Infrastructure and National Roads built through Public-Private Partnership and State Budgetary support

Open Data Albania is appraising the value of investment and budget support for Public-Private Partnership Contracts, concerning the construction of National Roads and Infrastructural Works. There are 6 concession contracts in the sector of public works – National Road Infrastructure. Five of them enjoy direct support from the State Budget and the remaining is conditioned by Guaranteed State Traffic. The Full Value of Road Infrastructure PPP Contracts, according to the 2020 Budget Draft Relation, is ALL 100.29 billion VAT included. From 2015 to April 2022, installments in the amount of ALL 19.98 billion have been made, whereas the Budgetary Payments for these 5 contracts in the coming years have been planned in the amount of ALL 80.30 billion.

Companies and Infrastructure and National Roads Public Works, built with Public-Private Partnership and State Budgetary support Concession Contracts, detailed as follows:

• For the granting of a PPP concession for the Improvement, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of the Arbri road with implementing company Gjoka 87 sh.p.k.
• For the Construction, Improvement, Operation and Maintenance of the Milot-Morina highway with the implementing company Albanian Highway Concession sh.p.k.
• For the Design-Construction-Financing and Maintenance of the Milot Balldren road segment with implementing company Bardh Konstruksion sh.p.k.
• For the Design-Construction-Financing and Maintenance of the Orikum-Dukat Yacht Harbour road axis with implementing company Rruga Llogara Orikum sh.p.k
• Building, Operating and Transfering (BOT) of the hydropower plant over river Devoll, reimbursement for the construction of replacement roads with implementing company Devoll Hydropower sh.p.k
• For the Design, Construction, Operation, Maintenance and Transfer of the Thumanë – Vorë – Kashar road axis with the implementing company G2 Infra sh.p.k

Since 2015, an amount of ALL 19.98 billion has been paid from the State Budget for the construction of roads with PPP Concessions. For 2021, according to the information filtered through Open Spending Albania, it emerges that the financial support from the State Budget for PPP Road Infrastructure is worth ALL 4.23 billion, or about 36.8% of the overall budget payments made on behalf of Concession Contracts with Budget support ( 13 such).

Source: Open Corporates.al Ministry of Finance and Economy, 2022 Draft Budget Report, Ministry of Finance and Economy, Annual Implementation Report 2021 Ministry of Finance and Economy, Macroeconomic and Fiscal Framework 2020-2022
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

As for annual predictions, an amount of about ALL 13.8 billion has been foreseen to be cover all Concession Contracts with Budget support, of which about ALL 4.1 billion will go on to pay only for National Roads construction with PPP Concession, which makes up about 30.1% of the planned Budget dedicated to PPP Concessions.

Table: Value of Investment, Contract and Budgeting for PPP Concessions in the Transport and Road Infrastructure sector, with budget support, 2015-2022, in Lek
Source: Ministry of Finance and Economy, Annual Implementation Report
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Burimi: Ministry of Finance and Economy, Annual Implementation Report
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Whereas, in relation to the total public investments, the budget support for PPP Concession Contracts for the construction of National Roads and Public Works has increased in 2020 and 2021, reaching about 3.2% of the total value of public investments.

Source: Ministry of Finance and Economy, Annual Implementation Report
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

The contract occupying the largest weight in budget payments in this sector is the Construction, Operation and Maintenance Contract of Arbri Road with implementation company Gjoka 87 sh.p.k. The purpose of this contract is the design, improve, construct and maintene the Arbri road for a period of 13 years. The state will pay during the time until its completion the full value of the contract which is ALL 40.3 billion. From 2019 to April 2022, about ALL 10.4 billion from the State Budget were paid to liquidate this concession, or about 52% of the total Budget installments made over the years for PPP concessions concerning the road transport sector. In the following years, the state has to pay another ALL 29.9 billion to said Concessionaire. In the 2022 Budget Report, in the “List of Active and Planned Concessions”, another contract value was introduced by the Government for the same concession. More specifically, the new value is of ALL 58.1 billion, about ALL 17.86 billion more than the full value of the previously declared contract. No reasons were presented in the Report as to why the value of the concession contract had incresed, compared to the previously declared amount.

Table: Value based on the Road Infrastructure PPP Contracts
Source: Ministry of Finance and Economy, Annual Implementation Report
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Another contract which takes up a significant portion of the State Budget is the PPP concession contract covering the Construction, Improvement, Operation and Maintenance of the Milot-Morinë highway, with the implementing company Albanian Highway Concession sh.p.k.

Said PPP concession contract was concluded in December 2016 and has a duration of 30 years. The full value of the contract, which includes the value of the investment, as well as Budget disbursements from the State, is of ALL 9.9 billion. Until April 2022, ALL 2.86 billion have already been liquidated in regards to this concession. The Concessionaire investment return is achieved as a result of the collection of tolls from road exploiters, as well as subsidy from the State Budget for the construction of the public works defined in the contract. Also, this contract foresees that the Contracting Authority will guarantee the realization of the income threshold from the traffic, as well as a division in the  50/50 ratio in case the latter is exceeded. About ALL 7.08 billion total still remains to be paid in installments from the State Budget.

