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How Rama passed the Vlora airport to Pacolli and Erdogan's friends

2022-06-21 21:00:10Fokus SHKRUAR NGA LINDITA ÇELA
How Rama passed the Vlora airport to Pacolli and Erdogan's friends
How Rama passed Vlora airport into the hands of Pacolli and Erdogan's friends and environmental concerns

More than a century ago, the city of Vlora on the Adriatic coast raised the flag of Albania for the first time and declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire. Prime Minister Edi Rama seems to enjoy the irony that on the same date of 2021 he would open the foundations of an airport to be built by a Turkish company outside the city in question.

The deal was a political coup for Rama, who first promised to build the airport on the south coast while campaigning six years ago. Amid the glare he saw the signing of a 104m-euro construction contract to build and operate Vlora Airport, which was announced with the winner a few days before his political force went to the April general elections. gone, a move that the opposition considered contrary to the electoral law ..

At the opening ceremony, held on November 28 in an area where construction will begin, Rama praised international co-operation that would begin work as soon as possible.

"Airports are, in a way, like family clans," he said.

Vlora International Airport will most likely cement the international alliance for Rama.

Building a consortium that includes a Turkish conglomerate like YDA Construction Industry and Trade, whose leader has close ties to President Erdogan's party, the AKP, and also another Mabetex Group contractor owned by one of Rama's friends, the wealthy businessman Kosovar Behgjet Pacolli. The third company included 2A Group sh.pk, is owned by Valon Ademi, who until July 2019 has been the Honorary Consul of Albania in Kosovo.

Vlora International Airport will also be the basis for a national airline such as Air Albania, which is partly owned by Turkish Airlines. Rama claims that the airport will increase employment with 27 thousand new jobs, while large tourist resorts are being built nearby bringing more investment to the area.

But not everyone is celebrating this project. Environmentalists warn that the development will cause irreparable damage to one of the largest lagoons in the Mediterranean and that is home to hundreds of bird species. In December 2019, two months before the tender for the airport was announced, the authorities moved the legally protected area exactly on the piece of land where the airport would be built, a decision that the European Commission considered illegal.

Now an investigation by the OCCRP has raised more questions about how a consortium with political connections won a tender to build and operate Vlora International Airport for 35 years.

A civil lawsuit filed in court by another UK-based bidder alleges that the Albanian government manipulated a tender in favor of a Turkish-Kosovo consortium by bidding on another company that did not even bid for it. given the idea of ​​a race. The bidder in question has also sent a criminal report to the SPAK accusing the government of fabricating documents that were not submitted in the tender.

It is unclear whether the airport is also applicable; Government documents themselves warn that it may not attract enough visitors to bring in a profit soon. However, the terms of the agreement mean that if the project does not meet its financial objectives, the Albanian state will have to pay the consortium up to 138.2m euros ($ 145.4m), about a third more than the construction cost.

Zef Preçi, executive director of the Albanian Center for Economic Research, said the agreement gives the consortium "part of the Albanian budget for the next decade".

"They will have Albanian taxpayers' money as a source of easy money… secured through political lobbying," he said.

Valon Lluka, a representative of the winning consortium, dismissed the OCCRP findings as "gossip and speculation". "You do not have real information and facts about the Vlora Airport project," he wrote in response to questions sent by email.

Pacolli also denied that the consortium had any preferential treatment. "My investment in Vlora is made from a great desire to contribute to the nation and to implement one of the many demands of people and institutions that want the best for Albania," he said.

Neither Rama's office nor the office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded to requests for comment.

Alone in war!

On a hot July day, biology professor Niko Dumani was sweating under a makeshift tent in the Narta forest in southeastern Albania. Duman had come to explain to the locals why environmentalists and conservationists were opposing Vlora International Airport, but as soon as he got up to speak the crowd started insulting him.

"What are you looking for here?" We live here and this is our choice "cried the administrator of the administrative unit" Do you want us to deal with birds? Get out of Vlora! ”

Speaking to OCCRP after he was forcibly removed from the meeting, Dumani said that while the airport and tourist resorts are "in flagrant violation of the law" he expected the latter to be built.

The airport will be built a few kilometers away from the Vjosa-Narta lagoon, part of a coastal delta that is the mouth of one of Europe's wildest rivers. Wetlands are home to 200 species of birds, including flamingos and the endangered Curly Pelican species, and are a key part of the migratory corridor for many of the birds that make their annual journey from Central Europe to North Africa.

The lagoon, which is also protected by several international conventions, has been selected to join the Golden Council of Protected Areas by the Council of Europe. The European Commission in Tirana said that the approval of the construction of Vlora Airport is contrary to national laws and international conventions.

Its development "is contrary to domestic laws on protected areas and also to international conventions that protect biodiversity that Albania has ratified," said in a statement the EU delegation in Albania.

