SPAK continues investigations into the Tirana incinerator, how the affair was orchestrated by Belinda Balluku and Edi Rama, millions of euros blown up by the “ghost” investment
SPAK continues investigations into the Tirana incinerator, how the affair was orchestrated by Belinda Balluku and Edi Rama, millions of euros blown up by the “ghost” investment
A criminal group, linked to the Tirana incinerator, a faction of the investigation for fraud and money laundering, was sent yesterday for trial by SPAK. Among the 12 defendants are, according to SPAK, the leaders of the criminal group Mirel Mërtiri and Klodian Zoto, who in collaboration with 10 others managed to launder around 30 million euros through fictitious invoices and cash movements. Mirel Mërtiri and Klodian Zoto, the ‘de facto’ owners of the incinerator, say SPAK has cheated on spending money, by not making investments for the construction of the incinerator, which was the object of the contract they had signed with the Albanian state.
Both have extracted large amounts of money, both domestically and abroad, through fictitious invoices or fictitious companies created solely for this purpose, but also in cash. SPAK has documented illegal transfers amounting to 1.3 billion lek and 16.6 million euros, a total of 30 million euros. The rest of the expenses that were not included in the construction, about 70 million euros, SPAK suspects are disguised as operations, consultancy and other activities. Among the 10 other defendants, Dashamir Ymeraj stands out, owner of several companies and many others opened in the name of many elderly people, which received money from the incinerator as if they were performing services.
Among the defendants are Arjola Kodra, the former administrator of the incinerator who is also accused of forging documents, journalist Endrit Habilaj and 3 foreign citizens, who were used for large movements of money abroad. All 12 defendants are in custody and are expected to be tried in absentia by the GJKKO. But this will not be the only blow to this gigantic affair, as SPAK in yesterday’s announcement states that “investigations continue in separate criminal proceedings, with no. 255/3, to identify any other criminal facts and the responsible persons who have committed actions during the concession granting procedure and in the phase of implementing the concession contract.” The question is whether the real originators of this affair will be hit?
The Role of Balluk
The Tirana Incinerator is the biggest corruption pit of the Rama government. After numerous denunciations by the media and the discovery of facts about the abuses of funds of this incinerator, a very important fact has long been overlooked: The institutional responsibility and monitoring of this investment belonged to the Ministry of Infrastructure. In this corruption story where the main character who should have supervised the investment was assigned to the Ministry of Balluk, the latter left it without supervision from January 2019 to 2023, forcing its subordinates to throw money into the scandalous investment that never ended.
During this period, there was a clash between two powerful figures in power, Belinda Balluku and Erion Veliaj, who left the state blind in the big incinerator affair, where money was being paid in full, while no one dared to officially write that the incinerator was not being built. For almost two years, the Tirana Incinerator concession has been practically without Contracting authority as no one seemed capable of making decisions.
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During this time, there was also a strong clash between Belinda Balluku and Mirela Kumbaro, as the Ministry of Infrastructure pushed to transfer the Contracting Authority to the Ministry of Environment, but Mrs. Kumbaro refused. Belinda Balluku is the main person responsible for this corrupt affair, which is directly involved in the management of funds and payments of the concessionaire. Belinda Balluku was the person who, although she was dirty from head to toe, demanded that at all costs she invoice the responsibility to Erion Veliaj, who refused at any moment to take responsibility for this investment, leaving it at the expense of Balluku’s ministry.
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Another major dispute during these years arose between Balluk and Delina Ibrahim. Since the International Monetary Fund increased the pressure on the government to supervise the financial consequences of the concession in more detail. As a result of the IMF pressure, the government was forced to amend the concession law by charging the Minister of Finance with the obligation to submit a summarized annual report on the progress of active concession/PPP contracts every year, as an annex to the annual budget implementation report.
The report was published in full in 2019 and 2020. But in 2021, the report could not be published because the Tirana incinerator had been left without supervision and the Ministry of Finance had no way to obtain information about the progress of this concession. As a result, the conflict between Belinda Balluku and Erion Veliaj erupted in the Ministry of Finance. The impasse consisted of the fact that who should report to the Ministry of Finance on the progress of the works at the incinerator concession, as long as the NJZP was without a chairman. Delina Ibrahimaj now enters the game.
