Interview : Auditor Reveals Kosovo’s Misspent Millions July 15 - 28, 2011 Issue No. 68 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1 NEWS Opposition Heatwave Set to Ponders Continue in Kosovo into Next Week Surroi for > page 3 NEWS Kosovo EULEX Asked Limaj President to Resign and Face War Crimes Trial The LDK and Surroi have > page 6 moved closer to one another since Isa NEIGHBOURHOOD Mustafa took over the Macedonia Pulls party in 2010. Plug on Opposition Media See Page 3 KEK Signed Deal with > page 11 CULTURE ‘Illegal’ Supplier Prizren Film Festival Comes of Age at Ten State power company signed deals for 1.7 million euro with a Serbian firm after learning that it was not authorised to supply the contracted parts, Prishtina Insight can reveal. > page 12-13 Titan, the German company duced by Caterpillar, Hitachi-Fiat Prishtina Insight has seen. By Petrit Collaku that Solar-Ortex Uro claimed and Liebherr. Despite this, the KEK in March FEATURE could supply the required branded Ortex Uro also appeared to have awarded three contracts to its Forgotten osovo’s public electricity goods, also wrote to KEK urging it the rights to supply Titan products partners Solar-Ortex Uro, worth supplier, KEK, in March to drop the deal, days before it was in Serbia though not in Kosovo. 1.7 million euro over three years. Albanians Ksigned a series of contracts signed. In response to a request for clar- Following the decision, the offi- for almost 2 million euro for The KEK had asked all firms ification from the KEK, Titan then cial distributors of Caterpillar, Power Their branded mechanical parts from a bidding for the contracts to pro- wrote that although it provided Hitachi-Fiat and Liebherr prod- firm that it knew had no right to vide written proof testifying that goods to Caterpillar, Hitachi-Fiat ucts in Kosovo, SMH Kosova, Own Future sell the products. they were authorised to sell and and Liebherr, it was unable to sup- Teknoxgroup Kosovo and The energy corporation award- service these specific parts as part ply or service parts on their Kombinimi, complained. > page 15 ed three contracts to the Kosovo- of the tender process. behalf. The three firms wrote to Serbia consortium Solar-Ortex The letter provided in the name “Titan cannot provide any such Kosovo’s tender appeals body, the Uro to supply KEK with of Ortex Uro, which is based in authorisation or contract with the Procurement Review Board, Caterpillar, Hitachi-Fiat and Krusevac in Serbia, came from manufacturers of machines OSHP, providing it with letters Liebherr parts. Titan. because we are not their dealers from the three multinational com- Kosovo’s only English-language But each of these firms wrote to This authorised Ortex Uro to and we do not sell spare parts on panies proving that they had newspaper is available: KEK, warning that Solar-Ortex supply the KEK with ITM branded behalf of the above mentioned exclusive deals for Kosovo. Uro was not authorized to sell its parts, which are produced by manufacturers,” Titan wrote to Delivered to products. Titan and used in equipment pro- KEK in February in an email that continues page 2 Your Door Juries Still Out On KEK: Fukashima Revives From Newsstands Serbia-Kosovo Deal Kosovo’s Lignite Plans across Kosovo On Saturday, July 2, the EU-led negotia- Kosovo Energy Corporation, KEK, Sent To tions between Belgrade and Prishtina believes that the fall-out from Japan’s Your Inbox made their first breakthrough with a nuclear disaster could reopen its bid to series of agreements on quality-of-life position Kosovo as a major exporter of lig- issues such as freedom of movement. nite-powered electricity. From The deal, a product of five months of Plans to build a 2000 MW power plant our partners negotiations... and privatise the... email [email protected] analisys page 4 business pages 7 for more information is supported by: 2 July 15 - 28, 2011 news KEK Signed Deal with ‘Illegal’ Supplier from page 1 former authorisation by your side, December 2010, which KEK had KEK. whether they’d issued authoriza- we will immediately undertake then cancelled for lack of “respon- “Whenever there is a need to tion [to Ortex Uro],” Viktor Prishtina Insight has obtained legal action,” Titan added. sive bidders” - a fact questioned by install electronic devices and soft- Buzhala, KEK’s spokesperson, told copies of each letter under The letter was sent to key indi- the complaining companies that ware, the winning company will Prishtina Insight. Freedom of Information legisla- viduals in KEK, including the had submitted offers. not be able to perform this opera- Buzhala said that Titan had tion. head of procurement. Maloku said he feared that the tion,” he said. responded after two days, stating Liebherr wrote in its letter to In an accompanying email, the consortium had then gained they had indeed issued