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Former Minister of Health NIKOLETA KOVAÇI/Ilir Beqja, who is under investigation for sterilization concessions, was handcuffed yesterday. The arrest was carried out on the order of the Special Prosecutor’s Office and was also approved by the GJKKO.
Along with him, two of his accomplices have been arrested, while four others who came forward in the investigation into the misuse of EU funds will be investigated under softer security measures. Of the seven arrest warrants issued by SPAK, only one has not yet been executed and the arrested person is expected to appear in court the next day to be informed of the measures.
As former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj has been under investigation for some time for the abuse of preferential policies in health. But among the large files in the hands of the arrested former minister there are also allegations of misuse of SASPAC funds, an institution that has been headed by Beqaj since its creation. Yesterday, a few hours after the arrest, the Special Prosecutor’s Office published data on the schemes that misused these funds, which belong to the European Union, while other irregularities were also discovered during the investigation, constituting specific charges against the former government minister. “.
The allegations found in the investigation materials include corruption, violations of tender equality and concealment or non-declaration of assets or private interests, which, according to SPAK, are related to some procurement procedures carried out by the State Agency for Strategic Planning and Assistance Coordination (SASPAC).
Bekagi and colleagues
According to SPAK data, Ilir Beqaj, former Minister of Health and former Director of the State Strategic Planning and Aid Coordination Agency (SASPAC), was arrested yesterday on charges of misusing EU funds. In the official SPAK notice of Beqaj’s arrest, it was stated that he was suspected of collaborating with Ermal Kurtulaj in the implementation of false procurement procedures in his capacity as General Manager of SASPAC in 2022-2023, and Ermal Kurtulaj was arrested together with Alfred Nikollaj. Two others are under house arrest for investigation, and another two were forced to appear in court.
SPAK exposed this abuse and proved that the procedures for the procurement of 8 services for the organization of the FESTA conference (Future of Sustainable Environmental Tourism in Albania) and the “Energy Conference” organized in 2023 were completely fictitious and the winners were defaulted. The documents show that the “Festa” conference, which took place from April 3 to 5, 2023, showed that the company managed by the suspect Gazment Haxhia had signed a contract and paid two invoices to the administrative director Alfred Nikolli.
The first invoice was issued by an agency run by Ilir Beqaj for 125,000.00 euros, and the second invoice was issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment for 38,509,550 leks (equivalent to 380,000 euros). Thus, the total of the two invoices is close to 500,000 euros. Meanwhile, according to SPAK, the only service provided by this commercial company for the event was the organization of a dinner at the Gzona restaurant, which was worth 4.1 million leks, and whose actual owner is Ilir Beqaj.
SPAK clarifies facts
The Special Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption and Organized Crime primarily registered Criminal Case No. 190 of 2023. The investigation in this criminal case was conducted in cooperation with the agencies of the National Bureau of Investigation (BKH).
Through the analysis of the evidence collected in this phase of the investigation, it was found that:
1. The respondent Ilir Beqaj, in his capacity as General Manager of SASPAC, worked with the respondent Ermal Kurtulaj as the orderer and on May 26, 2022, the respondent Ilir Beqaj himself was appointed as the coordinator of the “facility” of the “office point” of the EUSAIR project of SASPAC in the period 2022-2023, allegedly carried out false procurement procedures in violation of the “PRAG” rules as defined in the Rules for the Implementation of Financial Regulation, applicable to all foreign aid contracts of the European Union financed from the general budget of the European Union and the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) and subject to enforcement pursuant to Article 5, paragraph “c” of Law No. 37/2015 “On the approval of the Framework Agreement between the Republic of Albania represented by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania and the European Commission on the implementation of the rules for the implementation of EU financial support to Albania within the scope of the pre-accession instrument (IPA II)”.
At least eight services were procured in the event: “Regarding the organization of the FESTA conference (Future of Sustainable Environmental Tourism in Albania) and the organization of the “Energy Conference” in 2023, the regular procurement procedures have not been followed, but the winning bidders have been agreed and determined long before the execution of the procurement procedures, which were fictitious afterwards for documentation and payment purposes.
These tenders were drawn up through a competitive negotiation procedure or simple procurement, and these tenders were conducted by the respondent Ilir Beqaj in his capacity as General Manager, since the agreement to provide the specified services, the General Manager has signed the invitation letter sent to the subjects to submit quotations according to the type of procurement, the order to establish a committee to evaluate the quotations, the letter sent to the winner after the evaluation, until the conclusion of the contract, these documents were drawn up, completed and signed after a period of time after the contract was signed and executed.
