Top Story / Top Story has the 2004 agreement, here is how the interests of the company and not the Albanian state are protected

“It is an agreement that when I read it I shed tears. For a great national wealth which had to be managed differently, the fact that everyone becomes dumb about this agreement, about this contract, shows how unfair it is for the Albanian state and the public in the Republic of Albania. The agreement has confidentiality clauses “said the lawyer, Adriatik Lapaj.

Article 23 of the agreement provides for confidentiality. This means that the information obtained under this contract is kept confidential, not only for the duration of the agreement, but also 5 years after its termination. Not just the public that should not have it, but also the media. And the collaborators under the contract can be exposed to that part of the information that regulates the relationship between them.

“Which means it can not be made public, which means that even I can not say what I read and I can not tell you how I read it, which means in the Republic which can not be reached public agreements , the predisposition is for the companies not to benefit from these agreements “said the lawyer, Adriatik Lapaj.

“Unfortunately, not only the contracts you are talking about, but all PPP contracts, concessions are unfortunately not subject to transparency rules, since here we are dealing with the use of natural resources,” said economic expert Selai Xhepa. “Lack of transparency leaves room for mismanagement. And mismanagement is a source of corruption, violation of public interests, budget revenues and irresponsibility of the suffering generations “said the economic expert, Zef Preçi.

Agreements, in fact, may have a confidentiality clause, mainly foreign companies for various reasons ranging from competition, trade secret, etc. But the context of signing the agreement must be understood and the balance between the signatory parties must be maintained. “On the one hand is the company’s demand to maintain what it produces and on the other hand is the government which is like any other business partner, but we must understand that the public interest is even more important in these agreements. I think “Such confidentiality clauses are normal in the agreement, but the public interest must prevail and is the most important in any contract that the Albanian government enters into with any operator doing business in Albania,” said Ilir Ciko, an economics expert.

The contract is considered weak by experts, which means that it leaves room for the contractor, in this case the Bankers company, to abuse the Albanian state.
“It is a very bad agreement for the interests of the Albanian state and the interests of the Albanian citizens. I do not believe that the interests of the Albanians were taken into account when that agreement was negotiated. I understand that the period then was a period when the oil sector did not have the proper importance, but it clearly seems that there was a lack of vision and information about what would happen to this sector in the future, but there was also a lack of kindness. to think for the good of the Albanian state, for the good of the Albanian citizens “said Besian Pesha, Former Head of AKBN.

The agreement exempts from customs duties the company and its subsidiaries, subcontractors and respective foreign employees from Albanian customs duties and taxes in relation to all activities related to hydrocarbon operations. Also, the foreign employees of the contractor and subcontractors are not subject to taxes and Customs Liabilities on income or profit realized by them directly or indirectly from their work in hydrocarbon operations, nor on the import or re-export of their personal and household items, items which can be freely imported and consequently re-exported.

Under the contract, the company can fully export all revenues from hydrocarbon operations in Albania, including, but not limited to, revenues from the sale of oil. “Patos Marinza is the largest onshore oil field in Europe and as such is a great national asset and if we had pursued a different strategy, I do not know how to release these assets, be it oil basins or the oil refining industry. , he would not give them a piece of bread to foreign investors, but he would keep them himself, he would invest them himself, even if he took a loan. “Today we would be an industry that could very well produce, but could produce the same as the energy industry in the Nordic countries, the same level of well-being for its citizens,” said Besian Pesha, Former Head of AKBN.

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