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The investigation for the Elbasan incinerator / Millions of euros were spent, it only worked for 1 and a half days

2024-01-18 16:28:00, Aktualitet CNA

Elbasan incinerator

On October 5, 2023, after almost two years of investigations, the Special Court against corruption and against organized crime gave the final decision to the defendants of the Elbasan incinerator file. The former Minister of the Environment was found not guilty of the charge of "abuse of office", but Lefter Koka was found guilty of the charge of passive corruption and laundering the proceeds of a criminal offense or criminal activity. In total, Lefter Koka was sentenced to 5.8 years of imprisonment, while his right to exercise public functions was removed for a period of five years.

During the investigations, the two prosecutors Arben Kraja and Klodian Braho, showed in the investigation file that Lefter Koka in cooperation with Mirel Mërtirin set up a scheme benefiting millions of euros from the company Albtek Energy and Integrated Technology Service, through fictitious companies, which invoiced works that were not never performed in the incinerator of Elbasan.

According to the Prosecution, Alqi Blako had no direct role in the incinerator of Elbasan, but due to his acquaintances with Klodian Zoto and Mirel Mërtir, he helped these two carry out the procedures for obtaining the concession of this incinerator. Therefore, Alqi Blako was declared innocent for the incinerator of Elbasan, despite the fact that he continued to stay in the cell, due to the measure of arrest for the incinerator of Fier and then that of Tirana.

The members of the bid evaluation commission, Pëllumb Abeshi, Bardhyl Çabiri, Serafin Papa (the last two were released from prison immediately because they had served their sentences) and Jonida Zeqo were also found guilty of abuse of office committed in cooperation. These were the high officials convicted for this affair.

However, the Special Court also sentenced the bosses of the incinerators to prison in absentia. Mirel Mërtiri, the de facto owner of the Albtek Energy company, which implemented the Elbasan incinerator concession, was sentenced to a total of 6.8 years in prison.

The co-habitant of Mirel Mërtiri, the de jure owner of the Elbasan incinerator, Stela Gugallja, was sentenced to 4.8 years of imprisonment also in absentia, just like her husband.

Klodian Zoto, the owner of the company Integrated Technology Serivce, which carried out the works for the construction of the Elbasan landfill and incinerator, was also declared guilty. Klodian Zoto was also sentenced to 6.8 years in prison in absentia.

In the decision of GJKKO, the confiscation of the company Albtek Energy and the company Integrated Technology Service, of Mirel Mërtir and Klodian Zoto, as well as a number of other companies of Lefter Koka and his family members, which benefited from payments from the concession of the incinerator Elbasani.

These were the decisions given by GJKKO, for the first investigation file on the incinerators, described as the affair of the century. However, the investigations into this affair in Elbasan also seemed to fall short of expectations, as it seems that many officials were not investigated.

Even though he attacked the prosecutor Klodian Braho, Mirel Mërtiri raised quite a few questions about the investigations of the Elbasan incinerator, as he spoke on the show Çim Peka Live on Syri TV.
Beyond the accusations and allusions of Mirel Mërtir, in fact the investigation file on the Elbasan affair seems to be completely uninvestigated.

From the beginning of the investigations, the fact is highlighted that for the incinerator of Elbasan, it was the municipality of this city that requested the construction, addressing the Ministry of Environment. And even, on the same day when the municipality of Elbasan registered the request to the ministry for the construction of the waste incineration plant, the company Albtek Energy of Mirel Mërtiri was also created, which in a few months, would win the concession of 21.6 million euros for the incinerator.

Also, the file highlights the fact that the concession was granted in violation of the laws, as the Ministry of Finance and the Public Procurement Agency requested from the Ministry of the Environment that the concession be made according to public procurement laws. But these requests were ignored, and the government, with the signature of Prime Minister Edi Rama, the general secretary of the Council of Ministers Úngjëll Agaçi, passed and approved the concession contract for the Elbasan incinerator, which, as SPAK has found from its own investigations, has caused financial damage to the state.

