The land of the Sharra landfill has never been the property of the Municipality of Tirana, but has only been administered by it.
The mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, has clarified that this property belonged to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the latter has passed to the local government for administration, but not as property. Giving an accurate explanation against the accusations raised by the opposition on this issue, Veliaj said that this fact is also proven by a letter that the former vice-mayor of the Municipality of Tirana in 2012, today a DP deputy, Jorida Tabaku, requested from a director general of that time to take under administration this property, which belongs to the ministry.
"Let me give you a concrete case. Ms. Jorida Tabaku in 2012, as deputy mayor of the Municipality of Tirana, tells Mr. Shemsi Aga, General Director of Enterprise No. 1 of the City, that: "In the framework of the completion of the project works...", - which actually did the right thing because at that moment of emergency they needed a little expansion to overcome that impasse, when Tirana was becoming the capital with garbage - "...following this letter, as the institution responsible for the Sharra landfill, take measures to inventory the documentation and take over the facility from your side". So the object is the Sharra landfill. It is not given either by the Municipal Council, or by the Committee, or by the DP Steering Committee, or by the party leadership. Because in fact it is not the property of the municipality. Since the municipality has it in administration with a letter, it says to its company: take it over. Same with the same deed for a property that is not really ours. So, we had it under the administration of the Ministry, which is the owner of the property", stated Veliaj in a television interview.
The head of the Municipality of Tirana underlines that all 5 municipalities of the District of Tirana are clients of a contract made by the government. "Each one pays its share for the waste it takes to the landfill. This contract was for 30 years. In the 5th and 6th year, the construction of the incinerator should begin. Of course, these events happened and the work was interrupted. Today it has passed into state administration. But, I believe that the state administrator should also be the guardian of the contract, should continue with the construction of the incinerator when this legal deadlock is clarified. Here the question is: Because of the fact that when someone has an accident on the road, we should not do the highway? That the surest way for us not to have any accidents is to not have cars. It is not a solution to do no work, so that we don't have any problems. The solution is to continue doing the work, but to have as few problems as possible", said Veliaj.