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| Infrastructure Minister Damian Gjiknuri |
The Albanian Road Authority (ARA) has reopened this Thursday the procedure and procurements that has as ocjective the rehabilitation of the road segment at the overpass of the "palace with arrows" and the roundabout Shqiponja Loti 1. It is about the same lot for which the ARA signed the contract previously with FDH Albania (branch of Dunwell Haberman), a company that turned out to have falsified the documents. In the notification of the ARA for the procurement procedure, the limit fund set for the work is more than 2.2 billion Leks, the same value fund implemented in the previous procedure developed by the ARA.
For the year 2019, the budget for this work is foreseen 539 million lek. The operators will have to submit bids until January 14, 2019, while the time for contract execution is 24 months.
A little History of DH Albania
In the first week of December in the media it became public the fact that the company Dunwell Haberman won the tender for the construction of the first lot in the "New Ring" had submitted forged documents. The ARA annulled the contract, while the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy announced that had a written communication with the US Embassy. Materials to come from the US according to the Minister will be submitted to the Prosecutor's Office, which will also investigate the case. DH Albania, which won the procurement procedure as a merger, was registered in Delaware, United States of America. After the termination of the contract will be sequestrated 10 percent of the value of the procurement procedure that was a guarantee.
DH Albania had also won another procedure with the Transmission System Operator (TSO) with a value of 12 million euros, while the TSO also unilaterally annulled the contract.
Following the problem with the company DH Albania by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, a legal change related to the procurement part was proposed that for the winning operators is proposed the verification of the documents, whereas today it is optional if there is indications or doubts that indicate the opposite.
Just a few days ago, Minister Damian Gjiknuri stated that the Great Ring project would continue besides the situation created.
"I want to guarantee the citizens of Tirana that the project of the Great Ring Road will continue without stopping to be concluded within the deadlines. Immediately now the Albanian Road Authority will announce the lot 1 race procedure," said Gjiknuri.
The project has a total of three lots, in the lots 3 and 2 the contracts continue to be active.