FLASH
Shkruar nga Ferdinand Dervishi
But after the first repair process, the army chiefs started not paying the bills. As a result, Eurocopter left. It was the time when Olta Xhaçka was sitting in the minister's post, already under investigation by SPAK for abuse of army properties and eventually also for the history of helicopters.
Today, in the country where we continue to live, there is no longer a single Army helicopter to put out the fires. The truth was confirmed, in voice and image, by Haki Čako, the head of the National Civil Protection Agency, left with his hands up among to the flames that continue to wipe out what is left of the forest massif of Pish Poros (the coast of Fier).
The poor Albanian state once tightened its belt and bought several new military helicopters from the Eurocopter company, four of which are of a large format, also suitable for extinguishing fires. Special buckets to put out fires, four pieces, which cost about 800 thousand USD, were given to us by the Americans.
The contract for their repair and maintenance, after completing their working hours, was signed with an Italian subsidiary of Eurocopter.
Repairs were made in a hangar in Rinas. The agreement was favorable, since in Rinas, the Albanian military simultaneously started learning how to maintain these helicopters themselves.
But after the first repair process, the army chiefs started not paying the bills. As a result, Eurocopter left.
It was the time when Olta Xhacka was sitting in the post of minister, already under investigation by SPAK for abuse of army properties and eventually also for the history of helicopters. After the departure of Eurocopter, the Ministry of Defense finds a company in France that it says had inflated invoices. The company owned helicopters that repaired power lines from the air. It also had a hangar for the maintenance of its vehicles, but it was not equipped with a license to repair vehicles manufactured by Eurocopter.
As a result, the almost new helicopters, worth more than 20 million euros each, are left in the hands of an ordinary blacksmith, unlicensed by the helicopter manufacturing company. For worse, the terms of the contract would result in a "pig in a sack" for our Ministry of Defense.
This is where the problems begin. Repair of the first helicopter goes successfully. But the second one, after the maintenance repair, fails to make the return route France-Albania. On July 29, 2020, the day that General Barjam Begaj was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army, the pilots were forced to land him in Italy, on a plot of land, as the devices signaled problems.
In contact with the French repairmen of electrical lines, the pilots learn that the contract was written: "After departure from the hangar in France, the responsibility for defects is the Albanian side." Today, after 3 years, the Albanian state, which has the ability to produce global leaders, has not had the will to find a solution to return home its own property. The helicopter, which costs over 20 million euros, continues to be housed in an agricultural warehouse in a village in Italy, guarded non-stop by two Albanian soldiers.
Seeing that the maintenance in the workshop of the helicopters that repaired the power lines was not safe, the Ministry of Defense (the time of Niko Pelesi) requested the help of NATO. After a new agreement, the two helicopters left without overhaul are sent, in March 2022, for repair in Poland.
For these reasons, as of 2020, various air services, such as the transport of Tony Blair to the beach and especially against the fires, fortunately not massive, the only military helicopter that was in working order was saved. His engine roared until yesterday, when the kilometers traveled forced him, too, to sit on the ground, leaving the Pish Poros forest at the mercy of the flames.
But it doesn't end there. Even the maintenance of ships and radars in the Navy as well as the radar of the Air Force have the same problems due to corruption. That all warships have for years exceeded the allowed miles after the last maintenance process and now serve only for some official ceremony, or more precisely to create the right background to take pictures of the event.
This is the situation created with responsibility, especially the former Minister of Defense Olta Xhaçka and the former Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Bajram Begaj, both indicted in the SPAK and eventually both investigated for abuse of the properties of the Navy. Both responsible, who more and who less, that we do not have military assets of a serious level in a state of readiness.
Far be it from an emergency situation, either here or in Kosovo!
Lini një Përgjigje