Balkans Biggest Graft Case Heads to Court

Tirana _ The investigation over the misuse of public funds and abuse of power in the construction of the Albania-Kosovo highway, will in the coming days find its way to court.

Sources inside the General Prosecutors office have told Balkan Insight that official charges will be filed as early as next week, in what experts have calculated to be damage to the state in the range of €230 million.

The evaluation was made using the average price of construction material and labour costs in comparison to what Albania is paying to build the road.

The highway, which links the port of Durres with Kosovo and includes a six kilometers long tunnel, is the country’s biggest public works project in decades.

Almost 89 per cent of Albania’s capital expenditures during 2008 fiscal year have been spent for the for the highway, - data published by Ministry of Finance suggests.
 
For the nine months ending on Sept. 30, Albania had spent €328 million from its €373 million capital expenditures budget on the road. About half of this sum was raised in the international market as syndicated commercial loans. Albania will need to invest another €250 million to complete the project, due to be finalized in the summer of 2009.
 
Prosecutor-General Ina Rama has been 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 last year.
 
Apart from the Basha, the former Deputy Minister of Transportation, Armand Teliti and the General Director of Roads, Leila Saraci, have been charged with abuse of power
 
Both officials have denied the charges against them.
 
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.  
 
He is still under investigation officially and his fate has not been decided yet.
 
Although Basha has denied the charges and sought to characterise the investigation as a politically-motivated attack by Sollaku, Rama, who succeeded Sollaku, has continued to push ahead with the probe.
 

Premier Berisha inspecting the highway

 
Although the current parliament voted her in, her corruption probes into senior officials have annoyed many of her former backers, including Prime Minister Sali Berisha. Read more: Attacks On Top Prosecutor Anger Albania's US Ally
 
Berisha returned to power in Tirana in 2005 on a “Clean Hands” platform, promising to rid the country of the endemic corruption that has plagued it since the communist regime fell in 1991. But his opponents claim corruption in Albania has only worsened. Read more: Corruption is Robbing Albania of its Future
 
Meanwhile, while voicing support for the fight against corruption, Berisha has sought to draft a new law that regulates the office of the Prosecutor General.  
 
The law would strip prosecutors of the right to be protected from a police arrest without a formal indictment and limit their independence by allowing the Ministry of Justice to probe investigations.  
 
The bill has come under criticism from interests groups, the opposition and the US, because it limits the independence of the general prosecutor, which is guaranteed by the Albanian constitution. Read more: Albania PM in Justice Reform Row 
 
The embattled Prosecutor General has found a strong ally in the US ambassador, John Withers, who several times has condemned Berisha’s assaults on the Prosecutor General.

“When the history of Albanian democracy is written, there will be a special chapter in it for people like Ina Rama,” Withers said in October.
 
The US has invested heavily in Albania’s NATO ambitions following an historic visit by US President George Bush in June. US lobbying was critical in ensuring Albania received an invitation at the alliance’s April summit in Bucharest.  
 
The EU has also been critical on the attacks on Rama, who has come to be seen by many analysts and the general public as Albania's only hope in the fight against corrupt officials. Read more: EU Critical of Albania's Progress