Lajme flash
Stamps, dialysis, sterilization, Kayo/ How the state is turning into a giant shell company
2026-08-27 18:00:00 / EKONOMI&SOCIALE
Klodian Tomorri
When the government announced the nationalization of the fiscal stamp concession, many people probably rejoiced. The vast majority of concessions in Albania, if not all, have been purely corrupt affairs, as the SPAK files attest, and returning privatized services to the public sphere seemed like a fair correction. But things could go from bad to worse.
The state that used to grant concessions is now turning into a giant shell company, doing the same thing as concessions, but more diabolically. Using nationalization as a cover.
Fiscal stamps were the first swallow of the new hybrid regime. The Albanian government set up a company called Albtrace to perform the service, which until yesterday was performed under concession by a private company called SICPA.
But Albtrace is a private-state partnership, where the state owns 51 percent of the shares through the Securities Printing House, while 49 percent is held by an Arab company called O AND S Security Solutions LLC.
Last year, Albtrace generated a total of 592 million lek or about 6.3 million euros in revenue. Of this, 480 million lek or over 5 million euros went to shareholder O AND S Security Solutions LLC, while only 1 million euros remained in Albania for paying employee salaries.
So, what happens is this. Money is taken from Albanian businesses by Albtrace, which is supposedly a state-owned company, but 80 percent of it Albtrace takes to its private shareholder in Arabia, buying everything there, from raw materials to consulting services.
In short, Albtrace is simply a bridge that transfers money to the private individual or a shell that covers the real beneficiaries of the money.
And this was only the company's first year. Now, in addition to the stamps, another monopoly has been added to it. This is the fuel marking and transit tracking service, which was previously known as the branding concession.
These two monopolies bring Albtrace's total business to over 10 million euros per year and the money will continue to flow to Arabia. This is a monopoly business built with the violence of the law.
But Albtrace was only the first swallow of the new regime. The model was soon replicated in the health sector.
The government established a joint-stock company called the Sterilization Operator, which would perform the sterilization service of surgical instruments, which until yesterday was performed by the discredited concessionaire Saniservice.
But the Operator, which has been heavily targeted by private actors, is doing practically the same thing as Albtrace. After more than a year in operation, the state operator does not even have vehicles to transport surgical instruments to the country's hospitals, but subcontracts the service. Where? To the former director of the Sterilization concessionaire, a character named Artan Lleshi.
To continue the parody of hypocrisy, the State Sterilization Operator recently transferred two other monopoly services, which until now were under concession; dialysis and check-ups. But less than a month after the government supposedly nationalized the dialysis service, the Operator opened a tender for the re-privatization of the service for 4 years. The bill that Albanians will pay for this service has increased by more than 35 percent compared to the time the private sector had it under concession.
So the Sterilization Operator is simply a shell that creates the idea of the state, but that through the back door leads the money to private individuals with questionable procedures. But the services are not enough. Now the model will also be replicated in the purchase of medicines.
Here too, the scheme will be the same. A state-owned company that will take over the monopoly of supplying Albania with medicines, but will use the shell to send the money to a private individual from Israel, who is a personal friend of the prime minister.
And if three cases aren't enough to prove that the state and its institutions are literally turning into an offshore mailbox, the fourth is even bigger. This one is called Kayo.
The Ministry of Defense Joint Stock Company is a giant shell, which practically directly privatizes the public Defense budget through its subsidiaries in partnership with private individuals. Kayo is a giant mailbox comparable to the Cayman Islands.
But this is now a systemic phenomenon. New shells are being built rapidly in every cell of the state. ADS, the digital services company, will take over the monopoly of AKSHI tenders, but there will be private ones behind it. In the case of fuel, Edi Rama has warned the same thing.
So the entire state is being transformed into a giant shell, which has two functions. To weaken budgetary discipline and to hide the real beneficiaries of public money with the beautiful tale of nationalization. The irony in all this is the fact that in the forums of the day, economic thinkers are debating the concerns of big government and nationalizations.
But this is not nationalization. This is a regime of plunder and the systematic weakening of the state to the point of eroding its foundations. For those on the left spectrum who thought even for a moment that the government was truly ending the era of predatory concessions, the only option left is to come back down to earth.
The people, with their wisdom, say that as long as there are people sitting in the kitchen, there will only be one dish on the table. The service is on.
Po ndodh...
There is no turning back for Kosovo. POINT!
Nga Red Varaku
ide
top
receta Alfa
TRENDING 
shërbime
- POLICIA129
- POLICIA RRUGORE126
- URGJENCA112
- ZJARRFIKESJA128