Blair’s ‘pro bono’ advice in Albania comes into question as wife receives lucrative contract

TIRANA, March 12 - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been advising Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama at no cost to Albanian taxpayers, according to the government, but that view has come into question this week after British media reported Blair's wife had been granted a lucrative contract by the Albanian government.

A British newspaper, The Telegraph, reported that Cherie Blair has signed a deal to act on behalf of Albania through her law firm, Omnia Strategy. The newspaper described the contract as coming a little over a year after her husband began acting as official adviser for Prime Minister Rama.

Her law firm, Omnia Strategy, has been appointed to act on behalf of Albania in a 250-million pound legal dispute.

Mr. Blair is an official adviser to the government, prompting calls by opposition MPs for more transparency in the country’s dealings with the Blairs.

The deal in Albania follows the award of a contract to Mrs. Blair by the Kazakhstan government, where her husband is also an official, paid adviser to the country’s autocratic president Nursultan Nazarbayev. It is not clear how much Mrs. Blair is being paid.

The legal dispute in Albania follows a decision by the new socialist government to rip up a 250 million pound contract with a U.S. company to construct and operate special scanners along its international borders.

Rapiscan Systems, based in Redhill, Surrey, won the 15-year contract in April 2013 in an attempt by Albania to tighten up its borders and crack down on drugs, tobacco and weapons smuggling, as well as people trafficking.

Albania hopes to join the European Union and needs to put in place tougher border controls to do so.

But the contract was scrapped after the election of Rama as prime minister in September 2013.

Rapiscan began legal action against Albania last August, suing the country for 250 million pound in a case being taken to the International Chamber of Commerce in Vienna.

Albania then sought a legal firm to fight its case and, after a tendering process begun in October last year, awarded the legal work to Omnia.

Mrs. Blair recently quit as a human rights barrister at Matrix Chambers in part to focus on her work with Omnia, which she set up in 2011.

This is not the first time Omnia Strategy has been employed by Tirana. It was awarded a contract worth 300,000 pound at the end of 2012 to advise the previous Albanian government in a billion dollar oil dispute with an American energy firm.

Albania’s legal costs in that case were a little over $500,000 (300,000 pound). It is not clear how much of the total costs were owed to Omnia Strategy for its work, The Telegraph reported.

Cherie Blair also visited Albania several years ago to help boost the image of an oil oligarch with ties to the previous government. Rezart Thaci has since gone bankrupt and sold most of his holdings to other parties