The Socialist MP, Erjon Brace, declared that the government has plunged
the construction companies into debts, because they do not
pay the road construction bills. During an interpellation with the
Minister of Transports, Sokol Olldashi, Mr. Brace declared that these
obligations are creating a very dangerous debt chain.
“The government is passing the debt burden over the private’s shoulders, and an entire sector, such as construction. A chain of debts is being created by the government, and the problems have reached the bank doors. It is a debt that you reject to recognize, even if it exists. It is expensive and keeps growing”, Brace declared.
But the Minister of Transports, Sokol Olldashi, declared that the government has no obligations towards the companies that performed public works.
“We don’t have debts. The Ministry has a detailed budget and for every predicted road object we have a financing plan which we have followed with accuracy since last year”, Olldashi declared.
The stalemate of unpaid obligations is closely related with a government decision issued in 2008. The decision prohibits the construction companies to be part of a second tender if they have not completed 70% of the works in the current tender.
Since the budget usually expands the road finances for a longer period than one year, this has obliged the construction companies to complete 70% of the works with their own money or through loans, otherwise they would be unable to compete in other tenders.
“What you consider a debt does not belong to the government, but it is a debt that the companies have created to themselves. It is nothing more than the implementation of the decision for entering in another tender after 70% of the works are over”, Olldashi declared.
But Mr. Brace says that this decision is not legally founded, and that the government exploited it for constructing roads for electoral purposes, and passing all the burden to the constructors, since they had no money.
“In order to keep the debt limit under the 60% of the GDP, you have obliged the builders to work in debts. In total, besides the Kalimashi road, 560 million USD of investments have been paid by the government. This is the difference and the reason why the Albanians find the roads incompleted”, the Socialist MP accused.
The opposition says that the unpaid bills that the government owes to construction companies are becoming the main contributor in the increase of bad loans in banks, which have reached 19% of the total.
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