Environmentalists say the airport will have a "devastating" impact on local biodiversity, with habitat loss, along with air, water and noise pollution, causing irreversible damage to the many birds that live there. The proximity of the airport to the lagoon means that planes are more likely to collide with birds as they land and take off, especially during busy migration seasons.

But beyond that, the OCCRP has discovered that the Albanian government has moved up the mountains to enable the construction of this airport there.

When Rama proposed for the first time the construction of Vlora airport, after talks with Erdogan, the Albanian government began to discuss changes in the country's nature reserves.

A few months after the winners of the tender for its construction were announced, a Rama-led council approved the redrawing of the borders of more than a quarter of the country's coastal ecosystems - including the area near the Vjosa-Narta lagoon where the airport will be built.

Lawyer Irena Dule said the changes made leaving out the protected areas were illegal. "The start of works for this airport has been opposed based on the law," she said, adding that the start of this work was announced without having an environmental permit and that of works.

Another group objected to the airport's environmental impact assessment, saying it had been commissioned by landowners in the area, including members of the consortium YDA Group and Mabetex Group. Academics who have been studying the area have raised some concerns about the impact of the airport by proposing plans to divert planes from colliding with birds.

Twenty groups of environmentalists have denounced the study as "unprofessional and unscientific" and "clearly a clientelistic analysis"

The Ministry of Tourism in Albania said that the boundaries of nature reserves have been changed as part of a national review of protected areas "to reflect errors and propose new areas, based on the data of recent studies and research" and also as a result of a new legal framework devised by the government.

In a statement, the ministry said it plans to study the impact of the airport using a management plan, including scientific monitoring and habitat conservation to be enabled by the consortium. It also recommends other means, such as stopping work near sensitive areas or during the mating season or redefining travel during migration seasons.

Lluka said that the consortium has "enabled" a study on what impact the construction of the airport could have on the environment and society and has concluded that it will not have any major negative effects.

"We are extremely happy to confirm that the results of the study have brought us to light, without any doubt that the construction and operation of Vlora International Airport will not produce environmental degradation or any other harmful impact," he said.

Friends with benefits

On January 11, 2021, the director of YDA Group, Hüseyin Arslan, landed on Albanian soil. Although unknown in the country, he immediately caused a stir in the media when he announced that his company would build a hospital not far from Vlora.

"We urdh. Have been ordered by our president Mr. "Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who last week met the honorable Prime Minister of Albania on a visit to Turkey," Arslan said in a video posted on Rama's Facebook page. "We have been instructed that we must finalize, complete the construction of this hospital in three months. This is a big bet for us. "

The work for the construction of the hospital started immediately, while Rama continuously posted the development of the hospital works on his Facebook page. While his office described the work of YDA as a "charity" that the Turkish state was doing for Albania, giving no clue to the ultimate goal of the Turkish conglomerate.

While in Turkey, the YDA Group is well known for its close ties to the Erdogan government. Arslan has a long and strong connection to the AKP party through his sister, who married the man's uncle who co-founded the party with Erdogan in 2001.

Arslan publicly praised Erdogan after a failed coup in 2016 that did not remove him from office, he described what he was then prime minister of Turkey as "the successor of our democracy, our future and our national will." Erdogan, on the other hand, presented Arslan with a plaque two years later.

Only after the hospital was inaugurated with the virtual presence of Erdogan, that Rama declared that the consortium led by Arslan and Pacolli would also build the Vlora International Airport

The owner of Mabetex Group, Pacolli, was a more familiar face in Albania than Arslan. The construction tycoon was one of the richest people in Kosovo, with a fortune of approximately 800 million euros. For some time he has been the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Minister of Foreign Affairs and even for four hours its president.

Mabetex came to the forefront when it was revealed that the company was involved in a major corruption scandal in the late 1990s as it was accused by Russian prosecutors that its executives were involved in corruption after making payments in exchange for contracts. expensive to carry out works in the Kremlin. The investigation was dropped shortly after the lead investigator was fired over a bizarre and highly suspicious video of a sex scandal. A further investigation into money laundering and corruption was also dropped in Switzerland where Pacolli is already a resident.

He is also known for his links to organized crime figures including Milan Radoicic, a prominent figure in Kosovo's largest Serb ethnic party, and Jose Enrique Rais accused of fraud and cocaine trafficking from El Salvador.

There are strong suspicions that Raeis is on the list of "most wanted" in his country, as reportedly on the Interpol red list and also one of the "priority targets" of the US Department of Drugs. His companies, Rais Group International NC, LLC, have been cited in U.S. court rulings as "subject to international investigation into links to organized crime, ghost companies, cartels and corrupt politicians."

Data from the corporation show that Pacolli was the manager of Rais Group until 2011 while the company was investigated by the prosecution.

