TIRANA, April 28 – The Albanian government has authorized the start of procedures for a new concession with a Danish company on public lighting in the country’s biggest municipalities of Tirana and Durres, a proposal which had been initially turned down by its junior partner, the Socialist Movement for Integration.
Under a decision made this week, the Albanian government authorized the energy ministry and the municipalities of Tirana and Durres as contracting authorities to examine the unsolicited bid by Danish company “HeSaLight A/S” .
Justice Minister YlliManjani, representing the Socialist Movement for Integration in the Socialist Party-led coalition had earlier slammed the proposal to include the energy ministry as a contracting authority as infringing local autonomy.
The government says the decision is part of improving energy efficiency.
Earlier this year, the Socialist Movement for Integration, the junior ally of the ruling Socialists, proposed some legal changes to increase the transparency of public-private partnerships by thoroughly analyzing them and increasing the number of stakeholders in the decision-making process, including Parliament. Important changes include the involvement of the Albanian Parliament in the approval of PPPs whose term exceeds four years, the same as the mandate of a majority from general elections, in a bid to seek cross-party consensus. However, the initiative has not been supported in parliament so far.
Public-private partnerships have become a hot topic in Albanian politics after some risky concessions and warnings by international financial institutions that some 55 public-private partnerships the Albanian governments have signed during the past decade, have created commitments with a present value of about 7 percent of the GDP or €700 million in which the government will either pay the cost of the investment in installments or guarantee the revenue of concessionaires.
