The investigative show titled "From Water to Concrete: Suspicions of a Million-Dollar Property Swap Scheme by the Municipality of Peja" revealed a suspicious scheme to swap a property worth nearly 2 million in the Municipality of Peja.
A decision that essentially directs this public asset towards the company Qehaja Group sh.pk, known for building multi-story apartments.
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Letter to the Reader — Why We're Asking for Your Support ContributeAnd, a property that was converted from a "water region" into "construction land" by a decision of the municipal executive, for which the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MMPHI) says that these socially owned water properties (e.g. "Waters") are under their administration and that any action or use of them is illegal.
In the decision of the Directorate for Property and Legal Affairs (DÇPJ), dated October 25, 2019, there are a total of 32 plots that have been identified as Social Property "Waters", and since the destination of the waters, they were converted into construction land.
The DÇPJ had requested a geodesy expert from the Directorate for Geodesy and Cadastre (DGKJ) to ascertain the factual situation on the ground.
Based on it, it is said that the surveyor has measured and physically divided and registered these plots, where the destination should have been changed to construction land use.
"Urban planning consents have been obtained for this division, as there are no obstacles to physical division and the creation of new plots for the purpose of regulating the road and plots according to the Urban Regulatory Plan," states the reasoning of the DÇPJ's decision.
Regarding this, the DGKJ explains that the properties have changed the "cadastral surface quality", have changed their destination and that the type of use cannot be considered "water region" or "river", but "construction land", since according to this Directorate, the property falls within the urban area of the city and as such, as stated, is "a municipal public good and must be managed by the Municipality".
"It is well known that the renewal-re-ambulatory of the cadastre was done based on the identification and actual possession of the owner, so the cadastral boundaries were determined based on the actual or real boundaries (wall, mexha, river bank, etc.) and thus the registration in the cadastral registers was done and has remained to this day," states the explanation of the DGKJ attached to the decision of the DÇPJ.
Furthermore, according to the DGKJ's explanation, the Lumbardh River had a natural configuration that included the border of the riverbed banks in the measurement. As stated in the explanation, the river at that time had an irregular flow, therefore according to them the shape was also irregular and as a result the bed space in some places was larger.
Also, the Directorate for Geodesy and Cadastre indicates that at the time of the re-ambulatory period, the river bed was over 200m wide and more than 500m long, but with the construction of protective walls, the width of the bed, according to them, has decreased to 30-40m.
"In the sixties, after the re-ambulatory, protective walls were built where the river passed through the city, which changed the configuration of the river, narrowing the riverbed and therefore the cadastral area in a regular manner, because the river no longer passed through these remaining spaces, but they remained areas covered by soil and transformed into construction land," the DGKJ explanation further states.
In documents obtained by the Oath for Justice, MMPHI had stated that socially owned water properties are under their administration and that any action or use of the properties is illegal.
On the other hand, the head of the River Basin Management Division at MMPHI, Fatlije Buza, says that the Cadastral Agency has managed to verify that the property worth nearly two million is listed as municipal property, but according to her, so far they have not been able to see the property's history.
"We found that these properties do not appear in the lists of the cadastral agency as water properties, which we were actually surprised, we were amazed because when we verified the plots, the plots are in the Lumbardh River belt of Peja. So the instruction, even if they have done this action, they need to be investigated in other ways that we do not know, we are not informed because we work with requests, if the municipality wants to do such an action or build or has an interest, those constructions are allowed only on the basis of public interests," said Buza.
When asked whether the Department of Public Works in Peja can change the purpose of the property, including it in the Development Plan, Buza says that everything is done in harmony with the ministry's plans.
And in this case, according to her, there was no request, notification or question from the Municipality of Peja.
"Everything that is done in these cases must follow the legal basis, because the municipality does not have any instructions or laws, they are all laws that come from the center. There is no legal basis to make any changes because we do not have a legal basis. If we, who are the main bearers, that is, the main owners, the government, for water, if we do not have a legal basis to do such a thing, where do they have it, where did the municipalities get that legal basis. That is, in fact, the changes they make must be made in harmony with the plans made by the ministry, regardless of spatial plans, zones, maps, they all do these things, they harmonize with these," she said.
Further, when asked whether it was possible for the Municipality of Peja to convert the property into construction land, including it in the Development Plan without the consent or decision of the Ministry of Environment, Buza replies:
"No, this is absurd because without a legal basis, it cannot be done except with a plan. A plan is not, a plan is for regulating, to do something on the basis and a plan is made based on criteria. Everything is done with criteria. Everything that is built has criteria. It describes where it affects, does it affect the environment, does it affect the air, soil, water in general, does it affect human well-being, does it affect the ecosystem, plants, does it affect the biota, or whatever, there are criteria," said the head of the River Basin Management Division at MMPHI.
Regarding the geodesy expert engaged by the Municipality, who ascertained the factual situation on the ground, the head of River Basin Management says that this action is "nonsense".
"I don't know how this was done. This is very unclear. This makes no sense. I don't know what to say. It's nonsense, it's meaningless. A geodesist can't do it, where is the legal basis? I'm saying everything is related to the legal basis," said Buza.
Journalist: Does he connect it to the factual situation? Can this be done? According to them, the factual situation does not show that it is water property, but it shows that it is construction property?
"The factual situation on the ground, if someone has a document that is not socially owned, that is a fact that it is a document, but if that document is not referred to in the document, it is saying the factual situation on the ground, the factual situation on the ground has not shown that it is socially owned. It is meaningless, nonsens", said Buza.
Asked whether the Inspectorate of this department has recorded this case, Buza says that it was an unknown case and that based on the information, there was no communication or notification between the Municipality of Peja and the Inspectorate of the MMPHI regarding the decision of the DÇPJ.
