The scandal with the substandard ARMO petrol which is being sold in our
country by threatening the health of our citizens is an old phenomenon
that goes on for years, raising serious questions about the role of
institutions that are supposed to inspect this market.
By law, the Central Technical Inspectorate is the institution that has the obligation to check the quality of the oil which is sold in the domestic market, in order to protect citizens and their health from abuses. But Top Channel’s investigative program, “Fiks Fare”, proved a few days ago that the petrol coming from the Ballsh refinery and which is sold in our market, has four to five times more sulfur than the norm set by law, which threatens the citizens’ health.
Top Channel communicated with the Director of the Central Technical Inspectorate, Ardian Cela, who declared that this institution has certified two samples of ARMO, which have been within the standards.
Mr.Cela declared that after the report on “Fiks Fare”, the CTI will make further verifications of the petrol coming from ARMO, but they say that this quantity does not come from the samples that CTI has certified. The ARMO refinery has been closed sine February 2013, due to financial problems and a change of owners.
After it was sold to new owners, ARMO started production, and for this reason they were certified from the Technical Inspectorate. After the certification, as “Fiks Fare” proved one day ago, the company continued producing and selling petrol which was tested in Kosovo and Macedonia. The test results showed that this petrol is a huge danger for the citizens’ health and a clear violation of the law.
But the fact that petrol is being sold in our market with these conditions raises questions about the controversial concession for verification of fuels. The previous government granted a private company the permit to verify fuels in Albania for 10 years. The government said this would bring abuses with gas quality to and end. Citizens are paying 20 million EUR each year for this service through the gas price. This money goes directly to the company which is supposed to protect them from abuses. As proved by Fiks Fare, although the Albanian citizens are paying a very steep price, they are still having bad petrol that puts their lives in danger.
Top Channel
