TIRANA, February 21/ATA/ The Parliamentary Inquiry Commission for urban waste treatment plants, chaired by MP Jorida Tabaku, continued today the routine session with interrogation of witnesses.
The Commission of Inquiry called Minister of Infrastructure and Energy Belinda Balluku as a witness.
Asked by the DP MP Helidon Bushati on the contracts of urban waste treatment plants of Elbasan, Fier and Tirana, Balluku said that, “The contracts are concession contracts and the contracts of Fier and Elbasan are Public-Private Partnerships. While the Tirana contract, it is a concession.”
Asked if a financial or technical audit has been done on the manner of implementation of these contracts, Balluku said that, “There have been conducted all financial audits and the documents were available to the Commission”.
Asked what procedure was followed for the selection of the supervisor of incinerators, Balluku stressed that, “The supervisor was selected on the proposal of the concessionaire, bringing 3 different companies and submitted to the contracting authority, then the Ministry of Environment, to do the selection between 3 companies and that is how the selection was made”.
Regarding the Fier plant, Balluku said that, “It continues to be in the process of construction.”
Balluku added that, “My predecessor in office has given the right to use for 25 years the facility of the waste treatment plant in Elbasan”.
“The right to build has been granted and the production of energy from the Elbasan plant has been licensed. To be frank with you, I feel proud of the whole process, as the municipality of Elbasan will have the opportunity to produce electricity, which will compensate all the electricity needs of the city of Elbasan. And if the production will be greater than the needs of this municipality, of course the energy will be put into the network producing income for this municipality, which will be used according to legal criteria, or priorities that the municipality of Elbasan will have in the future, starting from the construction of kindergartens, nurseries or everything else for the benefit of the community “, said Balluku.
Balluku added that according to the contract, the license for energy production will be transferred to the municipality of Elbasan. “I consider it not only fair, I consider it one of the greatest achievements, how from the garbage that was left on the streets today will be produced energy and will generate income for the municipalities. So, from the mountains of garbage, today we will have a production of clean energy, which will serve to improvement of the finances of the municipalities “, she said
Balluku underlined that the same procedure will be followed with the urban waste treatment plant of Fier.
Asked if she feels responsible as the price of energy to be produced by the Elbasan and Fier plants has not been set yet, Balluku said, “Not only I do not feel responsible, but I am glad that the powers in the Republic of Albania are separate. As you know, ERE is the regulator, you choose. And the Ministry neither dares, nor undertakes to put pressure on ERE when it will set the price of energy”./p.s./