the autho- KEK: “Liebherr Export AG togeth- Titan official wrote: “Gentlemen! access to the other bidding compa- KEK stands firm: risation to Ortex Uro for the pur- er with N.T.SH. SMH Kosova, will Please take notice of the enclosed nies’ information and had used poses of the bid. by all legal means protect our letter referring to the above men- this to undercut their offers. The KEK is standing by the con- “The withdrawal came very late, brand name Liebherr and our tioned tender!” “It is impossible that this com- tracts. It says it awarded the deals after we’d already announced the products in Kosovo if any other However, the KEK went ahead pany can supply the original parts to Solar Ortex Uro because they winner and after we had the deci- company is using our Liebherr and signed the final contract with to KEK, especially the Liebherr offered the lowest price and met sion from OSHP to proceed,” brand name and our products.” Solar-Ortex Uro. parts, because they are not the the technical and administrative Buzhala said. But the OSHP rejected their Beka Maloku, owner of SMH manufacturers or dealers for such criteria. “We don’t care where the compa- appeals, maintaining that the KEK Kosova, told Prishtina Insight that equipment,” he said of Solar “The evaluating commission ny will get the original spare parts had a right to award the contracts Solar Ortex Uro had not entered Ortex Uro. wrote directly to Titan, asking from,” he added. to whichever firm provided the the first tender in “Liebherr in Germany is now But the spokesman necessary authorization doc- aware of what we added that if Ortex Uro uments and face in Kosovo, in the did not respect the con- offered the sense of doing busi- tract, KEK would confis- lowest price. ness in Kosovo,” cate the bank guarantee After the Maloku added. that the firm had provid- losing com- Prishtina Insight ed. panies con- asked Solar, the “They will be on the tacted Titan, Prishtina-based black list and will never Titan sent a firm that was part of get any more tenders letter to the winning bid, to from us [if they do not Ortex Uro, explain how they supply the parts],” copied to the could supply the Buzhala said. KEK, shortly KEK with the In the meantime, he before the required goods now said the KEK could not final contract that Titan had sus- withdraw now from the was signed in pended cooperation. contract, as OSHP, the May. In an email sent highest authority on In the letter, to our newspaper, questions relating to which this Solar’s owner, tenders, had told them newspaper has Bekim Pireva, said not to cancel it. obtained, Titan only: “Our partner, “The unsatisfied said it was Ortex Uro Group, parties can appeal to immediately has the authorisa- the Supreme Court,” withdrawing tion and all neces- he added. “The OSHP authorization for sary documents.” decision is a manda- Ortex Uro to rep- Gani Shasivari, tory decision for us resent it in any owner of [to follow]”. public tender in Teknoxgroup, SMH Kosova filed Serbia. maintains that an appeal at the “If we receive Solar Ortex-Uro Supreme Court on notice about con- will not be able sup- June 10. tinuous use of our ply the goods to Fake Slurs Fuel Albania-Romania Tensions Fabricated anti-Albanian diatribe attributed to Romania's President creates tension between Bucharest and Tirana. tions in Albania and Kosovo on Tuesday The Romanian President's office has quoted an Italian press agency as saying declined to comment on this issue. that President Basescu had said he would Later, the Albanian media withdrew By Marian Chiriac never recognize Kosovo because “the the report, saying a Serbian hacker had Albanians are shit, like Gypsies”. broken into the Italian press agency’s Romania is one of five EU states that website and published the fake quotes. have refused to recognise the independ- Relations between Romania and Kosovo omania has voiced discontent over ence of Kosovo, procaimed in 2008. are already at a low level. Bucharest, a Albania's decision to summon its The President's alleged words circulat- diplomatic ally to Serbia, remains firmly Rambassador to Tirana for question- ed in the media across Albania and opposed to recognising the independence ing, following Albanian media reports that Kosovo, prompting hundreds of enraged of the breakaway Serbian province. wrongly attributed offensive statements people to post comments. Formally, Bucharest rests its case on about Albanians to President Traian Prishtina Insight sourced the original international law. In practice, Romania Basescu. report to JulieNews.it web site, which fears that recogntion of Kosovo's inde- “This behaviour is unusual, as an published a report from a person called pendence will encourage separatism in ambassador doesn’t have to offer explana- Costel Antonescu on behalf of Romanian general - a concern for Romania.