Fuel QC service monopoly

This time it is about the fuel quality control service. Top Channel has the draft-agreement planned by the Ministry of Finances, which discovered all the procedures that have been followed and the financial circumstances of the concession that goes up to 15 million EUR each year.

Since its beginning, the Ministry of Finances admits that the procedure that has been followed is of a concession that has not been required from the state, which means that the government is turning this service into a monopoly after the private has requested it. The name of the requesting company is “Global Fluids International”, an Austrian company listed in the Viennese stock exchange as part of a Canadian group.

The draft-agreement shows that two years ago, this company addressed to the Ministry of Finances, asking the monopoly of the fuels quality control. On last October, the Government issued a decision which not only approves the procedure, but it also gives to the company in question a bonus of 6%. Although it’s not official yet, confidential sources say that the tender was won by a merge of three companies, led by Global Fluids.

But the procedures are not the only suspicious thing. According to the draft-agreement, the company will profit 6.5 EUR for every ton of fuels that circulate in Albania. This means that the consumers will pay 15 million EUR more each year, for a service that so far has been for free.

In most European countries, the quality control for fuels is conducted by companies in a free market, not a monopoly. The scheme followed by the Ministry of Finances is implemented in countries of high corruption. Global and Fluids has only three agreements that are similar to the one in Albania, which are Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. In the last two years, the government has passed several services to the private sector through controversial procedures, in agreements that guarantee dozens of millions in profit each year, the cost of which is always paid by the citizens.

Top Channel