
A few weeks ago, VoxNews published an investigation into how the government planned to promote municipalities by organizing lunches and dinners. The meetings were even scheduled to take place before the general elections in May 2025.
The editorial team researched dozens of documents, which showed that everything was propaganda, from several agencies created solely to serve the vote.
But, a few weeks after this denunciation, the Centralized Purchasing Operator issued another announcement, this time stating that “the procedure will be canceled.” Officially, it is written that there were no interested firms, but the tender was in fact abusive and the money would be spent on campaigning.
The above document is the announcement issued by the Centralized Purchasing Operator, which a few weeks ago opened the tender with the object of "services, promotional materials for the Agency for Support of Local Self-Government".
The limit fund of this procedure was 16,145,866 lek excluding VAT or 164 thousand euros. “The reasons for the cancellation are because no appropriate request was submitted in the phased procedures,” these documents state.
In April of last year, 2024, the Agency for Support of Local Self-Government was established, which aimed to inform public institutions, interest groups and citizens about local self-government issues. The letters contain clichéd sentences about the coordination of central and local public institutions on problems.
In October 2024, VoxNews published the documents for this tender. The agency required the production of videos of about 2-3 minutes, with very good quality, i.e. news reports ready for television.
"The written text must be present as subtitles and include key information in Albanian and English, when necessary, and a professional team with experience in video recording is also required. 5 presentation videos are required to promote the activities carried out by the Agency for the Support of Local Self-Government, highlighting the assistance and support of the institution towards municipalities," the documents stated.
A company was also required to hold the meetings. "An organizer is required for 10 meetings of the Consultative Council, where 6 meetings in Tirana and 4 meetings in other cities with a distance of 20-80 km and 2 meetings in other cities with a distance of 81-280 km from Tirana. Room reservation is required for 1/2 day, with a capacity of 60 - 80 people. Phone for the room, projector or large central screen. Coffee, tea, water, cookies, cake for participants. 10 more events are required to be held in Tirana," the documents read.
The list also included a request for the transportation of 30 people outside Tirana, 150-200 km away. "Hotel accommodation for 40 people, 2 days stay and 1 night. Food for participants for 4 meals (lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch). Room reservation for 2 days," one of the requests states.
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