Pacolli admitted that he knew Rais, but denied being the manager of Rais Group. "I know Jose Enrique Rais as a businessman who has operated in the world of aviation and as a Swiss citizen," he said. "I rented a plane from the company he owned for several months, but I did not know he was a drug trafficker."

Despite Pacolli's turbulent associations, Rama considers him a close friend. The Prime Minister has spoken publicly about his "love and respect" for Pacolli, whom he refers to as "Baca" Behgjet, a loving term often used for elderly male family members in northern Albania.

One year after the great earthquake that hit Albania, November 2019, which caused 51 loss of life and the demolition of hundreds of homes, the Behgjet Pacolli Foundation has signed a check to rebuild an entire area in the city of Fushë-Krujë for a lot of worth 1 million euros. A few months later in January 2021 the government opened the tender for Vlora Airport.

The representative of the winning consortium, Lluka, is also a partner of Pacolli. While the Kosovo Serious Crimes Prosecution has twice investigated Lluka for abuse of office and fraud, on both occasions he has been investigated for his role as an official in the Economic Bank of Prishtina managed by the Pacolli family.

The first case of abuse of his post was dropped in 2019 after the court ruled that the case was foreseen. Luke was acquitted a second time for lack of evidence.

Lluka said that he has never been convicted of crimes “In my life I have never been convicted by any court. "I do not even have a court decision for violation of traffic rules, nor am I even mentioned in any criminal report," he replied to the OCCRP through a statement.

And the winner is….

Today, legal problems surround the Vlora Consortium and Airport.

The decision to grant that concession to the YDA-Mabetex-2A consortium is being challenged by a rival UK-based bidding company, AL-DE Cooperation LTD, which was disqualified from the tender for non-delivery of letters on request. AL-DE is suing the minister of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy for defamation, saying that the claim that we did not send the letters was just an apology to favor the rival consortium.

AL-DE has also sent a Criminal Report to SPAK accusing the PPA of unfair decisions and forgery of documents. The SPAK office confirmed that it had opened an investigation into the matter, but declined to comment further.

The tender documents reviewed by OCCRP show that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, one year after the publication of the criteria, abruptly changed the criteria for its application just four days before the deadline for submission of applications, ie December 2020. The changes reduced the required experience and expertise. necessary technical skills enabling the Turkish-Kosovo consortium to qualify and win.

Companies first need to show that they have designed, built and operated airports with a capacity of more than 10 million passengers and that include two control towers, and this within the last decade. They are required to prove that they have designed, built and managed other airports with a capacity of more than 5 million passengers in the last five years.

While the criteria amended shortly before the completion lowered the bidder limit to prove that it has experience in the construction and management of an airport of 2 million passengers and with a control tower.

Instead of requiring certification from both the European Aviation Safety Agency and the International Civil Aviation Organization, the new rules required the bidder to have a certificate from the National Civil Authority.

According to the head of the Albanian Center for Economic Research, Zef Preçi, these changes show that the government "has defined custom terms of reference" to allow and favor companies that "predetermine the winning company before the competition takes place."

"The publication of the received bids has been just a formality," he said after seeing the changes in the tender requirements.

Rama's office and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy did not respond to a request for comment. Lluka, the representative of the consortium, denied that he had won a pre-determined contract or through manipulations of the tender process.

"Our company has nothing to do with the terms of the tender and has accepted them from the beginning," he said. "We have complied with all the conditions set without any intervention to change them."

Pacolli also denied the allegations, claiming that there was "no evidence of any deviation, change in tender conditions or other aspects [of the process] that would put the consortium of winning companies led by Mabco Construction SA in a favorable position." ”.

Eleven days after the new criteria were set and published, another bidder, the Albanian company Global Technical Mechancs, asked for clarifications on the new details. The government accepted them, further postponing the deadline for submitting bids and sending it until February 2021. The Turkish-Kosovo consortium entered the competition and the AL-DE company was disqualified.

In the report sent to SPAK, the company AL-DE, writes that Global Technical Mechanics was simply the Trojan horse used to manipulate the tender process, indicating that in fact the company had never applied with an offer for this airport.

"The Public Procurement Commission should have refused to review the terms from the" request for clarification "that was made" writes in its report AL-DE while further linking the documents proving the manipulation deposited in SPAK.

Government data show that the Turkish-Kosovo consortium submitted its bid on March 1, 2021. While they were announced as winners 4 days after the submission of their bid, Rama was present at the contract signing ceremony with the consortium last month. other.

Beyond the fact that a court decision stated that the signed contract should be made public, the government refused to make it public, stating that it was a trade secret. The OCCRP has also sent this government statement to the court.

A "high risk" investment

Since the month of the opening ceremony, it seems that there has been very little progress in the construction of Vlora Airport. When OCCRP visited the country in May 2022, our reporter noticed very little activity.