At this point, the question arises why the head of the government Edi Rama and his subordinate Úngjëll Agaçi, who approved a contract, which was not in accordance with the laws in force on public procurement, were not investigated or at least interrogated?!

The biggest question was raised by Mirel Mërtiri himself on the show Çim Peka Live on Syri TV, when he expressed why the incinerator of Elbasan is not working, asking that SPAK and the institutions give this explanation...
And in fact, in this show, Plug will bring facts that the incinerator of Elbasan, which cost taxpayers over 3 billion lek or more than 21 million euros direct and another million euros today, does not work...

In December 2021, SPAK placed a seizure on the Albtek Energy company, while issuing several arrest warrants for the Elbasan burner. The measures were given only a few days from the date when the Elbasan burner was expected to be owned by the company ECO-ELB SHA, a joint stock company newly created by 7 municipalities of the district, where the municipality of Elbasan had the majority of shares.

Despite the measures, the transfer of the burner from Albtek Energy to ECO-ELB sha, happened. And from January 1, 2022, the company Eco-Elb sha took control of the urban waste landfill, while with a lease contract, it also took over the administration of the incinerator.

At the time, it was assumed that the incinerator was operational, meaning it was burning waste and producing electricity. The mayor of Elbasan, Gledian Llatja, also confirmed this in the special parliamentary investigative commission in February 2022.

But while making these statements to the investigative commission, earlier, a few months before taking over the plant, the mayor of Elbasan complained that he was unable to afford the costs of the incinerator. In an e-mail dated May 18, 2021, the municipality of Elbasan did not have clarity on the costs of operating and managing the project. There were questions about whether the state would subsidize the municipality for operating costs, whether the deposit fee would have to be increased, etc. In the same e-mail, where the Ministry of Energy showed the complaints of the Elbasan municipality, the department headed by Belinda Balluku stated that "since we are a state of letters", it indicated the path that the Elbasan municipality should follow to take over the plant.

But, it seems that even after this e-mail, the municipality of Elbasan was not clear about what it should do. And the correspondence with the Ministry of Infrastructure has continued. The latter, with a letter dated October 8, 2021, responds for the umpteenth time to the mayor of Elbasan, Gledian Llatja, where he reminds him that the municipality headed by him is part of a new feasibility study, and the concerns that this institution has should be included in this feasibility study.

In fact, Gledian Llatja and the municipality of Elbasan were familiar with the operating costs of the plant. In another email, dated May 18, 2021, the municipality was sent a table with the operating costs, which amounted to 166 million lek or about 1.6 million euros per month. After the October letter that Belinda Balluku sent to the Elbasan Municipality, the mayor Gledian Llatja, with a letter dated November 11, 2021, addresses his colleagues in the other 6 municipalities of the district, where he asks them to be ready for the creation of the ECO-ELB society , so that she can take over the plant. Gledian Llatja, presenting the situation at the end of the letter, tells the mayors of other municipalities in the district that if they do not accept, the plant will be taken over by the municipality of Elbasan itself. And starting after this letter, the company ECO-ELB was created, on November 18, 2021, or about a month before the concession contract ended and Albtek energy delivered the plant to the seven municipalities of the district.

In fact, while he stated in the investigative commission that the plant was functional, Gledian Llatja also indicated that it needed repair and for this, orders were made for new spare parts.

This fact shows that the municipalities took over a non-functional plant, which is also confirmed by the documents that the warranty of the incinerator had ended in 2018.

In fact, the questions about the operation of the Elbasan incinerator could not be answered only with the statements of Gledian Llatje in 2022. At the height of the electoral campaign for the local elections of May 14, 2023, the candidate for the municipality of Elbasan from the ranks of the opposition, Luciano Boçi , raised direct accusations of non-functioning of the Elbasan incinerator.

