The Special Prosecution’s request for trial against Socialist Party MP Plarent Ndreca indicates that the tender for the design of two buildings for the State Police was predetermined and the product was fictitious and problematic. The prosecution raises doubts about the connections between former Deputy Minister Gjon Radovani and former Minister Sandër Lleshaj, but accuses Ndreca of being the leader of the scheme.
In 2019, a few months after Sandër Lleshaj had become Minister of the Interior and Plarent Ndreca was appointed his Secretary General, architect Gjon Radovani – a former deputy minister in the first government of Prime Minister Edi Rama, became a frequent visitor to the ministry’s offices.
In the electronic conversations captured by SPAK, which are part of the request for trial against MP Plarent Ndreca and 15 other officials, Radovan appears to have “voluntarily” engaged in helping “in assisting with some internal adjustments and configurations, both in paint and otherwise”.
But beyond the paint job of the Ministry of Interior, the communications show, according to SPAK, that Radovan and a number of officials in the Ministry, led by the former Secretary General and MP Plarent Ndreca, were engaged in pre-determining the winners of a tender for the design of two buildings for the State Police in Vlora and Mirdita worth 34.2 million lekë.
“I am in the hallway of Sandri’s (ministry) because Plarenti called me and wanted to meet me”, writes Radovan in one of the conversations captured by the Prosecution and cited in the request for trial. Meetings, messages and a series of emails obtained by court order from Gmail show that Radovan prepared the documentation and criteria for the tender announcement, which he himself won a few months later.
“Based on the above, the proceeding body finds that the Procurement Unit has set as a criterion those licenses available from the winning company BOE Ape and Derby shpk, without arguing them and having previously discussed with the defendants Denisa Skenderaj, Aida Shehi and Elora Kokalari on the established criteria, proving the fact that this company is predetermined to be declared the winner in this procurement procedure,” states the request for judgment sent to the Special Court at the end of November 2024.
The prosecution is seeking a trial on the charge of “violation of equality in tenders” against MP Ndreca. The same charge also includes 12 officials, former officials of the Ministry of Interior, including members of the procurement unit Denisa Skënderaj, Lira Kolasi and Blendi Kovi, members of the Bid Evaluation Commission Lindita Mukaj, Ferdinant Tarazhi, Silva Dauti, Grida Isufi, Deni Klosi, Jonarda Qurku, member of the Complaints Review Commission, Julia Hysa, and other officials involved such as Elora Kokalari and Aida Shehi. Meanwhile, the three members of the project acceptance commission, Emiliano Mehmeti, Klejdi Meço and Erand Rrobaçi, are accused of “falsification of documents”.
Radovani is not part of the request for judgment, but he has publicly denied the charges and claims to be an injured party. MP Ndreca has also denied any wrongdoing. Former Interior Minister Sandër Lleshaj did not respond to a request for comment from BIRN by the time the article was published. The other defendants have also denied the charges before the Prosecution.
With a mandatory determination
The Special Prosecution’s motion for judgment states that when Radovan began visiting the Ministry of Interior to volunteer to help with the type of paint and stylization, he also had intensive telephone and e-mail communication with officials from this ministry. The Prosecution says that Radovan was introduced to these circles by Ndreca and former Minister Sandër Lleshi.
“I contacted the Secretary General and he left me a contact information that the offices of the Secretary General had been painted for pigment issues. I have not met him before. This happened from the first moment Plarent Ndreca arrived as Secretary General, which was sometime in July 2019,” says the testimony that SPAK received from Aida Shehi, then Director General of the Economic and Support Services Directorate at the Ministry of Interior.
Radovan was introduced as a point of contact to the Chief of Cabinet, Elora Kokalari, also by Minister Lleshaj. “In order to give his expert opinion on the regulation of interior colors that were not unified and the Minister wanted to unify them,” Kokalari testified, on the reasons for the contact with Radovan.
Communications show that the “pigment issue” of the paint in the minister’s and Ndreca’s office was not the main reason for the visits and exchanges. The prosecution found in the exchanges between Radovan and ministry official Elora Kokalari that the former deputy minister collected information about the condition of the police stations, and she also sent him photos of State Police buildings and other specific data.
Communications between Radovan, employees of the Ministry of Interior and employees of the design company that SPAK claims was controlled by him, make it clear that the former deputy minister was preparing to win the tender for the design of the buildings.