“Through your letters, we have been informed about the communications between your two institutions on the issue of which of the representatives of the MEI and the Municipality of Tirana should be in the role of the head of the Project Implementation Unit. From the above, the Ministry of Finance brings to your attention that according to the concessions law, the follow-up of periodic monitoring reports to the Ministry of Finance is the responsibility of the Contracting Authority,” Ibrahimaj addressed on May 9, 2022 to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Municipality of Tirana. Delina Ibrahimaj’s letter assigned Belinda Balluku the responsibility of appointing the head of the Project Implementation Unit.
(Later, a fierce conflict would erupt between Balluk and Ibrahimaj, culminating in a brawl at a government meeting, which was followed by Ibrahimaj’s transfer from finance minister to entrepreneurship minister.) But two months before this letter, the government had approved a decision that removed the waste sector from the sphere of state responsibility of the Ministry of Infrastructure, leaving it orphaned.
This decision was the final blow, which completely shattered the control over the incinerator. In this situation, the orchestrator of the Tirana Incinerator, Prime Minister Rama, and his partner Belinda Balluku decided to throw the responsibility of supervising this investment into the hands of no one. After all the clashes that occurred over a period of several years, Edi Rama approved a decision to create the National Waste Agency, giving it the legal responsibility for implementing waste policies.
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Evidence implicating Balluk in the affair
So during the 2019–2022 mandate, Balluku, in his capacity as Minister of Infrastructure, never established the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) foreseen by the contract. For three years in a row (January 2019–March 2022), the project implementation unit never met, even though the law assigned this responsibility to the Ministry of Infrastructure. On the other hand, the Ministry of Infrastructure did not appoint any construction engineer to monitor the progress of the works, as the SAI found.
On March 2, 2022, the government (in which Balluku was a minister) approved VKM no. 111/2022, which defined the scope of the new state responsibility of the MEI. This decision removed from the MEI (and therefore from Balluku) the urban waste management sector and the pursuit of its policies. In short, the VKM freed Balluku from the legal obligation to supervise the implementation of the incinerator contract. This was a “legal coup”, because the incinerator was left with almost no institutional responsibility over the contract.
This orphaning of the waste sector was followed by the SPAK investigation in May 2024. Balluku was questioned by the prosecution about the incinerator file. She herself stated to the media that the Ministry does not transfer money directly to the concessionaire company, but gives funds to the Municipality of Tirana for the waste management service. However, the analysis of the SAI shows that, in practice, the budget funds were transferred from the MEI to the Municipality of Tirana and then to the concessionaire according to the contract. This is the story of how the supervision of the incinerator was shattered and the reason why the SPAK investigations have also been extended to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, through the seizure of the phones of many senior officials of this ministry.
Financial mechanism of concession payments
The Tirana incinerator contract is based on a “pay-for-use” model. According to it, the Municipality of Tirana as the “client” has a contractual responsibility to deposit the minimum amount of waste, and the state must pay for each ton deposited at a rate of €29/ton. The payment is not related to the construction phases; in fact, the SAI explained that, as long as the incineration is not carried out, the service is not fully provided, therefore a monitoring unit for payments is essential.
Funds tracking
Payments were made through state budget transfers. Treasury data (Open Data) show that in 2024 the budget paid about 1,041,300,047 lekë (approximately €10.4 million) directly to the concessionaire Integrated Energy from the Ministry of Finance. By the end of August 2024, the total amount paid to the concessionaire for the Tirana incinerator exceeded 7.2 billion lekë (€72 million). The municipality’s detailed invoices show that they included items such as “incinerator landfill construction and rehabilitation” as part of the contract liquidation.
Documentation and legal basis
Payments were based on the concession contract and the annual budget law. The contract clearly set the fee of €29/ton, and each year the budget provided for the funds for the disposal service. According to the official argument, any shortfall in funds was approved by the Budget Law and transferred to the budget of the Municipality of Tirana. Despite this, the SAI pointed out the lack of tariff negotiation documents and the fact that payments continued even without a concrete construction invoice (an irregularity also manifested in the Treasury’s practices). Therefore, financial resources continued to flow into the system according to the existing contractual and legal framework, even though the incinerator did not physically exist.