TIRANA, March 30, 2022 – The ongoing investigation into abuse of public funds through the construction of waste incinerators has led to 14 new arrests being sought, including a Socialist member of parliament, Alqi Bllako.
Bllako, who has served in a series of high profile public sector jobs before becoming an MP, announced Wednesday, he was resigning from parliament to face charges without immunity, which was about to be lifted by the institution.
The latest arrests are tied to the Fier incinerator and involve members of the procurement commissions, former local officials and a former head of a state-owned enterprise.
Bllako, had been serving as secretary general of the Ministry of Environment at the time, working under Lefter Koka, the former minister currently in jail awaiting trial on similar but separate charges.
SPAK special corruption and organized crimes prosecutors said Bllako’s role at the ministry and as Director General of the National Agency for Water Supply, Sewerage and Waste Infrastructure allowed him to favor the beneficiary company in the public funds concession, in exchange for “irregular benefits” of about $150,000. Prosecutors seized an apartment under the name of Bllako’s father believed to have been purchased with the money in question.
Prosecutors believe that Bllako, working with other officials, including Koka, falsified paperwork to requalify expropriated land on which the incinerator would be built to make it more expensive, resulting in a higher price paid by the taxpayers.
Bllako denies the charges. “I have never violated the laws of the land, nor have I ever broken the ethics of the duty I have exercised,” he said in a statement, announcing his resignation. “There is no reason for the Assembly of the Republic of Albania to engage in this issue, nor do I want to benefit or be offered a treatment different from any other citizen of our country.”
His former boss, Koka, was arrested in December last year on charges tied to the Elbasan urban waste incinerator in Elbasan. Prosecutors believe Koka received about $3.7 million in bribes from two companies in return for giving them the concession contracts, prosecutors indicate in the charges.
Prosecutors say two companies tied to the construction, Albtek Energy and Integrated Technology Services, issued bloated invoices for works not actually done, with the proceeds suspected to have been channeled to Koka as a bribe, after he illegally favored the two companies in the PPP contract procedures. The administrators of the two companies set up a fictitious payment scheme to hide the illegal origin of the money during their transfers, prosecutors note.
Albania’s opposition has made public accusations about the incinerators for years, also accusing the government and prime minister of direct knowledge and involvement.
Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted Wednesday to Bllako’s case saying: “responsibility is individual.”
A lengthy inquiry was held in the Albanian parliament recently, led by the opposition, in which Bllako and several other top government officials were questioned.
And the charges on which the prosecutors were acting were originally acting were filed by three Albanian parties, Nisma Thurje, the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration, in which both Koka and Bllako were members before switching allegiance to join the ruling Socialist Party — which awarded them both with fairly safe seats in parliament in the recent elections.
All concessions involving trash incinerators have come under scrutiny over alleged corruption. Fier and Elbasan have now been seized by the state.
A major incinerator in Tirana is now also under scrutiny, with investigative journalists noting that its owners are ultimately unknown as they hide behind an offshore company.
“We believe that the issue of Elbasan, Fier and Tirana, as we have repeatedly called in recent months, should all be addressed jointly,” said the head of the parliamentary inquiry, DP MP Jorida Tabaku.
