Mafia accusations
By Enion BRAÇE Accusing an Albanian official of corruption has long since become “bread and cheese.” And this not so much because of food poverty as because of a crisis-level shortage of the few crumbs of morality that make a life—honesty. But when honesty clearly appears as an antikor[b?], there comes a moment when you are compelled to say: “Get out of here, ..., nothing gets done here.” Nevertheless, the “big accused,” the new deputy prime minister Ilir Meta, said that he had never thought this in any way. He added that this country would be made so because this “is not an individual will, but the will of an entire people, of all honest Albanians, who are unfortunately paying the consequences of this mafia established over these 8 years.” And do you know what this mafia is trying to do now? Import cancer-causing carriages from the Apennines for Albanian passengers. In fact, the way for this has already been paved and it did not wait for the holes to be filled for reasons [?], following the successful initiative of the ministry involved in the scandal. In ’92 the Albanian government bought 63 cancer-causing carriages, still in exclusive use today. In the sales contract, the buyer (the Albanians) declares that it knew the carriages were sprayed with asbestos, meaning they were carcinogenic. For 6 years, 1,500 students from Durrës have travelled back and forth every day along the 40 km Tirana–Durrës route, receiving carcinogenic radiation. Now the mafia wants to continue, buying still more carriages. It is the duty of every responsible government official to put an end to this deadly trafficking. Meanwhile, as I said above, the mafia wants to continue its activity. This is for the simple reason that the trafficking of funds continues in parallel, with their designated purpose being changed from that originally set by the state budget. The two most senior managers of the Albanian Railways accused the Ministry yesterday of cancelling all tenders for the purchase of railway carriages. They suspect that even the 250 thousand dollars allocated for the carriage tender no longer exist. According to them, the funds may have been diverted, as happened with the sleepers fund. So, when there is no money, what is Mr Meta going to bring? What does the deputy prime minister have to do with this? The reason for his involvement is quite simple. He chairs an anti-corruption commission, which has begun making the first servants of the thieves in the public administration. But what has caused the greatest stir is an inspection by the National Procurement Agency at the Ministry of Transport and Public Works into the direct procurements made here over recent months. Serious violations are being discussed preliminarily. The inspection has only been under way for a week and a half. After this, the reaction of the mafia’s “honest” people is understandable. They are trying to protect the money.