Kosovo-Albania power line tender cancelled

Official documents secured by Top Channel show that the private company is notified by the government that the first tender lot is cancelled. The decision was communicated yesterday. The government stood to their first decision to not cancel the tender, despite the strong pressures from the German KFW bank, which finances the project. The saga of the tender has started on March 2011, when a Croatian Company was declared winner according to the tender formula. But after KFW gave the news to the winner, the government blocked the process, saying that their price was 8 million EUR higher than the second place. This was opposed by the German bank, which asked the government to continue the agreement.

Since then, there has been a correspondence between the government and the KFW Bank. Last month the KFW Bank accepted the tender cancellation, but with some conditions, the most important of which was that the Ministry of Finances should accept the second result, whatever it might be.

The Ministry of Finances refused and decided to interrupt the tender unilaterally, which might put in danger the financing from the German Bank, which declared that they would withdraw if the government refused the condition.

The construction might be blocked for several years, after this decision. The opposition accused the government of blocking it deliberately, to favour a Serbian monopoly in the Albanian energy market.

Top Channel