TIRANA, Feb 25 – The World Bank office in Tirana replied Tuesday evening to the many accusations thrown by the Albanian Government about the demolishing of constructions in the Jale beach.
WB said the report of the Inspection Panel was correct in its conclusions about the role played by the Project Coordination Office and that the Panel itself was “independent”.
In a dramatic effort to preserve the diplomatic language, the head of World Bank in Albania, Camille Nuamah, met with the Albanian media to present the final conclusions from the WB managers.
In June 2005, the World Bank officially approved a $17.5 million loan to be disbursed by the International Development Association (IDA), an arm of the World Bank Group, for the Coastal Zones Integrated Management and Clean-Up Project in Albania. The project, which totaled $38.56 million, was also directly financed by donors such as the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the governments of Albania, the Netherlands, Austria and Japan. The project, meant to last through March of 2010, sought to address a number of social, environmental and economic issues of the southern and central coast of Albania.
The coastal community of Jale, part of the Vuno village, Vlora district in southwestern Albania, was directly affected by the IDA project on April 17, 2007, when a number of its houses were demolished by Albania’s Construction Police.
Although the structures in question were illegally built, the residents’ applications for legalization during prior years were answered inconclusively and the authorities did not allow for the villagers’ appeal to go to court after announcing the houses’ demolition a month earlier.
During and after the demolition process, Jale residents were repeatedly told that the World Bank project was the driving force behind the demolitions; prompting an official request in July of 2007 from the residents to the Bank’s complaint investigative body, the Inspection Panel, to review their claim of having “suffered as a result of the World Bank’s failures and oversights.”
The Inspection Panel presented its report on December 1, 2008. The project was suspended by Bank Management on January 9, 2009.
“The Managerial Board accepts the conclusions of the Panel regarding the Albanian Unit of Project Coordination,” the document stated. According to the Panel’s investigation report “the coordinator of the project had initiated the demolishing of the construction in Jale Beach and the Construction Police had only acted as its executioner.”
Albanian government reacted to the Panel’s report with Berisha declaring that “President Zoellick was an honorable personality, but the Inspection Panel was corrupted by the Albanian construction Mafia.” Also, Berisha demanded that WB apologized on behalf of the Panel and its report. World Bank tried to answer the allegations in an indirect way.
“We cannot comment the declarations made by the parties involved,” the statement said, also adding that “The Inspection Panel is an independent office that can be used by those who think they have been harmed by the Banks work.
Instead of apologizing to the government, the Bank stood by the Panel’s report.
“Accepting the appointment of Berisha’s son-in-law was a mistake”
The Bank declared that the project coordinator was appointed by the Ministry of Public Works and not by the Bank. However, in all occasions, the Bank had monitored the appointment procedures and did not object to this assignment.
“Not objecting the appointment of Jamarber Malltezi, the PM’s son-in-law, as project coordinator was a lack of judgment shown by the Managerial Board. We should have considered that Malltezi’s appointment created, at the very least, the perception of a conflict of interest, and therefore harming the Bank’s reputation,” the statement said.
Malltezi became project coordinator in 2005 when Berisha’s government came into power. His appointment was done at the end of a selection procedure monitored by the WB.
In a note regarding the conflict of interest it is stated that “Institutional Integrity Department (IID) of the Bank analyzed the necessary documentation to see if grounds for investigation existed. Even though the information revealed potential conflict of interest, at least in appearance, IID stopped short of investigating the matter further. They observed that in any case, if there were strong grounds for investigation, they would have passed the matter to the Albanian authorities to deal with it.”
WB denied any news of a possible ongoing investigation dealing with corruption within the Bank, however, adding that “it is not in our competences.”
“We did not authorize demolishing of the constructions”
One major point of the recent scandal is the responsibility of who ordered the destruction of the buildings in Jale Beach. Earlier this week, the Ministry of Public Works, published an old document of the project which stated that “construction police was forced” and “the need to control the territory.”
WB denied the responsibility on its part.
“We did not order the destruction and we have not taken responsibility for something we haven’t done. The World Bank takes the well being of people very seriously.” Nuamah said to the media.”
“The Project Team learned about the destruction of the buildings through communication means on 18 April 2007 and contacted the Albanian Unit for Project Coordination on 19 April 2007.”
WB explains they were not aware of orders sent by the project coordinator to the Construction Police on behalf of the Bank. After the news of destruction became public, the Bank was surprised to the mentioning of its name and asked for clarifications.
The government, on the other side, has always declared that the demolishing of the Jale Beach was a consequence of the project. “We demolished illegal constructions because WB requested it,” Lulzim Basha, former Minister of Public Works, said in front of the Parliament back then.
On Thrusday Transport Minister Sokol Olldashi said they had demolished the buildings because all were illegally constructed there without any documentation.
In fact, WB took responsibility over the destruction of Jale Beach not because it ordered, authorized, or advised the demolishing, but because the Project Coordination Office, an agency of the Albanian government, used means financed by the Bank and the name of the Bank itself to accomplish the buildings’ destruction.
