Majko meets mayors and district heads: Use the money, carry out the investments PAGES 2–3

Irresponsibility of the past, responsibility for the future Speaking: Secretary for Public Relations, ILIR ZELA PAGE 4

ZËRI NEWS PAGE 9

ZËRI SPECIAL PAGE 14

The port is expanding; it will also receive ships of 13,000 tons ITALIAN AMBASSADOR: VLORA IS NOT AS THE ITALIAN PRESS PORTRAYS IT PAGE 7

Two Sundays in a row with massacres PAGE 10

Investments: 69% implemented The level of completion of investments financed from domestic sources nationwide is still low, reaching 69 percent. This is an indicator drawn from the four main ministries, which absorb 80 percent of the entire budget. An additional 6 billion lekë The Albanian government and parliament have approved an additional budget for the second half of the year, amounting to 6,700 million lekë, an increase equivalent to about 65 percent of an annual budget. The main beneficiaries are the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education and Science. Seven months in: Plenty of money, little road surfacing In the field of public works and transport, Total investments have been implemented at a rate of 79.1 percent; in absolute figures, this is 138.3 million lekë, with the lowest figure recorded under the Asphalt Paving System item. Plenty of money, little work In the field of public works, funds administered by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, In this field, where investments are carried out through projects that employ citizens who receive no economic assistance or are unemployed, investment implementation has reached 65 percent, leaving 161.6 million lekë unused. Tirana, Pogradec, Elbasan, etc. are performing poorly, indeed very poorly, in this regard. 5 million dollars, the municipalities are not using them At the beginning of June, the Albanian government allocated and made available an additional fund of five million dollars to the country’s six largest municipalities, to be spent on projects selected by the municipalities themselves. But an indirect assessment we have carried out shows that even two months after the government decision was issued, despite the government’s purpose for this fund and certain other purposes, and despite its second decision allowing direct procurement to begin the work, the number of projects where work is under way is negligible. So the exact opposite of what was expected happened, perhaps because I had informed the mayors of these municipalities about the allocation of the funds. Now I expect them to give their arguments and justifications for this situation and identify the factors and responsibilities that have led to it. I want to know, because despite their initially optimistic comments, the start of work is recorded at minimal levels.

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