After these statements, made by the vice president of the Democratic Party, the confirmation that the incinerator of Elbasan was not working, would officially come from the municipality headed by Gledian Llatja.

On April 2, 2023, through a statement distributed on its official website, the municipality of Elbasan announced that the waste incineration plant was out of order from June 2022, or in other words, 10 months without work...

"After being taken over by "ECO-ELB" sh.a., the incinerator continued its normal work process until June 2022, including the waste incineration process and the production of energy for self-consumption. After that, the plant subjected to the phase of periodic technical overhaul. "ECO-ELB" sh.a. has carried out all the necessary procedures in accordance with the law for ordering parts that must be overhauled. Custom-made devices, due to the technical specificity, they are now in the process of approval and the plant is expected to come out of the repair phase and be put back into operation."

Just a few days after this statement, on April 7, 2023, the mayor of Elbasan, Gledian Llatja, claimed that the plant had returned to work, attacking the critical voices for the malfunctioning of the incinerator of Elbasan.

"The urban waste treatment plant in Elbasan returns to work at full capacity. The state company "ECO-ELB" Sh.a. with shareholders of the seven municipalities of the district successfully completed the repair intervention and the process of selection and burning is now being carried out normally of waste for all municipalities. While we were working to complete the repair of the plant, we had to listen to all kinds of accusations. They threw bile and venom in public. The essence of the accusers was their claim that there is no incinerator in Elbasan. Just a little days ago, a recycled deputy of the "pulpit", now a candidate under the seal of Ilir Meta's party, threw the next mud at the Municipality of Elbasan by making a cassandra and announcing that Elbasan would be suffocated by garbage because it does not have an incinerator. in fact, here is the plant. You can see it in all its processes. Citizens know how to distinguish lies from reality. This is the best answer! While they only talk, we work! I am proud that thanks to the work we are doing, today we have a much cleaner city. Of course, it will be like that in the next 4 years."

Gledian Llatja accompanied this statement with a video showing moments from the incinerator of Elbasani, but it was difficult to understand whether the device was functional, or whether the video and the text distributed by the mayor of Elbasani were part of the propaganda at the height of the election campaign.

Officially, after the visit to the plant, the company Eco-Elb SHA and the municipality of Elbasan, told Plug show that the plant is functional. But these two institutions do not explain why the landfill has turned into a mountain of garbage?

But, it seems, the propaganda would not last long. After the elections, on the evening of August 26 last year, the urban waste landfill in Elbasan was engulfed by a massive fire.
The fire engulfed the municipal waste disposal site, which had in fact turned into a massive mountain of waste. Dozens of fire brigades went to the scene, while the dramatic situation was also denounced by the vice president of the Democratic Party of Albania Luciano Boçi....

It took two days to extinguish the flames, while the consequences for the city of Elbasan were great. After this event, the staff of the Plug show saw the Elbasan incinerator landfill up close.

The images show how at the disposal site, the remains already resemble a massive hill, which only grows every day. Even, as can be seen from the images, the covering and composting of urban waste, which is likely not burned, has already begun.

According to technical data, the urban waste plant in Elbasan has a daily combustion capacity of up to 120 tons. According to the data, the 7 municipalities of the district of Elbasan, deposit in the landfill about 140 tons of waste per day, despite the fact that these data are contradictory and do not match. However, if we refer to the data provided by the Eco elb sha company itself, around 140 tons of waste are deposited in the plant per day. If the plant would be functional, as claimed by the municipality and the company Eco-elb sha, then, about 120 tons of waste per day would have to be burned, which would have to be translated into electricity.

Let's stop at this data. If 120 tons of urban waste were burned per day, about 61.2 Megawatts of electricity would have to be produced per day or about 22,300 megawatts of electricity in a year.

But how much energy did the Elbasan incinerator produce?

