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By:
Sanie Yusufi
- September 3, 2023 21:06
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A private company from Kosovo has paid the hotel expenses for the head of KRU "Prishtina", Arsim Fetahu, and the head of the Board, Teuta Ukshini-Aliu, during a visit to the company "Komunalna Kranj" in Slovenia. Accompaniment during the visit and payment were raised as a concern by the head of the Board, who said that she was not aware of this, and then raised suspicions of a conflict of interest. The head of KRU "Prishtina" was given a warning by the Board
The trip to Slovenia for the exchange of experiences for the implementation of the project for smart water meters that affect the reduction of losses has been dedicated to the head of KRU "Prishtina", Arsim Fetahu, with remarks from the company's Board. The reason for this was the suspicion of a conflict of interest, since a private company from Kosovo "Enerco" had covered the hotel expenses for him and the head of the Board, Teuta Ukshini-Aliu.
This company had previously won a tender in "Termokos" during the time when Arsim Fetahu was the chief executive there. The same is the winner of another project that is being developed in "Termokos", which started during the time when Fetahu was chief, but which was realized through MCC.
The escort by the private company during the trip, but also the payment of the stay in the hotel of the chief and the chairperson of KRU "Prishtina" had been raised as a concern by the chairperson Teuta Ushkini-Aliu herself.
At a meeting of the Board of RCU "Prishtina", she had raised suspicions about a conflict of interest and stated that she was not aware that a private company would be part of the trip to Slovenia.
Ukshini-Aliu had shown that together with the head of KRU "Prishtina" they had traveled to Slovenia at the invitation of the company "Komunalna Kranj" to see closely the realization of a project for smart water meters "Smart water meters" that this company had realized during 2022 with a private company "Iskra".
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KRU "Prishtina" also plans to implement such a project.
"For me, it was a way of conflict of interest, a way that two high-ranking officials should not have tolerated and a private company should not have paid us the hotel or stay expenses, for the very fact that I think it is a direct conflict of interest and it must not happen", she said at the Board meeting on May 12.
Chief Arsim Fetahu said that when he received the invitation from the chief of "Komunalna Kranj" he was told that they would cover the expenses. He has denied having a conflict of interest, since, according to him, this company has not won any tender at the "Prishtina" KRU.
"They are companies that deal with the part of digital meters and these processes and are also installing in 'Termokos' where I worked earlier. They want to learn for themselves what they can see positive in this case. I understand that the connection may be wrong and I accept the punishment, whatever it may be, I want to emphasize once again that nothing was intentional and in this case I apologize to the president for putting her in an unenviable position", he stated at the same meeting of the Board.
Other members of the Board also raised concerns. The member of the Board, Saxhide Mustafa, has considered the covering of expenses by a private company as a scandal.
"I consider it to be a big scandal, because if it comes out that a company covers the expenses of the chief executive and chairperson, it is a very big scandal that I did not enjoy experiencing at all, because here since the day of first I committed to great transparency, responsibility and accountability", she said.
At this meeting, an opinion was requested from the Agency for the Prevention of Conflict of Interest regarding this case, and since it was said that there is no such thing, since the company has not won a tender at KRU Prishtina, nor is it in the process of tendering.
However, in the next extraordinary meeting of the Board, the concern was raised as to what if this company applies for any tender in the RCU "Prishtina" in the future, how they can prevent it from participating.
The chairperson had even raised doubts about the preparation of the sale of smart meters to our company.
"During the presentation I also had at ISKRA, where they tried to present smart meters, I started to allude that it is a preparation for the sale of smart meters to our company, even though in terms of management it could be the vision of the Board in the future for the implementation of smart meters, it did not seem correct and in order to me in terms of the procedures that were attempted in this form to do such a thing", she said.
The member of the Board, Fadil Berisha, has said that this indirectly represents a conflict of interest.
"The participation of this private company has been completed and confirmed, the payment has also been confirmed, which is absolutely unacceptable, because this indirectly represents a conflict of interest and in no way should it be accepted by either the chief executive officer or the chairperson, but we were informed that the leader was not aware of this payment", he said.
The head of "KRU Prishtina", Arsim Fetahu, has denied to KOHA that he was aware that the private company will be on this visit with them.
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"Preliminarily, before the trip, we have agreed that the travel expenses will be covered by KRU 'Prishtina', while the accommodation expenses will be covered by the organizer/inviter - water utility 'Komunala Kranj'", he said.
He said that only after returning did he realize that the payment was made by the company from Kosovo.
"After returning from the official trip, we asked for clarification from the organizer and received an apology email since the payment was not made in coordination with the organizer and we were put in an unfavorable position," he said.
Fetahu has denied being aware of the company's participation in the visit to Slovenia.
"I have heard about the company in question, but I was not aware that they will be part of the visit, since we understood from the organizer that they were invited by the Slovenian company 'Iskra' that was part of the meeting, which had cooperation with the Kosovar company ", he said.
Regarding the tenders that the company won in "Termokos" during the time he was chief executive, he said that they were made by procurement and he did not sign them.
The head of the Board, Teuta Ukshini - Aliu, has said that she stands behind all the words she said in the two meetings of the Board that discussed this issue.
KOHA has also requested clarifications from the company "Komunalna Kranj" about this visit, but has not received an answer from any of them.
And the Kosovar company said that they were invited by "Komunalna Kranj".
"We have been invited by 'Komunalna Kranj'. This visit has been a valuable opportunity to share the experience and successful practices of 'Komunalna Kranj' and the Slovenian company 'Iskraemeco' regarding the reduction of water losses through technical solutions, especially through the identification of losses in the network with the help of programs specialized (software)", says the answer of the owner of the company, Rinor Klaiqi.
According to her, the hotel reservation was made through the website booking.com.
"The hotel reservation was made through the website booking.com, from my credit card registered in my personal name. The tools were automatically withdrawn and we have not been able to fix it afterwards. However, until now no payment has been made by the company 'Enerco' and I can provide the evidence for this if necessary", he said.
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But the KRU says that the payment was made by this company.
Meanwhile, when asked if they have ever applied to the tender of KRU "Prishtina", he denied such a thing, saying that they specialize in the energy sector.
"The company 'Enerco' is a company specialized in the energy sector and has a rich and successful experience in providing sustainable solutions in this sector and in our history of tendering activity in Kosovo and especially in KUR 'Prishtina', we have never participated. The reason for this lack of participation is that our company is specialized in providing energy solutions, not in the water sector", he emphasized.
