Abuses of funds for agriculture / Unblocking IPARD III without a deadline

2024-07-18 21:00:00, Aktualitet CNA

Abuses of funds for agriculture / Unblocking IPARD III without a deadline

Minister of Agriculture Anila Denaj during the interpellation in the parliament

In Albania, the release of European funds of the IPARD III program in support of Albanian agriculture seems to have to take a long time. Authorities are yet to say when they will be able to reopen, after being put on hold after the European anti-fraud office, Olaf, found serious misuse of funds from the previous IPARD II programme.

During an interpellation in the parliament, requested by the deputy in the opposition, Agron Shehaj, the Minister of Agriculture Anila Denaj, declared on Thursday that an action plan drawn up by the Albanian side is still in the process of approval in the EU structures. The action plan, according to the minister, was requested from the Albanian authorities, since in December of last year they responded to the European Commission, on the Olaf report, which was submitted to the Albanian government in October of the same year. The process envisages that the material sent to Brussels by the Albanian authorities is evaluated and then the parties enter into a "negotiation" process, at the end of which the amount that the Albanian state will have to return to Brussels is determined.

It is not known what was the response of the Albanian side to the claims of Olaf, who in the report for 2023 announced that he had recommended to the European Commission "to consider as inappropriate, a part of the funding of the First and Second Call for IPARD II program applications, for a value of 33 million euros".

Minister Denaj said today that the summary report submitted to the Albanian government "records cases of irregularities with a total value many times lower than the value highlighted in the report and the terminology is not the same as that used. This is because OLAF's audit structures apply several criteria, such as the extrapolation and general evaluation of the findings.

Mrs. Denaj announced the engagement of "an external audit to perform a complete audit, ensuring independence from existing structures and authorities, based on accepted international standards." Only at the end of the audit and the generation of this report from this external audit will we talk about figures. Now everything is premature and political".

Also in the annual report, Olaf further recommended that "the EU prevent 112 million euros of future financing (IPARD III) for Albania from unnecessary expenses, until corrective measures are put in place to protect the financial interests of the EU from any illegal activity". In November of last year, the Delegation of the European Union in Tirana told the Voice of America that "the European Commission has put on hold the approval of all IPARD III measures".

During today's interpellation in the parliament, Minister Denaj addressed the issue of the IPARD III program, as if it were in an ongoing procedure, and not suspended, until Albania provides serious evidence that it can once again take over the handling of European funds. The Albanian authorities, prior to the Commission's intervention, based on OLAF's investigations, had passed all the main links of the process and were only waiting for re-accreditation and even expressed confidence that the green light for IPARD III funds would be given in January 2023. "IPARD III, there are 9 measures out of 4 measures. It is a process that requires stronger institutions and requires the completion of more documentation and stronger institutions. We are doing exactly this, through the structures and the effort to change aspects of the preventive control", Mrs. Denaj declared today.

In the report for 2023, OLAF says it discovered "several serious irregularities during the phase of granting grants and implementing some projects". These irregularities included the fact that “applicants were required to pay a significant portion of their grant to a local consulting company. Contracts that are awarded without competition, or through a rigged tender (with false tenders being submitted), and inflated prices and breach of contractual rules”.

But while for the consulting company, Olaf clearly hints that the applicants were obliged to turn to it, Minister Denaj said that "the role of the consultant" is in the process of being fully identified, which I must emphasize here , that the relationship between the Consultant and the Applicant/Beneficiary is a free relationship between the parties". However, she added that "it is important that the consultant selected by the beneficiary and has been identified for unethical behavior, in violation of the law, be a public information and in full knowledge for anyone, when he makes his choice".

The Minister of Agriculture stated that in the meantime "quick corrective actions have been taken for projects that are part of the OLAF report, for the recovery of funds" that have been abused, or that "the new organizational structure for the responsible Agency has been approved". . She also announced that "where there was a need for administrative measures, she intervened", but without explaining how far these interventions went. The case, however, is now in the hands of the Special Prosecutor's Office, which has launched an investigation./ VOA