TIRANA, April 8, 2024 – When Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj returned to work last week after a short stay in hospital for a surgical procedure, he faced a nasty surprise: Most of his top management team at city hall had been arrested on corruption-related charges.
On the orders of the Special Prosecution for Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK), the latest group of top municipality officials had been taken to pre-trial detention, home arrest or ordered to make regular visits to prosecutors. They join another group of municipal officials that had been charged late last year in another affair.
The list of those arrested includes the Tirana Municipality’s directors of territorial management, water supply, public roads, transportation, human resources and planning, cleaning and greenery as well as the director of the Tirana Sports Club. More importantly, the municipality’s head of public procurement is also under arrest.
All in all, at least 17 current and former managers and other officials of significant departments have been arrested or are under investigation by SPAK. The staggering number of arrests and investigations is unprecedented in any European capital, experts say.
-Officials created own company to suck in public funds-
Those arrested are seen as suspects of corruption, concealment and non-declaration of assets, violation of equality in tenders, related to the ongoing investigation into the 5D construction company affair.
According to SPAK, this company has irregularly won a series of tenders and procurements from agencies dependent on the municipality and from the capital’s water supply company through unfair favoritism and privileges.
Experts point out that the 5D affair is unique because the management team of the capital’s municipality accused of corruption in a manner unheard of before.
These arrested directors have for years established their own companies, like 5D, and been declared winners in all tenders organized by the municipality for public works, prosecutors say.
The money was then laundered by investing in tourist constructions, five-star hotels in Durrës and the coastal area in the south of Albania — the country’s most expensive real estate.
And the cherry on top, opposition representatives say, is that private companies of the municipality directors were granted special status by the government and were not paying taxes while the government offered facilities for infrastructure construction.
In another example of 5D’s reach, the La Brisia Hotel of the arrested municipality directors, built in one of the most expensive areas in the south of Albania, had started operating more than two years before the government approved the construction permit. Moreover, public funding flowed in other ways too. The National Regulation Council of General Taxation Directorate had organized training sessions in the modern premises of the hotel and paid 83 million lek in rent.
-Direct ties to Veliaj, opposition says-
The arrested directors of the Tirana Municipality have direct political ties to Mayor Veliaj, says the opposition, as they had served in his election headquarters during the local elections in May 2022.
The corruption allegations had come up earlier in opposition research, and it was Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party in opposition, Belind Kellici, who was previously the opposition’s candidate for the Municipality of Tirana, who had supplied prosecutors and the public with detailed information on the matter.
Independent observers stated that this is a very rare case of high-level criminality in public institutions, but not the first. Cases involving the sterilization PPP or directors of the Ministry of Transport and Roads are quite similar.
Moreover, in early December, SPAK arrested Tirana Municipality General Director of Public Works Taulant Tusha, among many others, during the investigations into the Tirana incinerator affair.
The opposition is livid and organized a protest in front of the City Hall calling for Veliaj’s resignation.
“What’s happened with the Tirana Municipality, where five officials, the closest associates of Erion Veliaj, within a short period have given themselves 22 million euros, is an alarm bell of how dire the situation has become both in central and local governments. Erion Veliaj today shouldn’t be in the mayor’s office, but he should be accompanying his five associates in prison,” said opposition Democratic Party parliamentary leader Gazment Bardhi.
-Veliaj, Rama react days after arrests-
In a video reaction several days after the arrests, Mayor Veliaj dismissed corruption allegations raised against him by the opposition and distanced himself from the accused in the 5D company affair.
“In anticipation of the final word of justice for them, I myself have nothing to expect but to look you all in the eye and tell you that no personal unlawful gain has ever bound me to them or anyone else in my duty as the number one servant of our Tirana. I may have made mistakes too! I have no doubt! But I have never committed the fault of using my signature, my word, my influence, for any kind of personal unlawful gain,” Mayor Veliaj said in a prepared tape without giving journalists the opportunity to ask questions.
In fact, the mayor praised the work outcomes for the city of the team that included of some of the arrested directors, Maringlen Qato, Redi Molla and Taulant Tusha, but emphasized that duties are separated as individual and public responsibility before the law and from the personal dark intentions of anyone who gains unlawfully, abusing their duty, behind the institution’s back and those with whom the common work is linked.
“I have never violated the law or the trust of those who have given me the mandate three times to lead Tirana,” Veliaj said, adding “this incident doesn’t make me proud at all.”
Prime Minister Edi Rama supported Mayor Veliaj’s statements later in the day through a message on social media, emphasizing support for SPAK’s work.
-Opposition holds protest demanding resignation-
Opposition supporters protested on April 5, in front of the capital’s municipality, demanding the resignation of Mayor Veliaj.
Opposition councilors came with a request for an urgent meeting of the municipal council for transparency regarding these arrests, but the police prevented them from entering the Tirana city hall.
“Their number [of arrests] keeps increasing every day. We want to know what damage they have caused? How can we contain this damage, so it doesn’t happen from now on? But the police didn’t let us deliver it,” said opposition Councillor Ilir Alimehmeti.
He called on municipal employees not to remain silent or become complicit in corruption through actions or inactions but to denounce it.
Protesters continuously shouted demanding the resignation of Mayor Erion Veliaj, while holding signs condemning corruption in the country’s largest municipality.
After the police stopped municipal councilors from entering the city hall to submit the request for an urgent meeting, protesters threw a barrage of eggs and apples at the building’s facade.
While occasionally taking the megaphone were various citizens and politicians, including former President Ilir Meta, leader of the Freedom Party.
“We call on all citizens of Tirana, all Albanian citizens to unite against the destructive project of our nation by this criminal sect,” Meta said.
