Prime minister declares success in rule of law drive, but there is growing concern bill collection operations and arrests have hit poorest Albanians hardest
TIRANA, May 7 – The state-owned electric power distribution corporation, OSHEE, has turned a profit for the first time in its history, Prime Minister Edi Rama said this week, as the company has collected enough money from consumers and does not need to get a subsidy from state coffers.
Rama said the success was the results of a nationwide operation aided by police to cut illegal power connections from the grid, arrest power thieves and cut off electricity to those with overdue bills.
Over the past few months tens of people have been arrested and thousands of power connections have been cut either because they were illegal or because consumers had overdue unpaid bills.
During the past week alone some 70 joint OSHEE police groups operated in the country to make about 4,000 power connection checks. They found 29 illegal links and arrested eight people accused of theft. Thirteen other persons were declared wanted at large for the same charges.
Rama said his government has moved OSHEE from being on the verge of collapse 18 months ago to profitability.
However, here has been growing concern that the government’s power bill collection drive and arrests have hit some of the poorest Albanians hardest, according to profiles appearing in the Albanian media.
In one case this week in the southern rural district of Gramsh, police arrested the head of the household for an illegal connection to the grid, and his family was pleading for his release on compassionate grounds after they sold all their livestock and took on debt at the local food-market to pay the electricity they owed, according to a story on Albania’s Top-Channel television.
They had no appliances that use a lot of electricity and the man was the only family member earning a meager income for the family which included a physically-disabled son, according to the media outlet.
Several opposition representatives and independent opinion-makers in the Albanian media have called the government efforts “heartless” for its by-the-book approach in targeting some of the country’s poorest people. One man from a poor family killed himself in his jail cell earlier this year, for example, as he suffered from depression and was being held for weeks on charges of stealing electricity.
However, government officials say all electricity consumed must be paid and all those who connect to the network illegally will be jailed.
The government has said it will put up a financial assistance scheme so the poorest Albanians can get electricity at a lower price.
It also added police had had arrested far more business owners than heads of families in its drive to catch electricity thieves.
The ruling Socialist-led coalition also withdrew a controversial article in the new energy law that allowed the state-run power operator to seize the homes of debtor household, placing them as collateral.
Under the previous draft law approved by government, the electricity distribution operator, OSHEE, was authorized to seize assets to households with a debt of more than 150,000 lek (1,051 euros)
The opposition Democratic Party had described the new measures unacceptable.
Earlier in the week there were also clashes between protesters and police in northern Albania. Protesters in Kukes said they are too poor to pay the debts to the power company and are seeking debt forgiveness.
OSHEE was formerly known as CEZ Shperndarje and changed its name after the government re-nationalized the company when its Czech owners failed to meet investment and bill collection levels, citing unwillingness from the previous government to help them collect the bills.
OSHEE said earlier this year it collected a record $200 million only in the December-February period with 258,000 debtor household customers offering to pay in monthly installments or benefit 80 percent discount on penalties for late-payments in case of immediate payment as part of nationwide campaign launched in October 2014 to curb thefts of around Euro 150 million a year.