The fate of the much-debated tender for Lot no.7 of the Kardhiq-Delvina road is shrouded in mystery.
On August 30th, the Ministry of Infrastructure instructed the Albanian Road Authority to cancel the two tenders, the construction and road supervision, with the argument that the money will be used for more emergent projects.
But even after one month, the tenders have not been canceled. Both procedures are currently under process at the procurement agency.
On the other hand, the participating companies are battling with the Public Procurement Commission with two other complaints only in the past week.
The tender for Lot 7 of the Kardhiq-Delvina road was held on June 27th, with the participation of six companies.
The Albanian Road Authority picked “Ircop” as the winner, the most expensive bid; and “Sulova” with 18.9 million EUR.
But this decision was rejected and considered as illegal by the procurement commission, which ordered the Road Authority to pick the cheapest bid, coming from “Cobial” and “Gjoka” companies, with 4.3 million EUR less.
The Albanian Road Authority rejected the decision of the commission and accused the Gjoka company of fraud. The latter filed a criminal complaint against the former Director, Sonila Qato, accusing her of power abuse.
After the scandal went public, the Ministry of Infrastructure canceled the tender while Sonila Qato resigned from her post and was replaced by Vasilika Vjero.
Even after the replacement, the fate of this tender remains in mystery. Confidential sources say that the Ministry has surpassed its competences by canceling the tenders.
For this reason, there has been a trilateral communication between the Ministry, the Road Authority and the Procurement Agency. But the legal base for canceling tenders remains unclear, which has caused a real institutional chaos, the consequences of which are an endless delay of the construction of a road that would cut the distance from Tirana to Saranda with three hours.
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