Source: Ministry of Finance and Economy, Annual Implementation Report
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Two other contracts in this sector, which are presently in the construction phase, are the Construction of the Milot-Balldren Road Axis and the Orikum-Dukat Yacht Harbour Road Axis. Both of these contracts were approved in 2019 and have a duration of 13 years. However, the state owes the Concessionaire Bardh Konstruktion sh.p.k. about ALL 32.7 billion VAT included, and to the Concessionaire of Llogara Orikum Road Segment it owes about ALL 10.3 billion VAT included. These payments will start to be issued to the Concessionaire after they have completed 25% of the works.

Another PPP Concession Contract with budgetary support in this sector was Addendum 3 for the Construction of Substitute Roads for the Devoll Hydropower plant. Payments for this contract have ended in 2019. In total, the cost of building this infrastructure is ALL 7 billion, which has been fully financed by the State Budget.

Finally, with DCM no. 360, dated 26.05.2022, the concession contract “For the design, construction, operation, maintenance and transfer of the road axis “Thumane-Vorë-Kashar” was approved with implementing company G2 Infra sh.p.k., which has as its object the design, financing, construction, commissioning, administration, operation (including but not limited to the exclusive rights of the Concessionary Company to obtain payment from Road exploiters and the maintenance of the “Thumane -Vorë-Kashar” road segment), as well as the transfering, at the end of the Contract, to the Contracting Authority.

This contract does not have budget support, but provides a Traffic Guarantee of Euro 22.81 million if the Concessionaire fails to collect the targeted revenues in the first 8 years of operation. The investment value of the road is not defined in the signed contract. Other information regarding the cost of the road is presented in the Feasibility Study which is not published.

Based on the information present in the contract approved, the construction of the road will be carried out with funding from the Concessionaire, while in the operation phase, the same will benefit from revenues deriving from road expliters fees. In total, during the years of operation, the company will collect about Euro 1.3 billion from basic revenue. If in the first 8 years of operation the Concessionaire faces a decrease in the level of Basic Revenue coming from the road user fees, then the state will cover the deficit (otherwise called the Traffic Guarantee). For example, if the Concessionaire manages to collect less than Euro 26.85 million in the first year of operation, then the state must subsidize it with Euro 8 million. For the first eight years of operation, the state has planned a guarantee of Euro 22.81 million.

Table: Realization of the Concessionaire’s Returns for the duration of the contract (in millions of Euros)
Source: Concession/PPP contract “On the design, construction, operation, maintenance and transfer of the Thumane-Vorë-Kashar road axis, approved by DCM no. 360, dated 26.05.2022
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Source: Concession/PPP contract “On the design, construction, operation, maintenance and transfer of the Thumane-Vorë-Kashar road axis, approved by DCM no. 360, dated 26.05.2022
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

The duration of this contract is 35 years, where the first two years are the construction period, and the other 33 years are the operation and maintenance period, during which the Concessionaire will collect a tall of Euro 2.1 VAT excluded per vehicle (according to article 73.1) from road users, adjustable depending on the classification of the vehicle. Depending on said classification, vehicle taxation is also calculated based on the following class rating coefficient: Tricycle with cylinders larger than 250 cc: 0.70 Euro; Light vehicles: 1.00 Euro; Trucks, buses and other vehicles with less than 4 axles: 2.50 Euro; Trucks and other vehicles with 4 or more axles: 3.50 Euro. Starting from the second year of operation, this fee will be indexed to the rate of inflation every year.

Also, the company is allowed to use the road to generate additional income, apart from toll income (Article 78). These revenues will be divided equally between the concession company and the Contracting Authority, after the deduction of costs related to the realization of additional revenues.

Jurisdiction. As for the Jurisdiction for resolving disputes between the parties, all concession contracts are under foreign jurisdiction. Specifically, the Milot -Balldren Road Concession Contract; The Orikum-Dukat Yacht Harbor Road and the Devoll Hydropower alternative roads provide for Foreign Jurisdiction, specifically the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris. Meanwhile, the Arbri Road Concession Contract and the Milot-Morin Motorway have the jurisdiction of the International Court of Arbitration in Vienna, whereas the Thumanë-Vorë- Kashar Road Axis are, again, subject to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Arbitration in Paris.

The information present in this Article comprises official data from the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 Budget Reports, as well as the current 2021 Budget Report, as forwarded to the Assembly for approval.

Concessionary Contracts and PPPs in force, data and Documents on Companies selected for their Implementation, are published in an easily accessible and well-structured format in the OpenCorporates.al Portal, Concessionary Registry Database.

Download excel: Infrastructure and National Roads built through Public-Private Partnership and State Budgetary support
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania
Translated by: Rezarta Cushaj