Rizvanolli: Trainkos wagons were also repaired in Serbia in 2017

Acting Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli has reacted after a document published by former Alliance MP Daut Haradinaj concerning the sending of wagons belonging to the public company Trainkos to Serbia for repairs in 2024.

Rizvanolli confirmed that the wagons were sent to Zrenjanin, Serbia, but stressed that this was not the first time such a practice had been carried out, as a similar case had also occurred in 2017.

According to the acting minister, the wagons were sent to Zrenjanin for the first time immediately after they were purchased, while the procedure had been initiated during the Mustafa Government. The vehicles were inaugurated after the repairs during the Haradinaj Government by the then Minister of Infrastructure, Pal Lekaj.

“The wagons were sent for repairs to Zrenjanin in Serbia for the first time in 2017, as soon as they were purchased, under a procedure initiated during the Mustafa Government and inaugurated during the Haradinaj Government by Minister Pal Lekaj,” Rizvanolli stated.

She also asked whether the Alliance had considered the matter a problem in 2017, when Pal Lekaj, in his capacity as minister, had attended the inauguration ceremony for the repaired wagons in Serbia.

The debate resurfaced after Daut Haradinaj published a Trainkos document dated November 13, 2024. The document concerns the “Medium Repair of Passenger Wagons” project and contract number 10908-24-1153-2-1-1/C175.

The document states that a Trainkos commission visited the workshop of the company “Shin Voz d.o.o.” in Zrenjanin, Serbia, on October 6, 2024. The report explains that work at the workshop began on November 7, 2024, and that the wagons were also tested following the medium repair.

The report concludes that the wagons met the required parameters and had been technically accepted. Their physical acceptance, according to the document, would take place after the wagons returned to the territory of Kosovo.

After the material was published, former security official Burim Ramadani linked the sending of the wagons to the period following the attack in Banjska and accused institutions of transferring public money to Serbia.

“After the attack in Banjska, the government does business directly in Serbia. They give Serbia a contract. They go to Serbia to renovate wagons. All this in 2024,” Ramadani wrote.