Opposition leader complains to Austrian PM about national lottery

TIRANA, August 1 – The opposition Socialist Party insists it will undertake every possible legal step to what it calls a manipulated and predetermined winner in a tender where Austrian Lotteries has been announced as the preliminary winner of 10-year licence to hold the first national lottery in Albania.
In a letter to Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann this week, opposition leader Edi Rama says the tendering process has been clearly manipulated against public interest and that Austrian Lotteries, which manages Austria’s national lottery, has not followed the same standards in Albania with their behaviour in the tender.
“As a result the Socialist Party and I aim to undertake every possible legal action to investigate into the whole process, the alleged manipulation and repair the damage that has been caused to the Albanian public through this grave act of irresponsibility,” says Rama in his letter to Faymann.
“I also want to let you know on our goal to appeal to Austrian Lotteries to withdraw from this process which has not been transparent and runs counter to the interests of the Albanian state and public as well as all rules and standards under which this company operates in Austria. By involving in such a process they are betraying the principles of impartiality, social responsibility and transparency we would expect to see from a company of these standards,” notes Rama, also hailing the contribution the Austrian government and business community has had in Albania during its 100 years as an independent state.
The Finance Ministry has rejected accusations of lack of transparency and, favouring criteria set for qualification of companies, and the low fixed price of only 3 million euros.
“The most important thing for the Finance Ministry was the selection of an operator with integrity able to meet the required technical and financial requirements,” Finance Minister Ridvan Bode has said, adding that the national lotteries were a delicate activity targeted by organized crime and money laundering.
Since its beginning, the opposition Socialist Party had strongly opposed the process as corruptive and lacking transparency. With one year to go before the next general elections, Edi Rama had previously threatened to cancel the lottery when the Socialists come to power and make it a state-run lottery.
Austrian Lotteries has recently been announced the preliminary winner of a controversial tender held last June to award a 10-year licence on Albania’s first national lottery. The Finance Ministry says the Austrian company ranked first after the conclusion of the second stage of bids evaluation. Legal procedures foresee the final decision will be taken by the end of this month after a 30-day complaints period.
The national lottery process was marred by accusations by several companies who were disqualified from submitting bids and the opposition Socialist Party accusing government of corruption.
The low price, discriminatory criteria set for the participating companies, the taxes the Albanian government will benefit and the monopoly the Austrian company is given for only 3 million euros were some of the most controversial issues accompanying the process.
Only two companies participated in the tender held June 20 after Greece’s Intralot and Turkey’s Inteltek withdrew from the race concerned over the procedures the Albanian government followed and the discriminatory qualification criteria.
The first offer came from the Austrian National Lottery, while the second came from a consortium of three companies, the Italian Lottomatica, the Cypriot GTech and the Czech Synot.