A series of violations and deficiencies in the project "Expansion and Cleaning of the River in Shtime" were found

For years, the Municipality of Shtime in co-financing with the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure have launched the project "Widening and cleaning the river Shtimjanja in the directions Caralevë-Shtime, and Mollpolc-Petrovë-Shtime-Vojnovc" worth about 250 thousand euros. But this project has not yet been finalized in its entirety, even the officials of the Ministry have also carried out inspections of the works, meanwhile they have found a series of violations and irregularities.

In this project, the National Audit Office has also found remarks in the latest report.

The Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure has clarified through a letter that a ministerial working group has been formed for the review of capital projects in the field of water financed by the MMPHI budget, in which case many procedural deficiencies and legal violations have been identified.

"One of the findings of the working group from the review of the documentation is the project 'Expansion and cleaning of the river Shtimjanja in the sections Caralevë-Shtime, and Mollpolc-Petrovë-Shtime-Vojnovc'. The value of the project design is 299,420.00 euros, this value is for cleaning the river, the project has a total of 18 pages, while the total value of the two contracts is 598,414.30 euros. This project is co-financed. In the documents of the case, there is no construction permit, water consent and environmental consent", says the MMPHI letter.

Meanwhile, based on a part of the project provided by KOHA, the preparatory works cost more than the main works, the value of the preparatory works is 360,781.50 euros, while the main works have a value of 97,637.00 euros. Meanwhile, according to MMPHI, the project has no technical report and technical description.

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"The title of the project is cleaning the river, while the interior is cleaning and expansion, while there is no expansion, the project was commissioned by the Ministry. The main project does not contain the idea project itself, the idea project was not presented to us in the course documents and there is no idea project, while the invoice for payment also contains the idea part of the project. The drafting project, the expansion and cleaning of the Caraleve river -Shtime and Mollopolc-Petrove-Shtime Vojnovc, in five hard copies and one copy in electronic form-CD, was accepted by the project coordinator, who assessed that the project was delivered in accordance with the contract and which meets all the technical requirements, the same had accepted the invoices for the payment of this design project, had approved and processed them for payment", it is further stated in the report of MMPHI officials, a copy of which has provide TIME.

Meanwhile, the drafting of this implementing project was initiated by the requesting unit, the Water Department, which initiation was a formal, unargued, unreasoned initiation, the initiation was made with a five-line letter, while the value of the payment for this project was 299,420.00 euros.

"We consider that there was an excess of legal powers by the relevant official for the acceptance of the construction documentation and the same was not returned or completed. Meanwhile, from the observation carried out in the field, it was possible to ascertain that the first phase of the project (cleaning of the river in the length of 28.9 km was carried out in 2016. The cleaned river bed and in some sections expanded was in relatively good condition" , the report further states.

In the MMPHI report, it is stated that the municipal officials of Shtime clarified that after the cleaning of the river carried out with this project, there was no more flooding of the lands along the riverbed, which was a regular occurrence before the cleaning of the river.

KOHA has tried to get a statement from the municipal officials of Shtime during these days about this issue, but they have not answered the questions.

Meanwhile, the geodetic survey after the completion of the works was not carried out, although it had been foreseen by the contract, while the payment for the implementation of the works was made in full by the MESP in the amount of 180 and 489 euros and by the municipality in the amount of 100 euros.

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Meanwhile, the Ministry, through a letter, has clarified that the reason for the lack of funds is that the second phase of this project has not yet been fully completed.

"Instead of 5 bridges each 10 meters long, 6 bridges were built, one of them 10 meters long and 5 others 7 meters long each. The river bed within the urban area of ​​Shtime is partially regulated – only the walls of the banks of the minor bed in a length of 600 meters. The walls are concreted but not stone-walled as described in the contract. It should be noted that the contract stipulated that the deadline for the completion of the works is December 2018", says the MMPHI letter.