TIRANA, Feb. 6 – Two former directors of the Albanian Road Authority are among 11 people arrested by the Elbasan district court concerning a 2009 tender to upkeep a 23 km road segment connecting the city of Elbasan with the mountainous village Gjinar.
Former general director of roads for the time period 2008-2013 Andi Toma and his successor, Dashamir Xhika, who held the post until September 2017, were arrested for power abuse and misuse of public funds.
Xhika is an official of the Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI) — third biggest party in Albania and part of a coalition with the governing Socialist Party (SP) until last year, when it joined the opposition.
Toma was in power until 2013, when the Democratic Party (DP) was governing and had a coalition with the SMI.
The supervisor of the construction works Rexhep Tarba and the three administrators of the construction firms were given house arrest, while five other persons in charge of test running the road, are being investigated without security measures.
The village Gjinar has long experienced infrastructure problems, as the road has collapsed in several places.
In 2008, Toma, along with head of PD and opposition Lulzim Basha, was accused for the procurement of the highway Rrà«shen-Kalimash, but the penal case was closed through a 2009 verdict from the High Court.
The Elbasan-Gjinar road was procured in 2009 for €3.75 million, according to local media, but prosecutors say it was never finalized.
Last December, Xhika was accused by Minister of Infrastructure Damian Gjiknuri of amending the building contract of the Tirana-Elbasan highway with damages mounting to $16 million.
While there is no further information for this case, the Tirana-Elbasan highway was supposed to be finalized in 2015, but the deadline was constantly postponed and the costs of construction raised.
Public procurement corruption in Albania is deemed to be high, while investigation and measures against violations rare.
