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Ten former officials and officials of the Ministry of Interior, including former director Edlira Naqellari, will face justice again. They were found guilty by two levels of trial for violating equality in the 25 million euro tender for State Police uniforms.
The High Court has overturned the decision of the Special Court of Appeals on the much-discussed State Police uniform tender file and ordered a retrial of the case with a different panel of judges.
The decision affects the former director of the Centralized Purchasing Agency, Edlira Naqellari, as well as Flutura Çekrezi, Anisa Bogdani, Ani Omur, Aurora Mulla, Kleivis Hasani, Kreshnik Bejkaj, Gëzim Mingaj, Fatmir Demneri and Mariglen Buzali, who were found guilty of violating equality in tenders.
This is a tender with a fund limit of 2.8 billion lek, or about 25 million euros, for the purchase of uniforms and shoes for the State Police, a procedure that was investigated by SPAK after a complaint made in 2021 by former parliamentary opposition MPs Halit Valteri and Myslim Murrizi.
SPAK accused the officials of, in collaboration with each other and with former director Edlira Naqellari, violating public procurement rules and equality in tenders, favoring the winner and causing economic damage to the state.
At the end of 2021, the Special Court Against Corruption and Organized Crime sentenced the defendants to one year in prison, a sentence that was reduced due to the summary trial. For some of them, the sentences were converted to probation. Later, the Special Court of Appeals also upheld the guilty verdict.
Although all the convicts have completed their sentences, they continue to be barred from holding public office for five years.
According to SPAK's investigations, the main problem lay in the way the winner of the tender was announced. Initially, a consortium of economic operators from Croatia participated in the competition, which had submitted the lowest bid. However, this company was disqualified on the grounds that it had not submitted some samples required in the procedure.
After it, a Turkish company was also disqualified, while the winner was declared the union of four economic operators, consisting of the Albanian company "D&E" and three foreign companies, "Summer Conf", "Lovers" and "Yakupoglu Tekstil".
According to SPAK, Edlira Naqellari had exerted influence on the Bid Evaluation Committee to favor this merger of companies, despite the fact that according to the investigation they did not meet a number of technical criteria and had deficiencies in the documentation.
One of the elements that raised suspicions was the difference between the bids. According to the informants, the winning company had submitted a bid about 5 billion lek higher than the disqualified economic operators.
The investigations also highlighted issues related to the quality, quantity and prices of uniforms. According to SPAK, after the reopening of the procedure at the end of 2019, the quantities of uniforms, shoes and hats were significantly reduced, while the fund of 2.8 billion lek remained unchanged.
Another element found during the investigation was the change in the composition of the Bid Evaluation Committee during the procedure. Initially, the committee consisted of three members, but then two more were added, while one of the members resigned in the middle of the process without a public explanation.
Immediately after the winner was announced, the procedure was denounced as problematic by Open Data Albania, while one of the disqualified companies filed a complaint with the institutions responsible for public procurement.
Now, with the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Appeals Court's decision, the entire case will be returned for review by another panel of judges, reopening one of SPAK's most sensational files on abuses of public funds. / Pamphlet
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