For the first time, the Plug show exclusively shines a light on the plant's energy production. In a 2022 report of the Energy Regulatory Entity, it is reported that the Incinerator of Elbasan declared 6792 megawatts of electricity during the month of August. This quantity is declared for the first time in ERE. After a legal conflict between the ALbtek company and the energy regulatory body, for the determination of the energy price, the Albtek company wins the trial in the first instance. surprisingly, the regulatory body decides not to appeal the decision of the first instance, the port has to pay for the energy produced since 2016. This amount, for almost 5 and a half years, is 6792 megawatt hours. We can see the balance sheets of the company, that is, this concession that cost us 21 million euros, has produced only 400 thousand euros in income from the sale of energy for five and a half years. This moment should have been an alarm bell for the Albanian state, since the municipalities do not have funds to afford the maintenance and operation of the plant.

Thirdly, the show "Plug" has provided official data from the company ECO-Elb sha, which shows that from January 1, 2022, when it took over the incinerator, until September 21, 2023, the day when it officially responded to show Plug, the incinerator produced only 75.9 megawatt hours of electricity. So, for a period of 21 months, the Elbasani incinerator produced only 75.9 megawatt hours of electricity.

From the moment that the company "Eco-elb" sh.a took into use the urban waste treatment plant, 75.9 Mwh of electricity was produced, where we emphasize the fact that the turbine-generator system was not in full operation due to the services that needed to be performed Regarding the period that the plant was under the administration of "Albtek Energy" sh.pk, we have no information3. The company "Eco-elb" sh.a has not sold energy.

So, in other words, for 21 months in a row, the Elbasan incinerator has produced only 75 megawatts of electricity, or in other words, for the production of this amount of energy, it has burned a total of about 140 tons of waste in 21 months. More specifically, the incinerator worked only one and a half days during 21 months. These data, published exclusively by the plug show, show in fact that for almost two years the urban waste plant in Elbasan has been out of order. Meanwhile, the figure of 6792 megawatts of electricity, which is supposed to have been produced during the month of August 2022 by the Elbasani incinerator, still remains unexplained.

Beyond this confusion, it is worth noting that today, the Elbasan incinerator is almost out of order. As the company Eco-Elb sha officially reports, this plant does not produce energy for sale, so it does not transmit energy to the OST network, reports Eco-elb sha for the plug show.

Another fact, which raises questions about the functionality of the incinerator, is the amount of waste that is deposited in the landfill. The PLUG show has provided official, but contradictory data on the amount of waste that is deposited in the landfill. According to the company ECO-ELB sha, in the landfill of the incinerator of Elbasan, an average of 140 wastes are deposited per day from 7 municipalities of the district.

The daily amount of waste that is deposited in the landfill according to ECO-ELB.

Elbasan Municipality 82 tons/day
Belsh Municipality 6.6 tons/day
Gramsh Municipality 6.7 tons/day
Cerrik Municipality 10.1 tons/day
Peqin Municipality 4.15 tons/day
Librazhd Municipality 8.95 tons/day
Prrenjas Municipality 6.68 tons/day

So, according to ECO-ELB sha, the municipality of Elbasan is the local unit that deposits the largest amount of waste per day in the landfill, with about 80 tons of waste per day. However, the municipality of Elbasan itself provides different data on waste disposal in the landfill. For the year 2022, the municipality of Elbasan has deposited 26,666 tons of waste in the landfill, or an average of about 73 tons per day. Until August 31, 2023, the municipality of Elbasan has deposited 19,739 tons of waste in the landfill, or about 80 tons of waste per day.

However, the amount of waste that the municipality of Elbasan deposited in the landfill from 2017 to 2023 has decreased. Specifically, in 2017, the municipality deposited 40,235 tons of waste per year, while a year later, this amount was reduced by about 8,000 tons. Specifically, in 2018, the Elbasan municipality reports that it has deposited about 32,260 tons of waste. The decrease in the amount of waste has also come in the following years. In 2019 and 2020, the municipality of Elbasan has deposited about 27 thousand tons of waste in each year. While in 2021, the municipality of Elbasan reports that it has deposited about 23316 tons of waste, or the lowest amount deposited since the opening day of the incinerator landfill in Elbasan.

