Albania-Kosovo power line saga

The disagreements started one year ago, when the Albanian government decided to replace the winner and gave the tender to the company that was ranked second.

But this decision was not accepted by the KFW, which is financing the project. A conflict has started since then, documented through the correspondence between the Ministry of Finances and the German bank. On June 2012, the Bank informed the government that they would accept the cancellation of the tender only on some conditions that the government failed to fulfil, as shows this letter sent on September 18th and that is secured by Top Channel.

“Reviewing your request for cancelling the tender in Lot 1, we are regrettably obliged to oppose this decision, beacuse the implementing agencies have failed to give the valid reasons for this cancellation”, the official KFW letter says.

The German Bank then warned that if the government will decide to undertake the partial cancelling of the tender, this would be an agreement violation and the Bank has the right to withdraw. The Bank says that they will continue with the project and will accept the government’s cancellation only under some conditions.

First, the tender should be divided in two parts, with one agreement covering the works in Albania and the other the works in Kosovo. The second condition is to have the tender in full accordance with the procedures set by the Bank and follows the same technical standards as the previous project. The last condition is that the Albanian government must accept the results of the new tender, which must be held according to the KFW standards. The saga of the power line construction is continuing for more than one year. The tender was held on March 2011, with the Croatian Dalekovod appearing as winner. But the Albanian government blocked the process by saying that the offered price was 8 million EUR higher than the offer, and asked for a second tender process.

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