The Special Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kosovo has issued a decision to initiate investigations into the stealthy privatization of four hydropower plants along with the electricity distribution and supply network. KALLXO.com's sources within the State Prosecutor's Office have confirmed that a few moments ago, the Special Prosecutor's Office submitted to the Court of Pristina the decision to initiate investigations against eight persons involved in the sale of KEK Distribution.
The sources have clarified that six senior government officials, including 5 former ministers, three of these ministers are current members of the government, are in the decision for investigations. Investigations have also started against a KEK official and a government official involved in the implementation of the contract.
The decision to start the investigation was taken after a period of almost 2 years of the preliminary investigation phase that started after the media reports. The decision to start the investigation was made only a few days before the passive prescription of the possible criminal offense took place. The privatization of KEDS took place on May 8.
The privatization process of KEDS was led by the Privatization Committee, which was headed by the Minister of Economic Development at the time, Besim Beqaj. Mimoza Kusar-i Lila (former Minister of Trade and Industry), Dardan Gashi (Minister of Environment), Bedri Hamza (Minister of Finance), Nenad Rashiq (former Minister of Labour) were part of the steering committee.
The case of the investigation of the privatization of hydropower plants was also mentioned by the chief state prosecutor Aleksandër Lumezi in the show "Life in Kosovo". He did not give many details, but he confirmed that the Special Prosecutor's Office has started collecting information about this case after the media reports. For the first time, the research on the insidious privatization of hydropower plants was published in the newspaper "Koha Ditore".
Four hydropower plants were privatized along with the distribution and supply of electricity. Their inclusion in the tender package was kept secret, while even the ministers who made the main decisions for privatization stated that they were not informed that the sale of hydropower plants was also included in the package.
Four hydropower plants were sold together with KEDS: the Dikance hydropower plant, the Burim hydropower plant, the Radavci and Lumbardhi hydropower plants. They were granted with a concession by KEK with the aim of revitalizing them and increasing production capacities. At the time when they were leased, according to KEK, they had an installed capacity of 11 megawatts, but the concessionaires have promised that after the investments they will make, their capacity would increase to 14 megawatts. If you look at the communiqués issued by KEK, at the time of granting these hydropower plants with a concession, it turns out that 15 million euros had to be invested in them.
It was previously reported that hydropower plants were part of the asset list, but only the component parts of the hydropower plants were written. The newspaper "Life in Kosovo" has analyzed the list of assets, only the part of hydropower plants. /Kalxo/
Photo: Illustration
