TIRANA, Nov. 13 – Tirana’s Supreme State Audit (SSA) reported to the prosecution office eight Saranda Real Estate Registration Office workers who it suspects have abused their power.
The SSA submitted to the prosecution the documents proving for the eight local officials the established violations of property records on the southern coast, mainly in the Ksamil area, without proper legal documentation.
It also informed it has filed its denouncement towards a registrant and a former registrant, the former Deputy Registrant and five local specialists working at the Real Estate Registration Office in Saranda.
According to the SSA, officials have committed violations in dozens of cases of property registration, revenue collection, the issuance of property certificates for formerly limited assets, and so on.
The coastal area between Vlora and Saranda has seen a rapid growth of intense construction in the last decade, especially those related to tourism.
In recent years, apart from property conflicts in the courts, dozens of land, pasture and construction land files that have ended up in Vlora’s and Saranda’s prosecution offices of Vlora and Saranda because of abuse include local officials.
Only last month, Albanian police arrested former Socialist Party MP Arben Ndoka on corruption charges related to coastal property abuse and adverse possession.
Surveillance of the Ndoka brothers over their discussions with Real Estate Registration Office employees proved they had illegally taken huge amounts of property under their ownership.
Last March, the Lezha police investigated a criminal group suspected of abusing properties in Lezha’s Shengjin area and in this context detained 12 persons, among whom the Lezha Mayor, and declared another 11 as wanted.
All of them are being accused of adverse possession of 234,548 square meters of coastal land in Lezha’s Shengjin, proving that what is happening in Saranda currently has been happening all over Albania.