In connection with these service contracts, the following are drawn up:
First: the services procured “Organization of the conference “The Future of Sustainable Environmental Tourism in Albania FESTA Technical Assistance IPA CBC, Adrion Project” for April 3-5, 2023” valued at 125,000 EUR, the same services procured from the Albanian Ministry of Tourism and Environment for the same event “Festa” (valued at 38,509,550 USD), contracted by the same commercial company called “L…International” with the partner and administrator, the respondent Gazment Haxhia and the executive director, the respondent Alfred Nikollaj. The only service provided by the commercial company in this event was the organization of the dinner, which was organized by the commercial company “A…. F…. and H…. Lab” sh.pk, at the restaurant called “Gzona”, valued at 4,189,000 ALL.
Secondly: the respondent provided the services itself (at a much lower cost) by procuring services from other legal entities “NS Int” sh.pk, including the respondent Elton Marini and the respondent Bjona Zijaj’s partner and administrator for the purpose of material benefit;
Third: the commercial company contracted with the organization of the event provided irregular benefits in the form of purchasing services at the “Gzona” restaurant, or provided them through other natural persons in the form of payments, with the aim of ultimately obtaining government funding for the persons under investigation, Ilir Beqaj and Ermal Kurtulaj.
Fourth: In the case of the procurement of services with a value of less than 2,500 euros for the projects monitored by SASPAC, which, according to the “PRAG” rules, can only be realized by accepting invoices, thus making them direct purchasers of services for catering purposes, they took actions to hide the direct beneficiaries. They charged other natural persons with the same purpose of activity for this service, when it was provided by the “Gzona” restaurant. These actions were taken to conceal the links between the investigated persons Ilir Beqaj and Ermal Kurtulaj and the “Gzona” restaurant.
Ilir Bekaji
2. The person under investigation, Ilir Beqaj, is suspected of making a false declaration of his wealth from 2020, as he concealed his financial interests in the restaurant “Gzona” with an address near the Tirana Castle from its creation to the present day. Although his wife was a 15% legal partner in the company until 2020, and then donated her shares to another partner, the partner was actually the person under investigation, Ilir Beqaj, who also continued to be a partner in the company during his tenure as leader of SASPAC. The person under investigation, Ilir Beqaj, is suspected of having invested in the company in 2019 at least 21,411 euros and 4,666,110 ALL in the form of equipment (assets) purchases and 34,783 euros in the form of rental and other expenses, but not declaring them as loans to the society. He exercised his property interest in the restaurant through the investigated person Ermal Kurtulaj, who had been employed by the restaurant since its creation but was not declared as an employee by the tax authorities. The investigated person Ilir Beqaj also hid movable property, a vehicle with license plates AB…DE, purchased on September 6, 2019 in the name of the investigated person Ermal Kurtulaj. After conducting several investigative actions and evidence management, the Special Prosecutor’s Office has requested the Special Court of First Instance for Corruption and Organized Crime to designate personal security measures for the persons targeted during the investigation. Framework of this procedure.
According to the court’s fees
The Special Court of First Instance for Corruption and Organized Crime, rendered ruling No. 11. Decision No. 65 of July 3, 2024, decided to impose on the three persons under investigation compulsory personal security measures provided for in Article 238 of the Criminal Procedure Code, namely “arrest”; Article 237 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides for the implementation of the “house arrest” security measure for the two persons under investigation; and the insurance measure of “compulsory appearance before the judicial police” provided for in Article 234 of the Criminal Code for the other two persons under investigation suspected of committing the criminal offense of “passive corruption of senior state officials”, which was implemented in cooperation with Articles 260 and 25 of the Criminal Code, “active corruption of senior public officials”, Article 245 of the Criminal Code, “refusal to declare, non-declaration, concealment or false declaration of assets, private interests of elected officials”, Article 257/a/2 of the Criminal Code, and collusion in “fraud” by “individuals and public servants or any other person who are legally obliged to declare” and caused Article 143/2/3 of the Criminal Code. Serious consequences under Article 258/2 of the Criminal Code, as well as “violation of equality of participants in public tenders or auctions”, are carried out in cooperation under Article 258/2 and Article 25 of the Criminal Code.
Officers of the National Investigation Agency and the National Police General Directorate have so far taken six measures for the personal safety of the persons under investigation, while actions are being taken to implement the measures taken for other persons under investigation. During the investigation, several apartments and an office of a commercial company were checked, and documents and notebooks, funds of approximately 47,000 euros and 700,000 ALL, telephones related to the investigation, etc. were seized. The investigation continues with the collection and provision of evidence against other persons involved in these actions and other criminal facts related to the inspection carried out on December 28, 2023.
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