AMOUNT OF WASTE OVER THE YEARS IN LANDFILL

Year 2017 40235.9 tons
Year 2018 32260.9 tons
Year 2019 27846.6 tons
Year 2020 27004.6 tons
Year 2021 23316 tons
Year 2022 26666.6 tons
Year 2023 19739.85 tons until August 31, 2023

According to the months of the year 2023

January 2023 2534.32 tons
February 2023 2083.74 tons
March 2023 2544.62 tons
April 2023 2452.32 tons
May 2023 2628.68 tons June
2023 2374.9 tons
July 2023 2567.98 tons
August 2023 2553.29 tone

However, the municipalities did not pay for the waste deposited until 2021. In fact, the payment for these wastes was part of the concession contract of 21.6 million euros. Whereas, after January 1, 2022, the municipalities of the district of Elbasan, have started paying 25 euros per ton for the disposal of waste in the landfill. And surprisingly, after the start of payment by the municipalities of Elbasan, the amount of deposited waste has increased. For the municipality of Elbasan, the show has official data. In 2022, the municipality of Elbasan deposited 26,666 tons of waste in the landfill, while until August 2022, 19,739 tons of waste were deposited, or about 80 tons of waste per day. For the remaining four months, if we take the average amount of 80 tons per day, it is assumed that another 9,600 tons of waste per day have been deposited, or in total for the whole year 2023, the amount of waste reaches more than 29 thousand tons of waste.

The Plug show requested receipts and weighing of the amount of waste from the company Eco-elb sha, but these data were not made available to us.

The increase in the amount of waste deposited in the landfill, immediately after the municipality started the payments, raises big questions. Currently, from 2022, when it took over the landfill and the incinerator, the company Eco-Elb sha collected over 235 million new lek, or about 2.3 million euros in two years from the deposit fee. From the financial statements of 2022, it results that the company has come out with about 50 million new lek gross profit, or 16 million new lek net profit. In the CKB, the company has no registered beneficial owners...

But, as the incinerator has been out of order for months, the ECO-ELB company has conducted large tenders for the purchase of fuel, various equipment, work tools or contracting companies to send the waste from the landfill to the plant, spending hundreds of thousands euro...

Until now, we have shown that the Elbasan incinerator has been out of order more than in operation. From the day it was put into operation until today, this plant has produced a minimal amount of energy, while urban waste has not been burned, creating another mountain of garbage on the outskirts of Elbasan. But for this mountain of waste, a few months ago, Prime Minister Edi Rama declared that it did not exist, as according to him it had been removed.

As the head of the government seeks to undo this reality, the facts show the opposite, garbage cannot be covered, it is today causing a new environmental disaster.

Experts have been against this project from the beginning. Ahmet Mehmeti and Beqir Kila, two well-known environmental experts of the city, show that today the incinerator is more harmful than any other waste treatment process.

But, not only that, according to the local government expert, Agron Haxhimali, Albania does not need three incinerators in a short distance from each other. Precisely for this reason, he suggests that the solution would be the use of European methods of waste treatment, which would bring more income to the municipalities themselves...

In conclusion, big questions are raised:
Why was the affair of the Elbasan incinerator not fully investigated?
Why were investigations avoided for the officials who signed and requested this plant?
Why is the waste plant not working in this city today?
Why do the citizens of Elbasan and other municipalities have to pay 25 euros per ton of waste, while they do not receive the service provided in the contract?
Where does the money that municipalities pay for the incinerator currently go?
Is a new environmental disaster in Elbasan at risk?
Why are the waste figures different, while the population of the city and the district has been decreasing in recent years?/ Syri Tv