SMI Chair Monika Kryemadhi issued a statement to the media today, urgently responding to the Minister of Finance, Delina Ibrahimaj, regarding the incinerator affair.
The Chief asks Mrs. Ibrahimaj why the Tax Authorities have not gone to inspect the warehouses of the incinerator companies as they are required to do to confirm tax evasion.
"I just heard the statement of the Minister of Finance who openly admitted that tax evasion by these companies exists.
I'm glad there's a reaction after so long, but I'm convinced that there are many fluctuations in her entire statement.
I ask the Minister of Finance to be transparent about what investment has been made in the Tirana incinerator to date. I only ask for transparency from the Albanian government.
What I am asking for is the condition of investing 1028 million euros by the concessionaire of the Tirana Incinerator, with the only condition being the service that the Tirana municipality would offer by depositing the waste at 29 Euros per ton.
It has not been implemented and if it has not been implemented, can the Ministry of Finance tell us how much it has paid so far and what it has done?These 47 million euros, according to Open Data, were paid from the state budget, what were they used for and what service was provided at the Tirana Incinerator?
This is the main duty of the Ministry of Finance to explain what is done with the state budget money. I know very well and there is no need for the Minister of Finance to tell me that the companies I have denounced are fictitious, fake companies, that do not have working tools, do not have goods in stock and do not have any employees. We have checked based on the documentation we have that these companies have served to carry out the entire tax evasion of Klodian Zoto and other companies. However, I will ask the Minister of Finance again a question.
Have you checked the warehouses of these companies? Because this is the duty of the Tax Directorate. It is enough to ask today the Albanian businesses, at whose doors every week the tax investigation checks their warehouses, from water, sugar, oil... In these companies, the tax investigation has never landed in so many years. If this had happened, now we would have at least a decision of the Ministry of Finance to denounce to the Prosecutor's Office. Do you know that these companies have invoiced directly to the Fier Incinerator, Madam Minister?
And what actions have you taken since these payments to the Fier Incinerator were made until 2020. So you have found these companies to be fictitious and false in 2018, but the state budget, the Ministry of Finance, your government, has continued to pay these fictitious companies until 2020 for the Fier Incinerator.
Do you know, Madam Minister, that Klodian Zoto was a subcontractor in 3 incinerators and committed tax evasion of 25 million dollars in these companies?
Which companies have made fictitious purchases and fictitious sales?
This is the issue that the minister and the Tax Directorate should clarify. The minister knows well that the main beneficiaries are the incinerator companies, the concession companies and the companies that have won public works and it is money that every day more and more falls on the shoulders of Albanian citizens. This is another crime that continues to be invested by the Albanian government. I feel sympathy for the minister who says that she cannot investigate this because it is the duty of SPAK.
Now I see that Rama's government is blaming SPAK for not investigating the Tirana incinerator.
So the Minister accuses the prosecutor of the Prosecution Office of continuing investigations into the Tirana incinerator.
I urge him to stop paying this corrupt contract, if he has a positive will to condemn this corrupt scheme, to take the suspension of the contract with the Tirana incinerator to Court for the sole reason, because if he verifies that the investment of 28 million euros has not been made, it is very easy to save at least 80 thousand dollars per day for Albanian citizens.
Madam Minister, check your statement once again that you are in panic and fear, but in this case you are contradicting yourself, with the decisions of your government and prime minister, but you are accusing today through the mouth of the minister that SPAK is the one that is not acting to stop the incinerator concession contract."- said Kryemadhi.
This reaction comes after Minister Ibrahimaj said earlier that the institution she heads has been content with the fact that it has provided the prosecution with all the necessary information.
