FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
From the oil affair with "Bankers" to the intentional bankruptcy of "Birra Tirana", how national property was used for personal enrichment and how the state remains silent in the face of robbery in official attire...
The arrests of the leaders of the "Bankers" company by the police have reopened an old and painful wound that has continued to bleed and pus for years, but which has never been seriously addressed in the public debate: the giving of public wealth to characters and companies that have benefited from billions of euros, without returning anything in return to the state, the community or society.
National public assets are a strategic asset of a country and even in countries with wild capitalism they are not treated as ownerless goods. In the US or Britain, although the state does not directly manage natural resources, it has built laws and mechanisms that not only do not grant exclusivity to private companies, but also force these corporations to contribute to the community.
Large multinational corporations such as Rockefeller, British Petroleum or the US "Five Sisters", in addition to high taxes, have a legal obligation to contribute to community life through foundations that finance schools, hospitals and infrastructure. Countries such as Canada, Germany or France maintain state control over natural resources and contracts with private companies are strict and supervised.
Meanwhile, in Albania, since the fall of communism, public assets have been plundered by politicians, criminals and phantom companies that have been nothing more than "prestanomes" of those in power. The "Bankers" company, which took over the exploitation of the Patos-Marinza resources, has produced large quantities of oil and gas, but the community has benefited nothing. No investment, no return to the community, no social benefits.
The same story is repeated in Bulqiza with chrome. The underground wealth has been exploited by oligarchs, politicians and criminals who have killed and cut for the "gold rush", while every month victims are registered in the medieval galleries. The residents continue to live in deep poverty.
But this "soap opera" of plunder does not stop with natural resources. The food industry and former public factories were systematically destroyed. One of the most flagrant examples is the "Tirana" Brewery, once one of the largest in the Balkans.
In 2000, when Ilir Meta was prime minister, this public asset was rejected by serious European investors and given to some "local entrepreneurs" connected to power. Within a few years, the brewery was ruined. Employees left, technology was abandoned, and fiscal liabilities accumulated to catastrophic levels. In 2022, it turned out that "Birra Tirana" had not paid its employees' social security, taxes, or energy bills.
The debt was so great that the state was forced to block the activity and drive the company towards bankruptcy. Today, production has stopped, and in the background lies a plan to turn the factory land into a construction zone.
Even though, as in the case of "Bankers" or "Birra Tirana", we are dealing with massive evasion and destruction of public property, no one is punished. On the contrary, those who hold the looted properties move freely and with political support.
This is the truth of Albania: the state does not protect its assets, but gives them away on concession to the clients and friends of power. And when the day of reckoning comes, it is the citizens who pay the bill./ Pamphlet
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