{"id":30860,"date":"2022-02-03T18:08:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T17:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=30860"},"modified":"2022-02-03T21:31:38","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T20:31:38","slug":"tirana-elbasan-highway-scandal-spak-probes-into-high-public-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/tirana-elbasan-highway-scandal-spak-probes-into-high-public-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Timeline of the Tirana-Elbasan highway scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The construction of the Tirana-Elbasan highway has been surrounded by harsh allegations of embezzlement and public funds misappropriation which initially resulted in the arrest of 3 high-ranking officials, but later became just another hefty fine burden for Albanian taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Tirana\u2019s District Court acquitted the 3 arrested officials after declaring that evidence to incriminate them over corruption or abuse of power was insufficient. The official court ruling states that other high-ranking officials at the ministry of infrastructure and the Road Authority (ARRSH) broke the law, and the case has been forwarded to SPAK for further investigation.<\/p>\n

Construction on this highway began with an initial cost estimate of $222 million dollars, but in the end, it amounted to a grand total of $330 million dollars that were taken from the pockets of Albanian taxpayers.<\/p>\n

In February 2018, Dashamir Xhika was the director of the Road Authority and the official that was arrested on corruption charges. Two of his subordinates ended up in jail along with him, Albens Alite and Aksel Qorduka.<\/p>\n

They were accused on counts of misappropriating public funds for the construction of the Tirana-Elbasan highway. The audit conducted by the ministry of infrastructure, led at the time by Damian Gjiknuri, estimated the cost of total damages which reached $36 million dollars.<\/p>\n

After this audit, Gjiknuri sued Dashamir Xhika and his subordinates with the allegation that they had artificially raised the costs of this highway project, in order to favor the Greek company that was building the road, AKTOR Ltd. By doing this, the public officials were able to earn a larger profit.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors, however, said that investigations were inconclusive and as a result, in October 2018, they passed the case over to Tirana\u2019s District Prosecution to conduct an investigation on several counts of \u2018abuse of power\u2019.<\/p>\n

As a result, the major corruption scandal of the Tirana-Elbasan highway had slowly dissolved and the accused were released from prison.<\/p>\n

In July 2021, they were completely acquitted on all charges after Tirana\u2019s District Prosecution ordered to have their case adjourned.<\/p>\n

Astonishingly enough, the final court ruling states that Dashamir Xhika and his subordinates were never involved in corrupt affairs and that they were in fact able to save the state budget a considerable amount of money.<\/p>\n

Apparently, they had approved a payment order that was meant to be paid to AKTOR Ltd, amounting to 25 million euros, which was later blocked by the Disciplinary Board.<\/p>\n

Faced with this blocked payment, AKTOR Ltd sued the Albanian government at the Paris Arbitrage Court.<\/p>\n

Albania lost this trial and not only did we have to pay a grand total of $754 thousand dollars in court expenses, but we also need to pay AKTOR Ltd a total of $44 million dollars in damages.<\/p>\n

At this point, Tirana\u2019s District Court is asking SPAK to investigate this scandal, with the allegations that someone from the ministry of infrastructure or the Road Authority somehow abused their power while in office.<\/p>\n

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