Brace: “The oil concession scandal”

24/03/2012 00:00

The Socialist MP, Erion Brace, declared on his Facebook page that the
Minister of Economy, Nasip Naco, lies when he accuses the opposition of the oil concessionary agreements that have caused of millions of dollars of damages
to the state budget.

According to Brace, the Socialists have signed only one of four agreements that were in total, and not for 25 years of exploitation or for four oil resources, as the Democrats did after 2005.

For more detailed arguments about the scandalous way how the national oil assets have been exploited, Brace referred to Steam Oil Company, for which he says that although it has started taking profits from oil, their investment plan has not been approved by any institution and that it was even rejected by the academics and the National Agency of Natural Resources.

According to Brace, these facts show that the oil concessions for the next 25 years are a responsibility of Berisha’s government.

In another argument, Brace relates the justification of the Minister of Economy to the fact that Albania has no expertise for controlling the oil companies that have not paid any income tax so far, and the government is using this as a justification for the Albpetrol sale. MP Brace referred to the Ministry of Economy data, saying that one of the companies has declared 936 million USD in expenses and only 700 million USD in income.

From 936 million USD in expenses, 500 million have been declared as capital investments and more than 400 million USD in operative and administrative expenses or wages and advertisments, when they have only 360 workers. Brace says that this data prove that this is a clear lie, because the companies have inflated expenses on papers and have decreased the income dramatically.

“This is the theft of the century, that will continue for 25 years”, Brace concludes.

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