Experts say that the investigations for the failure of the “Albpetrol”
privatization are intentionally continuing on bad leads, in order to not
bring in front of the law those who are responsible about the 85
million EUR damage.
“The 85 million EUR lacking to the state budget are not responsibility of the “Patton Boggs” consultant company or that bank in America. The responsibility falls to the Albanian institutions, and the game they are doing now to cover their responsibility is that they are pretending to investigate the consultant company and the American bank”, declared Pajtim Bello, former Deputy Minister of Energy.
Kastriot Bejtaj, a geophysics consultant for the oil industry, says that the responsibility falls to the Albanian institutions.
“Patton Boggs, which is an international consultant, is just in the consultant’s position. Their responsibilities to the law are zero. The main legal responsibility for the failed process falls to the Bid Evaluation Commission, which has not respected the legal dispositions in the technical and financial aspects, while the Council of Ministers has supported this performance of this commission”, Bejtaj declared.
From the beginning there were suspicions that the 85 million EUR guarantee were false, but the government publicly declared that they were safe.
“It has been discussed since the beginning that the guarantee wasn’t safe, because they were not using one of the banks that are usually used for privatizations of this proportion. The process should have been closed there, since this guarantee wasn’t being brought by a proper bank”, Bello declared.
Now that the tender has failed, experts want the process to be investigated more carefully, not only from the Prosecution, but also from other state structures.
“The State Control Commission should review all the administrative and legal procedures of the Bid Evaluation Commission, since it makes a dangerous precedent for the entire performance of the Albanian administration. The other Albanian law-making agencies must analyze this phenomenon so that they can recommend respective institutions to discourage similar schemes of public deceit in the future”, Bejtaj declared.
The 850 million EUR offer for the purchase of Albpetrol was a failure after the winning consortium, Vetro Energy, did not pay the money and not even the 85 million EUR guarantee.
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