The construction is designed to take several years, after two years of operation, the airport is expected to have a capacity of 600 thousand passengers. Apparently the government expects to take it over when it has about 1.2 million passengers a year.

But again the government admits its figures are bloated and unbelievable. Procurement documents show that the project is "high risk", noting that it will be built in a "green area" with very little data showing how many passengers are expected to arrive. It clearly states that "it is impossible to predict traffic."

Beyond the uncertainty, the Albanian government has guaranteed that the consortium will have revenue. If in the fourth year of its operation this consortium will not provide 9.6 million euros from traffic as revenue, then the government will pay the difference. This will increase in the 13th year to the amount of 18.7 million euros, according to the contract data it seems that the government will provide up to 138.2 million euros, ie almost more than 1/3 of the construction cost.

Sinan Idrizi, who is an Albanian businessman part of the initial negotiations for the construction of Vlora Airport in 2017, said that the first Turkish consortium that won this contract was surprised to see that it was extremely costly as it included the construction of the road.

"Their data showed that the area was swampy, this would create technical problems for the construction of the airport," he told OCCRP. "Passenger numbers must reach one million, otherwise the airport will have a difficult life."

A study by the environmental NGO Green Group reached the same conclusion stating that the cost of the environment from Vlora Airport was higher than the economic benefit. "This airport will bring more social and environmental damage than revenue," the report said.

Taulant Bino, president of the Ornithological Society of Albania, said that opponents of the airport will continue the fight against the construction of this airport, even through the courts if necessary.

"We believe that justice still works in this country and we will continue our legal battle to the end," he said.

The other Turkish consortium

The YDA-Mabtex-2A consortium is not the first Turkish group selected to build the Vlora airport.

The Albanian government initially announced a tender for the construction of the airport in 2017. In February, Rama posted the meeting he had with a Turkish president Erdogan, where he discussed "The project for Vlora airport and a completely Albanian airline and also investments of other strategic. ”

A year later, Rama said the government had received a proposal from the consortium for three large Turkish companies; Cengiz Holding, Kalyon Holding, and Kolin Construction. They are part of a conglomerate that the Turkish opposition has nicknamed the "five thieves", accusing them of being favored by Erdogan's government.

In 2013, all five companies were being investigated for corruption and corrupt tribute payments to win government projects. But the investigation was stopped by Erdogan who intervened in the investigation bodies as reported by the Turkish media.

The Albanian government, to speed up negotiations, wrote a law in 2018 and agreed to give the consortium an operating contract for 60 years. The move actually raised the red flag in Brussels and then EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said the Commission would investigate the matter.

At the end of 2019, the Albanian government withdrew from the agreement with the Turkish consortium. She gave no explanation for the reasons for the withdrawal. Not long after, the government launched a new tender to build Vlora International Airport. After months of the OCCRP trying to obtain the tender documents based on the right to information, it failed and went to court. At the end of 2021, the court decided that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy should submit parts of the documents, but again this ministry refuses to act according to the court decision. The Ministry again refused to respond to questions and comments raised by us.

Air Albania House

The idea to create Air Albania took shape in February 2017. A few months later Rama stated that he had several conversations with the then head of the Turkish airline, Mehmet kerlker Ayci.

"We have discussed with Mr. Ayci the… project to create an Albanian airline, which has started to be built thanks to the special support of President Erdogan and the technical assistance of the Turkish Airlines team," Rama said after his meeting.

More than a year after this statement, and after several meetings between Ayci and the Albanian government, Air Albania was created.

The new airline is owned by Turkish Airlines and Albcontrol sh.a. as well as by MDN Investment shpk which is a private company established almost 9 days before the government made the announcement public. MDN was created by Sinan Idrizi, an Albanian businessman who worked for many years in Turkey before returning in 2014 and becoming a co-partner of the Flamurtari Football Club, the team of the city where Rama was an MP.

Idrizi, who claims to have had "acquaintance and friendship with Erdogan for 25 years, but also with some other Turkish politicians, told OCCRP that he created MDN at the request of the Albanian government instead of the Turkish company Atlas Global which had problems at the time and that in 2020 went bankrupt.

"Atlas Global could interrupt travel and we as Air Albania could not take this risk. I wanted to start a family company with my name "said Idrizi.

But weeks after the creation of Air Albania, Idrizi began to transfer shares of his company to his wife and daughter. Idrizi said that he decided to transfer the shares to them after receiving strong criticism in the Albanian press. "They started saying that I am not an Albanian citizen, they came to ask me how many passports I had," he said, describing the transfer of shares to his wife and daughter as an "agreement within the family."

Rama's office did not comment on any request for comment.

Besnik Poletini and Aidan Iusubova contributed to this article.

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/new-albanian-airport-raises-cronyism-environment-concerns


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