The documents shared between him and the ministry officials also set out tender criteria that were suitable for the merger of the companies Derbi shpk and Ape shpk, which according to the prosecution are controlled by Radovan.
Among the criteria that were included in the tender documents and used for selection was what Radovan presented in the exchanges as one of the “strong points” that he offered, international and national experience with more than 10 years as an architect.
In the email, Radovan does not discuss the involvement, but only the form. “The way I can participate is a) as a freelance professional with a German title in a joint venture with a design office in Tirana; or b) through a design office in Tirana that enters into a consultancy contract with me,” he writes in an email. For the prosecution, this is evidence that everything was predetermined in his favor.
Beyond this moment, SPAK says that the designation of the Bid Review Commission by Ndreca in the role of Secretary General is also proof of predetermination. Referring to the data collected on how the members of this commission, who are also under indictment, were selected, the prosecution says that for some of them there was no justification for how they were included. They did not even meet the condition of having over 10 years of experience, as required of participating companies.
“These facts prove that the selection of the members of the KVO by the Secretary General, the defendant Plarent Ndreca, was made with the intention that this Commission be simply a formal commission in the selection of the predetermined winning candidate,” the request for judgment states.
Beyond this fact, the Prosecution found that unlike the other bidders, Radovan was held to account. Although one of the companies in the economic union had not paid its energy bills, an argument that was used to disqualify another competitor in the competition, in the case of the “predestined” one, this was called a “minor deviation”. The same reasoning was also used for not having the right number of employees.
“This fact proves that this union of operators has been favored by KVO since Phase I of this procurement procedure,” the request for judgment states.
The Prosecution also found that unlike the other bidders, Radovan and the companies with which he submitted the bid had a concrete one with the exact names of the buildings for which they would work.
Communications between Radovan and Kokalari show that the latter was also certain that he would win. Shortly after the end of the first phase of the tender and still without official confirmation, he wrote to the former minister’s chief of staff to help him go and visit the Vlora police station.
Before the New Year’s rooster was roasted
The Procuracy estimates that the parties were so clear about the winner that when the procedure ended on December 31, 2019, when most citizens were getting ready for the holiday, the Ministry of Interior worked hard and signed contracts within the day and took delivery of the projects that, as it turned out, had a number of problems.
In fact, the investigations revealed that the initial plan was for the design of 4 buildings with a fund of 55.2 million lek, but on the last day of the year, Ndreca, who was waiting to sign the contract, learned that this money was not available.
The prosecution says that after this information, Ndreca ordered the drafting of a contract for the amount that was available and only for two objects, determining the costs on the spot. “The funds for two police stations are in the institution’s account. The possibility of concluding a contract for the funds that are available should be considered! The funds available are 35 million lek, therefore, a contract for two police stations should be drafted,” Ndreca’s order is quoted.
Within a day, a new contract was drafted for the amount of 34.2 million lek, which according to the prosecution was intentionally inflated. “In this Contract, it is established that the design fee has been fictitiously increased to the value of 5,696,296.9 lek from that presented in the economic proposal at the design competition stage,” the request for judgment states.
Also, within a day, by order of Ndreca, a commission was established to take over the project, the implementation of which was supposed to begin that day.
The investigation found that, contrary to what was stipulated in the contract, Radovan and the others handed over the work upon signing the contract and on the same day submitted the invoices on which they would be paid.
The prosecution says that these documents and submission were fictitious and the projects were not physically submitted nor were they recorded on that day. The three people, appointed by Ndreca to take over the work, are accused of falsifying the documentation.
“The investigation has proven that we are dealing with fictitious acts of taking delivery of documents because the conclusion of the contract, the order issued for the taking delivery of the project, the minutes kept for the taking delivery, the submission of tax invoices, were all carried out within one day on 31/12/2019”, the prosecution states.
The members of this commission said that they were ordered by Ndreca through a secretary to take delivery of the projects on the last day of the year, so as not to burn the funds. “According to the declarant, the secretary could be called Denisa who asked the Commission if it was possible to complete the taking delivery process that same day because the funds were being burned”, the testimony of the commission member, Klejdi Meço, is paraphrased in the request for trial.
