This year, the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, headed by Edona Bilal, for the first time developed the granting of grants for all new innovative projects, individuals, businesses, but not only.
Journalists of the investigative show “Piranja” have followed some of the flagrant cases of granting these grants based on preferences and in pure conflict of interest.
The investigative show examined the case of a family (father, son and daughter) who benefited over 50 million ALL or the flagrant case of benefiting from a start-up grant by the son of the director of the AFZ.
While other scandalous cases are published in this investigation, some of them have nothing to do with innovation, a basic condition for granting a grant, such as the case of a young man who benefited from 11 million ALL for publishing videos from the tourist attractions of the north. A passion that thousands of young people of this country have.
What are “start-up(s)”
Based on Article 3, point d) of this law, “Startup” are individuals and natural or legal persons registered in the commercial register of the Republic of Albania, who, referring to the object of their activity, were conceived, created and operate with the aim of launching of the realization and development of an innovative and/or special technological business model, product and service, with potential for rapid growth, applicable in practice, for the significant improvement of existing business models, products and services.
Initially, the Ministry of Entrepreneurship opened the announcement on the official website for support with grants for individuals, natural and legal persons, including academia, municipalities, secondary and professional education, incubators and accelerators, workspaces. According to the announcement, the Project-proposals presented will be realized within the 2022 budget year and that the call for startups and facilitators would remain open from MAY 16, 2022 – JUNE 5, 2022.
Abuse of beneficiaries
As the ministry announced, about 400 businesses, individuals, non-profit organizations, municipalities, academies presented their projects for the benefit of start-up grants and after the evaluation on 13.7.2022, the winners were announced.
All applications were reviewed by the Evaluation Committee, which would consist of the Ministry of Entrepreneurship itself, Mrs. Edona Bilali and four members (one member is appointed by the Minister of Entrepreneurship, one member is appointed by the minister responsible for youth and children, an expert from system of ecosystems and start-ups, for which a competition would then be opened, as well as a member from the Albanian American Development Fund – AADF)
CASE 1
In the list of grant beneficiaries, there are two non-profit organizations, “Protik Center”, which has
benefited 3 million new ALL and the “Junior Achievement of Albania” center, which benefited more than 58 million old ALL.
A simple observation shows that these two NGOs were created with the support of the Albanian-American Development Fund and are partners with it, that is, with the support of one of the members of the commission.
Meanwhile, the two co-directors of AADF, Martin Mata and Aleksandër Sarapuli, are also board members at the Protik center.
The Albanian-American Fund for Development was asked about the relationship with “AADF” and “Protik”, if there is a conflict of interest and are we in the conditions of an unfair competition?
In the reply AADF clarifies that the Protik Center was established in 2012 thanks to the multilateral cooperation of the government of Albania, AADF, USAID and Microsoft, with the aim of promoting technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.
AADF even claims that it is a grantee for the Protik center, with “Projection SDA by Protik”.
AADF in the exhaustive response affirms that it has appointed a member to the evaluation commission, at the request of the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, but in the meantime, despite vkm 313/2022, AADF is not involved in any aspect in the schemes of support and development of start-ups, as are an exclusive initiative of the Albanian government and that the AADF employee does not represent any interest of the fund, but has personal responsibility.
What is not understood is how the representative of AADF can have personal responsibility, when he is part of the evaluation commission in the ministry of enterprise, just because he is part of AADF and a representative of the fund?
Not only that, but the AADF further clarifies that Mr. Sarapuli and Mr. Mata, the two co-directors of the fund, have no conflict of interest as they are members of the board of directors of “Protik”.
What we don’t understand is how you can evaluate the project of an NGO that you created in collaboration with other actors, while the leaders of AADG are simultaneously board members of the Protik center that has turned out to be a winner? In this case, can you evaluate your co-worker honestly and objectively among many others?
In relation to this conflict of interest, the Protik Center itself was asked about the project they applied for, the stage of the project and whether they have in the composition of the management board members who are part of other boards.
The Protik Centre, in the reply, clarifies that it applied and won the “TechLab by Protik” project, for which it also signed a contract with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship.
“Protik” also clarifies that it is a non-profit organization and as such the members of the board of directors give their contribution without any remuneration, and that “Protik” is not aware of all the commitments and contributions they make to other boards.
CASE 2
One of the companies that has benefited from public money is that of Fladi i Agolli, administrator of HMS sh.pk, which has benefited from new 4,580,000 lek funds.
The problem is that Flladi Agolli, who has benefited from public money, is the son of Dritan Agolli, the Director of the Albanian Development Fund.
Asked by journalists, Flladi Agolli refuses to give explanations and say if there is a conflict of interest. He briefly says that “you can get information from the Ministry”, hanging up.
CASE 3
Specifically “Skytech” and “3DSKY”.
In the SkyTech entity, Altin Bamllari is the administrator and Arbi Bamllari, Altin’s son, is the partner. This subject has benefited from a grant of about 50 million ALL.
Meanwhile, 3DSKY is a subject where the administrator is Arbi Bamllari and his sister and they have benefited from a grant of about 30 million lek. Both of these subjects have the same address, an apartment in the center of Tirana. Meanwhile, Arbi Bamllari, the talented son in technology, is a partner in both winning companies.
According to VKM 312 of DATE 11.5.2022, the primary and secondary data in the register of start-ups, among others, also includes the data of the commercial register, the identification number of the subject. How is it possible that the evaluation committee has not managed to identify entities that have the same address, and the beneficiaries are the same people?
CASE 4
But let’s return once again to the meaning of start-ups, which the Ministry of Entrepreneurship itself explains to us. Edona Bilali in an interview with the media claims that not every new business is a start-up, if it does not include innovation and multiplication. Former minister Eduard Shalsi also learns from this, who declares in the media that start up means innovation and technology. But if we look at the winning list, we notice projects that have nothing to do with the start-up concept alone.
The case is of the son Terenc Pepa, who has opened a website with views of the beauties of northern Albania, but also information about businesses and hotels. We don’t know what a website that looks like a personal blog has to do with a start up? But this is not the only strange case. Ms. Meliha has received a start-up grant to buy a machine that would multiply her work with silkworms, a craft activity, but it does not include any element of innovation and start-up concept.
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