Sidestepping OSSH debt

TIRANA, March 10 – The Albanian government decided last week to cancel some 60 million Euros of debts and unpaid bills of the state-owned electricity distribution utility, OSSH, which has already been bought by a Czech company though the handover is still being negotiated.
The opposition has harshly opposed such a decision considering it as a corruptive act from the government, adding it will decrease more than 50 per cent of the OSSH real price.
Long term debts to the World Bank and European Investment Bank of 5.16 billion leke were removed from the OSSH’s balance sheet and were transferred to another state-owned power company, KESH.
The decision also annulled unpaid bills totaling 1 billion leke that OSSH owed to KESH and the operator of the electricity transmission system, another publicly owned company.
Last September the Czech power utility CEZ won the tender to buy the OSSH for 102 million.