Albania-Kosovo Highway ‘to Cost Much More’

Tirana _ The Albanian Government admits the highway linking the country’s coast with Kosovo will cost €630 million, more than €200 million than the original contract of €418 million.

The admission comes in a letter by Albania’s government to the International Monetary Fund.

The highway, which links the port of Durres with Kosovo, is the country’s biggest public works project in decades, however its has been dogged by allegations of irregularities and corruption.

Prosecutor-General Ina Rama is probing alleged irregularities in the tender for the construction of the highway won by the American-Turkish consortium, Bechtel-Enka.

Former Prosecutor-General Theodhori Sollaku began an investigation last year into alleged irregularities surrounding the awarding of the tender.

The investigation led to a request by Sollaku that parliament lift the immunity of Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha, who was at the time of the tender, the Minister of Transport.

Basha’s immunity was lifted by parliament at the end of December.

A few weeks earlier, President Bamir Topi had dismissed Sollaku, following a call for his sacking by a parliamentary commission, and nominated Rama, a former Serious Crimes Court Judge, as his replacement.

Local media have reported that several other officials from the roads department of the Transport Ministry are being investigated along with Basha.

Sources inside the prosecutor’s office have told Balkan Insight that though the case against officials who were directly involved in the road tender is clear cut, establishing the minister's legal responsibility is more complex.

Although Basha has sought to characterise the investigation as a politically-motivated attack by Sollaku, since Rama took over, she has continued to push ahead with the probe.