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"With a turtle's step", the government holds a translation tender to get the 236 million USD it won in Arbitration from Bankers!

2024-12-22 18:29:42Fokus SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"With a turtle's step", the government holds a translation tender
"With a turtle's step", the government holds a translation tender to get the 236 million USD it won in Arbitration from Bankers!

In the summer of this year, the government won a case at the International Court of Arbitration, with the oil concession company "Bankers", which manages the Patos - Marinza field. The concessionaire did not want to pay the state profit tax, while inflating operating costs and always issuing balance sheets with a loss. The parties went to Arbitration and, one of the few decisions in favor of Albania, is still not being implemented. The reason? The National Agency for Natural Resources is operating at a "turtle's pace", as it only opened a tender in December 2024 to translate the decision of the IC, the International Chamber of Commerce. So, it will take several more weeks for the decision to be translated and then "decomposed" by AKBN specialists on the method of calculating the costs that Bankers must pay. Slow actions that are perhaps done intentionally, with the aim of losing the attention and actions of the concessionaire to negotiate the agreement.

"With a turtle's step", the government holds a translation tender
Facsimile: Tender opened by AKBN to translate the Arbitration decision

According to documents available to VoxNews, the National Agency of Natural Resources has recently opened a low-value procurement procedure. The object is “official written translation service of official documents - Final Award of the International Court of Arbitration”, while the procedure will take place on December 23. In the same document, the AKBN requests that the official written translation of the official document “Final Award of the International Court of Arbitration (IC - International Chamber of Commerce), with the plaintiff being the hydrocarbon company 'Bankers Petroleum Albania' Ltd and the defendant being the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, represented by the National Agency of Natural Resources”.

According to her, the court decision to be translated contains a total of 352 computer pages, as it will be translated from English to Albanian. “The official translator shall carry out the official translation that consists of transferring the meaning of the court decision, in writing, from the source language English, to the target language Albanian, while fully preserving the meaning of the sentence and the content of the translated acts. The official translator shall carry out the accurate translation of the court decision from the source language English to the target language Albanian, accompanied by the stamp of the official translator who performed the translation, and shall also submit the declaration signed by the certified official translator that he has translated it accurately, with due care and with legal responsibility,” the document states. According to AKBN, the period for the implementation of the service is within 10 days from the signing of the contract.

The Arbitration Award is of particular importance, as AKBN has requested that the translator submit the official translator's certificate, issued by the Minister of Justice (for the English language), and be registered in the electronic register of official translators. To have similar previous professional experience in the field of written translation of official documents from English into Albanian, which must have been carried out during the last 3 years from the date of publication of the contract notice and be in a value not less than 180,000 lek. To have a positive evaluation of the translation and to be domiciled in Tirana.

"With a turtle's step", the government holds a translation tender
Facsimile: Announcement of the concession company "Bankers" after losing the trial with AKBN

Last summer, the government announced that Albania had won the International Arbitration case against Bankers Petroleum. The company had requested in the Arbitration that 236 million USD be recognized as expenses. The concessionaire requested to keep all the amounts generated from the production of the Patos Marinza field through the cost recovery procedure, while the Arbitration announced that these costs were rejected and declared irrecoverable.

The company must pay tax on profits for its activity, where in hydrocarbons the tax is 50%. A verification will be made on the amount of 236 million dollars to see how much the real costs are and then the company's obligation to the Albanian state will be determined.

These disputes began in 2011, when AKBN found that Bankers had inflated the declared expenses for the investments it was making in order to make no profit and avoid taxes. Bankers had only reported losses on its balance sheets, in order to avoid paying taxes on the profit to the Albanian state budget.

The concession agreement with the Bankers company was signed in 2004, with a duration of 25 years, while it will take another 5 years to complete. However, at this "rate" it seems that the deadline will also end and again the "fine" is very difficult to collect, as the parties can file complaints about the translation, civil, administrative requests.

Meanwhile, following the ministry's announcement, Bankers also reacted, saying that the initial arbitration request filed in 2015 only related to oil costs for the 2011 audit year, but later additional years (2012-2017) were added to the dispute.

“The largest cost misstatement against Bankers was related to the inappropriate actions of several former Bankers employees that predated the company’s acquisition by the current owner. Of the total amount of disputed expenses by AKBN that the Albanian government has reported have been declared irrecoverable (USD 236 million, a number that is still under review by Bankers), over USD 100 million is related to the conduct of those former Bankers employees ,” the response states.

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