Contractor on Albania Power Line Paid Millions to Offshore Consultancy

Though not necessarily illegal, experts warn that when money is redirected through offshore jurisdictions, the risk of corruption rises.

"In many cases, the winning companies are a facade to hide the fact that the deal to win the bid has been negotiated by the subcontractor," said Gjergji Vurmo, an expert on state capture with the Institute of Democracy and Mediation, a Tirana based think-tank.     

Contacted by email and phone, Energoinvest did not respond to questions concerning its business relationship with AL Energy Transmission LTD, or why it had paid millions of euros to a company that had only just been created and which therefore had little behind it in the way of experience in the energy sector. Kallupi, the CEO, did not respond to a request for comment.

Politics of power supply

Edi Rama inaugurating the Albania - Kosovo energy block in 2020, Photo credit: OST

With the collapse of communism in the early 1990s, Albania embarked on a tumultuous transition to a market economy, bringing higher demand for electricity. The country became a net importer, but with few high voltage lines connecting to the wider European electricity market and decades of underinvestment in the domestic grid, securing supplies became a challenge and for more than a decade power outages became the norm. 

Seeking to plug the gaps, over the past two decades Albania's electricity system operator has invested in three high-voltage electricity transmission lines. 

The line between Albania and Kosovo was particularly important, not only because of its potential to significantly increase the transmission of electricity between the two countries but as the foundation for the establishment of a joint electricity block integrated into...