TIRANA, Jan. 22 – Albania’s Director of the State Road Authority Afrim Qendro and Director of Distribution System Operator Klodian Gradeci were ousted on Monday over the DH Albania scandal – a ghost company that was awarded almost 30 million euros through two government tenders alleged to belong to oligarch Bashkim Ulaj.
The decision was taken and communicated by the new Minister of Infrastructure Belinda Balluku, while it was also announced that former Minister of Entrepreneurial Protection Sonila Qato will take Qendro’s place and Skerdi Drenova will take Gradeci’s place.
Last week, both men were called to the General Prosecutor’s Office over their involvement with the scandal
In addition to the dismissals, the government also broke the contract with DH Albania for both tenders, although all institutions have so-far held a unanimous position that there has been no violation on the government’s side regarding the tender procedures or the verification of DH Albania and its mother company Dunwell Habermann, which had falsified both its founding act and the Delaware Secretary of State signature.
Albanian authorities have repeated that they did not verify the documents of DH Albania because they had no previous suspicions or reason to, although the company was recently-registered, represented by unknown, 26-year-old Avdjol Dobi.
Further evidence backing up investigations conducted by local media, and in particular the Voice of America, have strongly pointed to Albanian oligarch Bashkim Ulaj being behind the entire corrupt affair; Ulaj has been an ally of both the socialist and democratic parties in Albania, while his main company, ‘Gener 2,’ is a frequent winner of government tenders.
