The Council of Ministers punished the children, 7 months of school without free transportation

2026-01-29 22:08:00, Denoncim CNA

The Council of Ministers punished the children, 7 months of school without free

A VKM has left student transportation free for more than seven months in the village of Jubë, Durrës.

Lulzim Bega, who had been transporting 9-year-old school students from Lower Juba and Upper Juba for 15 years, continued the service from September 2023 to March 2024, but payment was discontinued.

Parents were informed that the funds had been blocked due to VKM No. 119.

The transport included a distance of over 7 km round trip, with a payment of 130 lek, while the total unpaid value reaches around 3.5 million lek.

"Payments were made in order until September 2023. In September 2023 until March 26, 2024, I was no longer paid for the transportation I had done with the students, because they did not tell me at the moment but told me that the transportation would be interrupted. I went there, I asked about the work I had, they told me they were blocked by the Council of Ministers. I am not asking to continue the transportation again because it is a government decision and it interrupts the transportation. But, for as many days as I worked that I did the transportation from September 2023 until March 26, 2024, give me the money, because I spent oil and I did the work," said Bega.

DRAP Durrës specialist, Redi Biturku, says that the payment was suspended after an audit by the Ministry of Education, which found that for the period 2023–2024 the benefit was in violation of the VKM, as the apartment and the school were located in the same administrative unit.

"Regarding the issue of the village of Jubë, we are aware of the fact and these children have received transportation payments. In relation to an audit conducted by the Ministry of Education and based on VKM 119, it resulted that these children, according to the VKM on transport 2023, did not benefit from transportation because they are children in the same place where they have school and because they exceed 2 km they did not benefit from it. In relation to the benefit of transportation after 2024 for these children, they inform that the VKM on transport has been changed, it decides to change this point, to allow the receipt of transportation, so it makes beneficiaries children who have school in the same place, who exceed 2 km. The fact of the suspension of transportation comes due to an audit that was caught and they say that these do not benefit because the old VKM did not allow them to benefit according to legal provisions", said Biturku.

In 2024, the VKM was amended and students were included as beneficiaries, but without retroactive effect, leaving the completed period of transportation free of charge./ tv klan