Democratic Party (DP) Deputy Chairman Jorida Tabaku has reacted again on the incinerators affair. While publishing a video on Facebook, Tabaku wrote on Saturday that the taxes of Albanian citizens go directly into the pockets of Prime Minister Edi Rama and the structured criminal group.
“430 million euros for a field with soil and a ghost incinerator! The taxes of the Albanians go directly into the pockets of Rama and the structured criminal group!” said Tabaku.
Former Environment Minister Lefter Koka was arrested on corruption charges related to waste incinerator contracts in mid- December 2021.
Koka, a former MP for two different parties and a well-known political powerbroker in Albania, was arrested over charges related to a waste incinerator controversy.
Koka, 57, served as mayor of Durres, Albania’s second-largest city, then as an MP for the Socialist Party, an MP for the Socialist Movement for Integration and again as an MP for the Socialist Party, for which he won a crucial battleground seat in April’s parliamentary elections.
As Environment Minister representing the Socialist Movement for Integration, he awarded three highly controversial concessionary contracts for the construction of waste incinerators in Elbasan, Fieri and Tirana.
When his relations with the Socialist Movement for Integration soured after his return to the Socialist Party this year, the SMI accused him of creating a network of sham companies that received contracts worth millions of euros from the company that was specially created to build the Elbasani Waste Incinerator.
It was alleged that the sham companies were registered under the ownership of several individuals connected with Koka and were shut down soon after receiving the money transfers.
Most Albanians think that the incinerator concession is a corrupt affair.
64.3% of respondents in the Euronews Albania Barometer have recently answered that the scheme is abuse of power and corruption.
One in five Albanians (19.4%) think that the law on granting concessions has been violated, but that the opposition exaggerates the violations.
Even a part of ruling Socialist Party voters in the last elections think that incinerators are an abuse of power.
Almost half of them (45%) think that there has been corruption, while more than 74% are convinced that there is a violation of the law in these concessions, according to Euronews Albania.
The findings of the Barometer are from the survey conducted on January 13-24, 2022 with 1000 face-to-face interviews in the family. / Argumentum.al
