
Two firms with dubious pasts, mentioned in police, investigative or judicial files, will supervise the firms that received tens of millions for the construction of the Elbasan - Rrogozhina highway.
The administrator of the Albanian Road Authority, Gentian Gjyli, seems to have the "fate" of his predecessors in that institution, arrested and investigated for serious abuse of office. But, since Gjyli has been "in the shadow" during the time of Ergys Verdho and Evis Berber, he has "copied" their actions, while there are suspicions that all the actions of the ARRSH are dictated by the offices of the Ministry of Infrastructure.
Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku has had complete control over the institutions of dependency, removing and appointing “trustees.” She even proudly walks with them on road construction sites, just as she did with Gjyli in recent days, on the Grand Ring Road in Tirana.
With schemes similar to Tirana, Balluku is operating with all roads, both those given under concession and those tendered, where segments are divided into lots to "satisfy" everyone.
According to documents available to the VoxNews editorial team, one of the firms that will supervise the Elbasan - Papërr road is "SPHAERA". On December 24, 2024, the ARRSH did not intend to celebrate Christmas, but to compile the documents for the next tender. It announced the winner of "supervision of works, construction of the Elbasan - Papërr road axis Phase I", with a limited fund of 19,195,959 lek, or 200 thousand euros in summer.
22 companies participated in this procedure, most of which had a lower bid than the winner. All were rejected by Gjyli, as he declared the winning bid for the merger of the operators “KLODIODA” & “SPHAERA”, with a value of 17,300,000 lekë.
But, the firm “SPHAERA” is not unknown. Its name is in the SPAK investigation file for the Vangjush Dako file. In fact, after collaborating with Dako, the firm was disqualified for several months from participating in the tender. It is learned that “Spahera” was mentioned in the SPAK file that imprisoned Vangjush Dako, for the tender for the coastal project in the Currila area. It is suspected that the value was inflated 10 times, as suspicions were that it was about corruption. But, when several months passed from this investigation, the firm continues to win tenders, even supervising one of the axes of particular importance.
Meanwhile, at the same time as the first tender, Gjyli announced the winner of another procedure. It is about the tender with the object of "supervision of works, construction of the Elbasan - Papërr road axis Phase III", with a limit fund of 22 million lek. In this tender, BOE "A & E ENGINEERING" and "IMES-D" were announced the winner, with a value of 20,900,000 lek. The value of the winning firm was not the smallest, but with the same mechanism, the lowest offers were disqualified.
VoxNews has learned that one of the winning firms, namely “Imes D”, had an investigative and judicial file. The firm and its owner, Ibrahim Dragoshi, were investigated for “stealing 3.5 million lek from the Elbasan prosecutor’s office with the tender for the air conditioning system”. Dragoshi spent some time in prison, and was even tried for this criminal offense in 2022. However, it has continued to participate in tenders, even being declared the winner.
The supervision of tenders is very important in a public work, as it can also determine the increase in costs up to 20% of the procured value. Therefore, these firms participate massively, to facilitate the work of the construction firm and by doing the "negotiation" with the Albanian Road Authority. But, by appointing firms with criminal precedents, the entire investment passes into dubious waters, as the costs can increase. A pure scheme, which occurs in almost all road construction sites in Albania, which has been and continues to be "commanded" by the dome of the ARRSH, regardless of who is at the "helm".
©Copyright Vox News
This article is exclusive to Vox News, and is protected by copyright under Law No. 35/2016, "On Copyright and Related Rights". The article may be republished by other media only by citing Vox News and placing a link to the source at the end, otherwise any violator will be held liable under Article 178 of Law No. 35/2016.