FLASH
Shkruar nga Klodian Tomorri
Albanian citizens are massively exposed to the risk of fraud.
A man with NIPT opens up about getting permission for a construction project. That's all it takes and he starts collecting money from citizens, who rush to book apartments to take advantage of bargain prices.
The sale of apartments before construction work has started is a phenomenon that is spreading at an alarming rate recently. If you add to this the unstoppable expansion of the construction sector, the conclusion is clear. Albanian citizens are massively exposed to the risk of fraud.
In all this nonsense, there is a question that naturally arises. What happens to the citizens if someone who made their money by selling them the air disappears? Or leave the palace in the middle? Legally nothing. Today, Albania has no law to protect citizens from fraud. Therefore, this intervention has become necessary and urgent.
Albania does not need to invent or do anything extraordinary. It is enough to copy the models of other countries. Some of them are sanctioned by law that the builder cannot use any penny of the money collected for a housing project in other activities, without first closing the contractual obligations for the completion of the object.
Others, such as North Macedonia, force construction companies to freeze at least 20 percent of the proceeds from apartment bookings in a special escrow account.
The measures that protect citizens from the fraud of the sale of nothing have not come out of nowhere. But they have come after painful experiences. Today, Albania is at great risk of facing such experiences.
Unstoppable construction expansion and air sales are not the only risk factors. There is another factor, but just as disturbing. This is what the construction investor crowd is all about.
If until a few years ago, construction companies in Albania were counted on the fingers of the hand and were trusted actors in the market, now you can find anything in this sector. Bandits, traffickers, fraudsters and other contingents from the world of crime. Only one NIPT is enough.
Beyond that, there are investors from abroad. Assume for just a moment the scenario of a foreign investor who sells air in Albania and after transferring the money abroad decides to leave as well. What prevents for example Mohammed Alabbari from doing this? So, after selling air without a construction permit in Durrës, he leaves together with the citizens' money.
One and the government can say that Mr. Alabbar is one of the most serious investors in the world in this sector. This may be true. But the state does not protect citizens with a good name. Because if it were so, the greatest builder in the world today would have to be the Pope of Rome.
Governments protect their citizens with laws. If they sit idly by when the risks take shape, then the bill that follows is heavy. And today in the construction sector the risks are building rapidly. Air sales, foreign investors, thugs and strongmen with building permits. This is the fertile ground of error.
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