Concessions and PPPs as Contingent Liabilities out of Government Balance Sheet, 2020, Albania and EU Countries

Open Data is researching contingent or potential liabilities to the State Budget arising from Contracts and Public Partnership Agreements and PPPs that the Albanian state has with third parties. Contingent Liabilities (conditioned and potential) are recognized in Public Finance as liabilities related to State Guarantees; Concessions classified outside the current government balance; liabilities of Publicly Owned Companies; Problematic Government Debts; Judicial Decisions and Arbitration.

Eurostat publishes Data on Contingent Liabilities related to PPP Concessions contigent lialibilities in percentage of National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on annual basis. This calculation and ranking is done for Member States, and Continental countries that apply the International Accounting Standard ESA 2010. Albania still applies an outdated accounting standard such as ESA95. That is why we do not have Contingent Liabilities of PPP Concessions officially calculated by the Ministry of Finances. For the same reason, PPPs and Concessions are not included in the National Accounts assessed by Our National Statistical Office, INSTAT. The lack of evaluation and calculation by this standard makes the PPP Concessions sector a sector with high potential risk for Public Finances.

The Analysis Team at Open Data Albania is recording State Contingent Liabilities related to PPP Contracts and Concessions according to the comprehensive principle that applies the ESA 2010 Standard, a principle not currently applied by the State. For the purpose of evaluation, we will identify only potential contractual obligations of PPP contracts and Concessions with Budget support, existing obligations and not those settled in previous years. In our assessment, we have not applied and summarized nominal value data related to PPP Concessions for other contingency liabilities as arbitration claims; late interest; competition penalties with competition clauses; damage by force majeure or due to supernatural condition and the like which are not yet evident or accepted. Contingent liabilities have the value of the contract from the respective year (when calculations are made) until the end of the contract duration as provided.

Compared to December 31, 2019 this indicator is decreasing. Because in 2019 it was 191 015 516 000 ALL. In 2020, during January-September, the Albanian state has paid liabilities in the amount of 7 894 749 000 ALL.

The Status of Contingent Liabilities for PPP Concessions only according to the potential contractual obligations without including other liabilities beyond the contract on September 2020 for the Albanian state is estimated in the amount of 183 120 767 000 ALL or about 1 488 786 723 Euro (1.48 billion).

Compared to December 31, 2019 this indicator is decreasing. Because in 2019 it was 191 billion ALL. In 2020, during January-September, the Albanian state has paid liabilities in the amount of 7.89 billion ALL.

If we calculate the Contingent Liability from PPP and Concessions per capita, it turns out that every resident citizen in Albania has a value of 64 344 ALL. Similarly, calculating it versus the Gross Domestic Product for 2019, Contingent Liabilities for PPP Concessions are 11.4% of GDP.

EUROSTAT publishes every year a report on the Contingent Liabilities from PPP Concessions classified off-balance against the Gross Domestic Product. Placing Albania in the EUROSTAT ranking for this Indicator, it turns out that our country is raked at a high risk position, as it has several times more in Contingent Liabilities PPP Concessions vs. its GDP compared to other countries. Albania ranks at 11.4%, and is followed by Slovakia with Liabilities of 2.42% and Portugal with 2.26% of its GDP. All other countries have PPP Contingent Liabilities up to 1.13% of their GDP showing maximum caution towards Public Finance.

For 2021, the State Budget has planned payments for PPP Concessions in the amount of 14 billion ALL. In 2022, this value becomes 15.4 billion, while for 2023, such value is already planned to be 15.3 billion ALL. Concessions and PPP with the longest duration are the PPP concession “For the construction of landfill, incinerator and rehabilitation of existing landfills Tirana” with the concession company Integrated Energy BV SPV sh.pk and the concession for the construction, improvement, use and maintenance of the highway Milot-Morina, with the concession company Albanian Highway Concession sh.p.k, with a duration and effects for about 30 years.

Contingent Liabilities PPP Concessions may have additional effects due to indirect contractual obligations and specific conditions that increase liabilities from the State Budget to PPP Concessions Companies.

Concession and PPP Contracts, in force, data, and Documents on Companies Registered for their Implementation, are published in an easily accessible and well-structured format under the OpenCorporates.al. portal, Concession Register Database. The Excel document of this article contains data and information on the basis of which the visualization is done. This document is easily downloadable and free to use. Other databases of the AIS Organization include; spending.data.al; OpenPocurement.al, and Open Corporates.al

This article was drafted and published in the framework of the “Open Data, Access and Transparency over sectors exposed to Risk of Corruption” project. The latter is financially supported by SIDA – Sweden International Development Cooperation Agency

Download excel: Concessions and PPPs as Contingent Liabilities out of Government Balance Sheet, 2020, Albania and EU Countries
Comment and Analysis: Open Corporate Albania
Translated by: Etleva Kondakçi