Waste and incinerators are an issue under investigation, but one that is causing a great financial cost to Albanians. Faktoje has verified the statements of Monika Kryemadhi from LSI and Mr. Jamarbër Malltezi from DP on the daily payments of Albanians for waste management in Tirana’s incinerator. According to Faktoje’s verification, Albanians pay 40,000 dollars a day and not 80,000 as the two opposition representatives claim.
Ilda Hoxha
“Albanians today continue to pay for Tirana incinerator concession 80,000 dollars a day. 80 thousand dollars a day for Tirana incinerator, from the pockets of the poorest citizens go to the pockets of the owners of the incinerators, who today are on the run from justice, on the streets of Europe, and they share this money they extort from the citizens with the government” – declared Kryemadhi.
Faktoje turned to the exponents of the Freedom Party to find out who they were referring to in such calculations. They answered:
“The contract signed by the Ministry of Environment and payments to the State Treasury”.
In order to verify this statement, Faktoje referred to the contract for Tirana Incinerator on Atrako website
According to Article 7 of the contract, the price is 29 euros per ton of waste, excluding VAT. The total price, including VAT, amounts to 34.8 euros per ton of waste.
Meanwhile, according to this contract, the minimum guaranteed amount of urban waste per calendar day is determined in the Business Plan, on pages 26-28 of section 6 “Revenue Forecast”, annex to this contract.
Screenshot of the concession contract for the Tirana Incinerator (source Atrako)
According to Article 7 of the contract, the price is 29 euros per ton of waste, excluding VAT. The total price, including VAT, amounts to 34.8 euros per ton of waste. Earlier, Faktoje published an article on the forecast in the contract for the price increase every year to reflect inflation.
Meanwhile, according to this contract, the minimum guaranteed amount of urban waste per calendar day is determined in the Business Plan, on pages 26-28 of section 6 “Revenue Forecast”, annex to this contract.
Screenshot of the concession contract for the Tirana Incinerator (source Atrako)
We must bear in mind that until now the energy production has not started and no payments have been made for it.
Based on the projections of the contract, the daily value, including VAT, that is paid for the disposal of urban waste is approximately 27,840 euros, including VAT (800 tons of waste x 29 euros per ton x 1.2). This is if the quantity does not exceed the value of 800 tons of waste deposited per day and the price of 29 euros is not indexed.
In 2022, the contract is in its 5th year and the Minimum Guaranteed Quantity for this year is lower than 800 tons per day according to the contract, in the amount of 650 tons per year. For this reason, the actual daily quantity may be even smaller for the first years, depending on the actual daily tonnage of the municipalities that deposit in this landfill.
For this reason, Faktoje also referred to the treasury figures for the payments made. Based on Open Spending data.
Based on these data, for the years January 2019 – June 2022, the total payments from the Treasury to the entity Integrated Energy BV SPV are about 4.1 billion ALL.
Treasury Payments (Open spending source)
If we divide this value per day (3.5 years x 365 days = 1278 days) it results in 3,208,138 ALL per day or 26,959 euros per day on average.
But if, in addition to the minimum quantity guaranteed in the contract for Tirana district of 800 tons of waste per day, the 220 tons of waste per day (320,000 tons/4 years/365 days) coming from the Municipality of Durrës, according to its contract with Tirana incinerator, the daily cost is about 35.5 thousand euros per day, including VAT (1020 tons per day x 29 euros per ton x 1.2).
Source Openprocurement.al
In addition, Faktoje also referred to the indicators of concessionary contracts/PPP with budget support presented by the Ministry of Finances. According to the data in the picture below, the highest annual value for payments to the Incinerator of Tirana in 2021 will be around ALL 1.8 billion. This figure translates into a daily value of approximately 41 thousand euros.
Meanwhile, Jamarbër Malltezi declared on July 27, 2022 that 45 million Euros have been paid for the Tirana incinerator up to date. Based on OpenSpending data, since the beginning of the contract, the total payments from the Treasury to the entity Integrated Energy BV SPV, are about 5.1 billion ALL. This value, with an official exchange rate of 116.6 ALL according to the Bank of Albania on that day, translates to about 43.7 million Euros, which is approximately the value declared by Mr. Malltezi. If we refer to the figure stated by Mr. Malltezi and the fact that the contract entered into force at the end of August 2017, i.e. about 4 years and 11 months, then the average daily payments during this period turn out to have been about 25 thousand Euros (45 million Euros/1794 days).
Even this statement by Mr. Malltezi supports Faktoje’s calculations, which show that Ms. Kryemadhi’s statement about the value of the daily payments of 80 thousand dollars is almost double the actual value of the payments.
Payments for the period 2019-2022
Payments for the period 2017-2018
Based on the verification carried out and the information collected, we categorize Ms. Monika Kryemadhi’s statement as False.
