EDIT NIKOLLI & JOEL ÇELA
While inspecting some areas in the municipalities damaged by the November 26th, 2019 earthquake, Prime Minister, Mr Rama and the Minister of Reconstruction, Mr Ahmetaj committed to following a 3-shift pattern in an effort to promptly complete the reconstruction process. This statement applied to Laç hospital and residential areas, Thumana, 5 Maji Quarter in Tirana, etc. However, Faktoje fact-checking showed that no one was working the third shift in any of the sites.
On January 28th, this year Prime Minister Rama, Minister of Reconstruction Ahmetaj and mayor Veliaj inspected the construction site in the “5 Maji” Quarter in Tirana.
“One of the matters we have discussed several times is the fact that we must follow a 3-shift pattern in all apartment building construction sites, with a nights, afternoons, morning progression” – PM Rama stated.
Following this statement, Faktoje submitted a request for information to municipalities affected by the November 26th earthquake concerning the promised 3-shift pattern.
Request for information submitted to Tirana Municipality, February 18th, 2021
The only municipality that provided a reply was that of Tirana:
“We are working at full capacity under contracts, projects, approved bills of quantities, and plans. Please be informed that we are working more than one shift in these sites, according to weather conditions and technical construction criteria.” – Tirana Municipality stated in their reply.
Reply by Tirana Municipality
After that, Faktoje decided to conduct on-site checks, after 23:00, in the areas where the Prime Minister or Minister of Reconstruction had promised that the 3-shift pattern would be followed.
Faktoje checked the 5 Maji Quarter site and found no workers. Although weather conditions were favorable, no one was working the third shift.
5 Maji Quarter site with no workers, March 25th, 23:20
5 Maji Quarter site with no workers, March 25th, 23:20
Faktoje checked whether the 3-shift pattern was applied in Kavaja Municipality, where 9 apartment buildings are supposed to be constructed (seven in the city and two in the Golem Administrative Unit), amounting to a total of 300 collective dwellings.
Kavaja apartment building site with no workers, March 26th, 01:55
Kavaja apartment building site with no workers, March 26th, 01:55
On February 8th, this year, PM Rama inspected works in the site of homes damaged by the 26th November earthquake in Laç. Minister Ahmetaj, who partook the same visit, guaranteed that the works for the 524 apartments would finish by late August or early September, by saying:
“Mr Prime Minister, we are working three shifts here and based on our monitoring and reports, the quality of the works is exceptionally high.”
Faktoje was in the collective dwellings construction site in Laç and we found that the 3-shift pattern was not followed.
Construction site in Laç with no workers, March 26th, 2021, 00:50
Construction site in Laç with no workers, March 26th, 2021, 00:50
On February 16th, this year, PM Edi Rama, alongside the Minister of Health, Ogerta Manastirliu, inspected the start of the new Laç Hospital construction that was damaged by the November 26th earthquake. During this visit, PM Rama gave an ultimatum:
“You should work 24 hours, three shifts; three shifts so that we are done before the deadline!”
We traveled to the construction site of Laç Hospital and found that no one was working at midnight.
Construction site at Laç Hospital with no workers, March 26th, 2021, 00:50
On April 8th, 2020, during an inspection in Thumana, one of the areas that were severely damaged by the November 26th earthquake, PM Rama promised that despite the delays caused by the pandemic, all the families that had single-family dwellings in Thumana would benefit from new homes within 2020.
“We must bend over backwards and work 3 shifts so that we finish homes within this year.” – the Prime Minister emphasized.
During their on-site checks, Faktoje found that no one was working three shifts, although the government had committed to finishing the dwellings’ construction within 2020.
Single-family homes construction site in Thumana, March 26th, 2021, 00:16
Single-family homes construction site in Thumana, March 26th, 2021, 00:16
Single-family homes construction site in Thumana, March 26th, 2021, 00:16
Faktoje on-site checks in the 5 construction sites, which Prime Minister Rama and Minister Ahmetaj committed to following a 3-shift pattern for, revealed that the statements are considered False.
* Correction: The article published on 29.03.2021 contained two images from Laç construction site, captioned as “Thumana Construction Site”. This error was corrected on 30.03.2021 with the new denominations.
