Kosovo-Albania power line tender cancelled

Channel has secured an official document which shows that the Transmission System Operator (TSO) has officially announced the KFW Bank, as the financing source of the project,  that the Albanian part has decided to cancel the tender.

The German KFW Bank advised the Government to not cancel the tender through a letter sent in September, and warned that in case of a new tender, they would have to stand to three nonnegotiable conditions for not losing the finances.

According to the letter, KFW will finance the project only if the new tender will be divided in two projects, one for Albania and one for Kosovo. Another condition set by the KFW is the preservation of high technical standards as criteria. The last condition was that the Albanian part must accept the tender result to avoid a second stalemate.

The Albanian government announced the tender cancellation through the TSO Director, who promised that the institution that he leads will fulfill three conditions set by the KFW, but will not guarantee that the same thing will be respected by the Ministry of Finances.

“Keeping in mind the communications of the Ministry of Finances, allow us to inform you that this ministry cannot be involved as a part in the tender”, the TSO letter says.

Opposition accuses government

The opposition declared that the cancellation of the tender is not casual, and accused the government of acting against the national interests.

“When Berisha poured patriotic tears in Kosovo, his former bodyguard, Arben Ibro, as director of the TSO, asked the German bank to cancel the tender for the 400KW power line between Albania and Kosovo”, declared the Socialist MP, Artan Gace.

According to Gace, the purpose of this delay is to keep the Serbian monopoly in the energy area.

“It is very clear what we have said in the beginning, that the cancellation of this tender aims only to make Albania and Kosovo dependent on the Serbian Transmission lines, on which the entire Albanian network is currently operating”, Gace declared.

The first tender was held on March 2011, with the Croatian Delekovod company resulting as winner. But the Albanian government blocked their work and tried to replace the winner with the second in line, because it offered a lower price. This was not accepted by the German Bank, since the technical standards were being damaged and since then, the project procedure has been in a stalemate.

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