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The Albanian government has made a move, through which it hopes to save Albcontrol from the clutches of the Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti.
A day ago, the Council of Ministers approved a decision to dissolve the Albcontrol company, which will not function as a limited liability company, but will be transformed directly into a state agency.
This move has two consequences. First, it enables the government to finance Albcontrol directly from the budget as a state agency. While the second consequence is more a hope of the government.
By turning it into a state agency, the government hopes to stop further blocking of the revenue that Albcontrol earns as well as unlock the money that is currently being locked up in Brussels by Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti. This is because, theoretically, the state agency has more immunity than a limited liability company.
The billions seized by Becchetti
Airlines using Albania's airspace pay a fixed fee for each transiting aircraft. The airlines transfer this money to Eurocontrol's central account in Brussels. The latter then distributes them on a monthly basis to the public airlines of each member country.
In the case of Albania, the relevant entity is Albcontrol. But in December 2020, Albania's Eurocontrol account was blocked by Italian businessman Francesco Beçhetti to execute the decision of the Court of Arbitration in Washington, which sentenced Albania to 110 million euros plus interest and interest.
Since the end of 2020, Albcontrol cannot withdraw a single penny from the revenues from the use of Albania's airspace, although the case continues to be in court and there is still no final decision on the confiscation of the accounts, but simply their seizure.
According to the company's financial statements, it appears that by the end of 2022, Albcontrol had about 6.8 billion ALL or over 65 million euros seized by Beçhetti in Brussels. Including this year's income, the probability is that the figure has reached 100 million euros and maybe even a little more.
Technical bankruptcy
Blocking such a large amount of revenue brought the public company that provides navigation and air safety services in the country to the brink of financial collapse. Due to this situation, in the summer of 2022 Albcontrol was forced to take an emergency loan of 7 million dollars from the General Directorate of Road Transport Services.
But even this money was not enough because the financial pit of the society is very deep. As a result, on December 27, 2022, Albcontrol received another loan of 19.5 million euros from the Civil Aviation Authority. But the crisis continues to worsen, as Albcontrol constantly needs money to finance its activity.
A few months ago, three independent auditors warned in the 2022 budget that Albcontrol is in existential danger. . During the audit procedures, we encountered public information, as a result of the decision of the Court of Appeal in Brussels, that could create the existence of a material uncertainty about the company's ability to continue as a going concern" write experts Mirgen Dervishi, Gerta Avrami and Ilia Çeçe in the opinion with reserve for the balance of 2022.
As a result, in December of last year, the government injected another 30 million euros to the company in the form of a loan, so that the latter can pay salaries and other expenses necessary to keep the air flight market open in the country.
But taking on so much debt has worsened the company's financial indicators, especially the debt-to-equity ratio, practically driving it into bankruptcy. Because this ratio cannot be increased indefinitely, the transformation of Alncontrol into a State Agency enables the government to finance it directly with capital from the state budget.
However, this decision carries a number of big questions. This is because Eurocontrol and other international organizations recommend that the entity responsible for air navigation should not be a state agency, but should function as a public commercial company. Will this government decision have consequences in this direction? This remains to be seen. But one thing is certain. The adventures of Edi Rama, Erion Veliaj and Engjëll Agaçi with Francesco Beçhetti are costing the Albanians dearly./ Kapitali
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