In its annual report to Economy Commission, competition watchdog says it has launched an investigation into vehicle tenders with public funds that might have been decided before the bids were opened.
TIRANA, March 9 – Albania’s official competition watchdog said this week it has launched an investigation into tenders with public funds that might have been decided before the bids were opened. The main case involves suspicious purchases of state administration vehicles, officials said.
The Competition Authority said the investigation is being conducted in cooperation with other institutions, according to Lindita Lati, chairman of the Competition Authority.
“After a lengthy and detailed process, we are about to complete an investigation on the procurement of new vehicles,” Ms. Lati said. “But the competition authority will go beyond this. Together with relevant bodies, we will build an action plan to train staff who deal with procurements on how to identify the proper elements of the agreements within these processes.”
Ms. Lati was speaking during her annual report before the Parliamentary Committee on Economy. She said another major problem was the inability to collect on the fines issued so far.
“This year showed that the decisions for determining fines were approved by the court system, and the money should have been collected, but there was a problem of legal coordination among institutions in implementing the respective laws,” Ms. Lati said.
The Competition Authority has so far issued 8 million dollars in fines in investigations undertaken in different markets. Out of nine guilty decisions, eight are lawsuits that are taking years to be resolved.
Last year saw an increase in cases investigated by the Competition Authority based on the new Competition Protection Law. During 2009, the authority also communicated more often with the business community on respecting the rules of free market economy by all operators. This tactic has led to increasing tips and complaints by market operators and consumers in areas like electronic communications, pharmaceutical, energy and insurance markets as well as freelance professionals
