competing company
On November 6 of this year, the municipality of Elbasan opened the tender with a limit fund of 12,493,780 lek, for which the sole bidder “SEZON DEKOR” was declared the winner with a bid of 14,364,000 lek including VAT. In response to the request for information, this municipality tells “Sinjalizo” that there was no sponsorship from private businesses for the realization of the city decoration.
Last year, the Elbasan Municipality budgeted the investment of 520 lek for the maintenance of the year-end decorations previously used in 000 and 2021. In 2020, the Elbasan Municipality, two weeks after the November 2019 earthquake, announced the winner of tender worth 26 13 400 ALL for the decoration of the city, while the Albanian municipalities in Kosovo and North Macedonia, such as: Prizren, Mitrovica and Tetova did not invest in the decoration of the cities so that the estimated monetary values would help them as donations to the inhabitants affected by the earthquake in Albania.
Durrës, a competitor in three years
The municipality of Durrës has also recognized an increase in investment in the decoration of the city from year to year. In the three tenders opened by this municipality at the end of 2020, 2022 and 2023, there was only one competing economic operator, automatically the winner.
In 2020, "Iceberg Communication" won the tender with a bid of 9,905,200 excluding VAT for the decoration of the city, in 2022 the municipality announced the tender worth 9,780,000 lek, while this year the tender went to 12,350,000 lek.
Artan Xhiani, an accounting expert for 26 years, tells "Sinjalizo" that in the tendering process, one of the biggest problems is the favoring of a certain entity.
"One of the methods to favor a certain entity is "adjusting the ToR (Terms of Reference Document) according to the characteristics of the entity that should win". In this way, the predetermined entity enters at a higher price than the others because it is more likely to win, and wins the competition almost with the maximum of the limit fund", - says Xhiani.
"Another method is to disqualify unwanted entities with the argument "they did not submit the necessary documents, or there are deficiencies in the documents". And what is unfair here, in my opinion, is the fact that sometimes entities that have the best technical and financial offer are disqualified", - says Xhiani, adding, - "this behavior on the part of contracting authorities has led to the killing of fair competition, and tenders ending up in certain hands, and at worst, public works are carried out by entities that are not the best in that field".
Unlike Albania, in Kosovo some municipalities have managed to use the earliest framework contracts related to economic operators, which are still valid for this year. However, the economic journalist, Zikaj Shabani, says for "Sinjalizo" that the municipalities have spent from 3 thousand to 50 thousand euros for the decoration of the cities of Kosovo.
"Only the capital (Prishtina) has contracted 35 euros for the year-end decorations, according to the published announcement. The tender was awarded to the company "Finesë Design SH.PK", says Shabani.
Meanwhile, Pano Soko emphasizes that in Albania, due to the lack of maintenance of decorations, tenders for decoration are reopened year after year and this could be avoided by the local government
"Each municipality has its unmet needs which come from the fact that municipal budgets are in deficit. So, in terms of responsibility, Albanian municipalities are in deficit, which is why we have this high number of municipal bankruptcies. Any opportunity to save funds would be extremely beneficial for all institutions, that is, for all municipalities," concludes Soko, adding that the increase in the deficit of municipalities increases year after year and their dependence on the Government, as the latter meets the needs through central taxes.
*red flag: it is the note set for tenders with problems related to corruption and lack of competition
This article was created based on input provided by individuals who have chosen to speak up. Share your story, empower others and be an agent for change. Visit the website: www.acqj.al/sinjalizo-dhe-ti/