But the rush does not seem to have brought them any benefits. Investigations found that upon returning to the office in January 2020, the parties committed to concluding the scheme and receiving payment, but immediately encountered obstacles. In February 2020, the Director of Budget and Financial Management wrote to Ndreca, among other things, that the actions taken were problematic, that the reduction of the fund was made without arguments and contradicted the legislation. The official also indicated that the procedures appeared fictitious. “The signed contract, the order for the project’s acceptance, the acceptance report, the tax invoices, are dated 12/31/2019, raising suspicions of fictitious actions,” he reported to Ndreca.
However, Ndreca is accused of pushing the project forward and transferring responsibility for payment to the State Police, where meetings were held on his orders for this work.
But when the projects were sent to the State Police for payment, specialists there found them to be deficient and problematic.
“No windows were foreseen in the vast majority of the premises,” reads the exchange of letters between the State Police and the new Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior. It states that a 642-meter lobby without functions was foreseen in Vlora, while the premises for juveniles were windowless and without natural lighting. The State Police found that the project did not meet the safety requirements and the surface area of the building had been doubled unnecessarily.
Based on these problems, the State Police refused to make the payment and was later sued by the two design companies, which insist that they had done the work.
Social ties and reimbursements
The prosecution announces that it has investigated two of Radovan’s connections in the Ministry of Interior, the one with former Minister Sandër Lleshaj, who has been defined as social, and the one with Ndreca, who apparently was the reference point for the postponement of the practice.
“Regarding citizen Sandër Lleshaj, telephone conversations were found between the registered user with the name “Sandër Lleshi” and Gjon Radovan, belonging to the period from 2017 to December 18, 2019, and it turns out that these citizens had social relations,” the prosecution says.
But in the communications that the prosecution has included in the request for judgment, there are no discussions between Radovan and the former minister about the tender.
However, from Radovan’s communications with ministry employees, it appears that the former minister could have been aware of this scheme, or at least this is what Radovan claims.
“As I promised the minister, I can do this job willingly and I am sure that you will get the maximum quality,” he writes in a communication with Lleshaj’s chief of staff. However, the prosecution has not included former minister Lleshaj in the investigation and does not refer to his further involvement in this process.
Otherwise, the relationship with Ndreca, the former Secretary General, is more intense and, as revealed by the communications, even more complicated. The prosecution says that despite their denials, it is documented that they had discussed the tender in advance and had exchanged messages and documents with each other before and after the latter. According to the prosecution, this is an unavoidable fact and that Ndreca and Radovani took advantage of Gjon Radovani’s offer for “pro bono” consultancy for: Unified painting of the interior walls of the ministry, for these meetings.
The prosecution says that Ndreca is not credible when he claims that in the numerous meetings between the two, “the only conversation that they did not take the opportunity to have with each other in these meetings is precisely the conversation about the “Commissariat Project”.
Despite the fact that parts of the communications between the two were deleted, the prosecution says it found traces of involvement in the messages between Radovan and others. “Hello Astrit, I spoke to Plarentin on the phone. He says that if Elena makes the commission sign that the implementation project is in accordance with the draft idea, he signs it. As a letter with only his name, he does not do it, because the SP (Secretary General) signs after a commission. Tomorrow I will write to Elena and tell me what she will answer me,” Radovan’s communications with the third party say.
The prosecution also found messages from Ndreca that Radovan had sent to others. Ndreca claimed, according to the prosecution, that he had not sent the messages, but that they were sent as if they had been written by him. However, SPAK claims that Radovan had no reason to do this in communication with his associates and subordinates.
However, the relationship does not seem peaceful. When the payment was delayed and the parties were at a standstill, in a communication with a third person, Radovan complains about Ndreca, but says that he was ashamed to address the problem with the minister.
“Please don’t tell Sandri about that work with Plarent, because I’m ashamed and I don’t want to get into those discussions…”, writes Radovan. In the conversation, it is implied that they had tried to convince Lleshaj to remove Ndreca, but he had not listened to their advice. “It is our duty as friends to talk to him about important things, then everyone knows what he does,” writes Radovan in response to the message where he is told that the former minister had been spoken ill of Ndreca.
The prosecution has also found a message that suggests that Ndreca expected something from the affair, which in the request is described as “reimbursement”, but the investigation has not gone beyond this point. “On the other hand, Plarenti was telling me that whether it is resolved with the police or with the Ministry of Interior, what he has given for the project has already been issued and in a word, he is waiting for the reimbursement,” Radovan writes to an associate. When questioned by the prosecution, the associate denied knowing about the reimbursement and what form it would take./BIRN
