She stressed that a $118 million loan from the Abu Dhabi Fund, which the government sent to Parliament for ratification in March 2025, will finance a contract that, according to her, will be awarded without a tender and without transparency to “Presight Al Ltd”, a company linked to the G42 group.

The Democratic Party says the value of the project reaches around $140 million including VAT and that the costs have been artificially inflated by up to $80 million, especially in the software and maintenance components.

“Instead of this money being invested in the urgent needs of Albanian citizens, it will be used to finance a giant contract that will be awarded without a tender, without competition and without transparency to Presight Al Ltd, linked to the G42 group from Abu Dhabi.

The real value of the contract reaches around $140 million including VAT, while the cost analysis raises serious suspicions that the project has been artificially inflated by up to $80 million,” Vangjeli said.

According to the loan documents, the project is divided into $31.13 million for software licenses, $62.4 million for hardware and infrastructure, $7.84 million for professional services and $17.13 million for four years of maintenance.

According to these figures, more than $48 million is being spent on software and maintenance alone, not including physical equipment such as cameras and monitoring systems.

“The project provides for the installation of 8,657 monitoring devices, including ANPR cameras, PTZ cameras and body cameras for the State Police. However, the average cost comes to around $13,688 per device without interest and nearly $15,878 per device with calculated interest, levels that raise serious questions about the reasonableness of the spending,” she added.

FULL STATEMENT:

Statement by the Democratic Party’s anti-corruption spokesperson, Genta Vangjeli:

In March 2025, the government sent to Parliament for ratification a $118 million loan from the Abu Dhabi Fund, with a 15-year repayment term and 4 percent annual interest.

Instead of this money being invested in the urgent needs of Albanian citizens, it will be used to finance a giant contract that will be awarded without a tender, without competition and without transparency to Presight Al Ltd, linked to the G42 group from Abu Dhabi.

The real value of the contract reaches around $140 million including VAT, while the cost analysis raises serious suspicions that the project has been artificially inflated by up to $80 million.

According to the official loan documents, the project is divided into:

$31.13 million for software licenses;

$62.4 million for hardware and infrastructure;

$7.84 million for professional services;

$17.13 million for four years of maintenance.

This means that more than $48 million is being spent on software and maintenance alone, not including the cameras and physical equipment.

The project provides for the installation of 8,657 monitoring devices, including ANPR cameras, PTZ cameras and body cameras for the State Police.

However, the average cost comes to around $13,688 per device without interest and nearly $15,878 per device with calculated interest, levels that raise serious questions about the reasonableness of the spending.

Comparisons with public market prices for modern video-monitoring systems show that the software and maintenance item alone is around seven times higher than international benchmarks for similar systems. The unjustified difference amounts to more than $41 million in this component alone.

According to data from international companies specializing in security and monitoring technologies, a similar system for Albania, with a population of around 2.4 million inhabitants, would cost between $50 million and $90 million, far less than the $118.5 million in the proposed contract.

But the concern is not only related to the costs.

The ‘Smart City / Safe Nation’ project aims to establish an advanced monitoring infrastructure with cameras, artificial intelligence and a centralized control center.

In the absence of transparency over how the system will be used, data storage, access to information, independent auditing and guarantees for privacy protection, serious concerns arise over the establishment of a mechanism for the mass surveillance of citizens.

Albanians have the right to know why they are taking on a new $118 million debt to finance a contract awarded without competition and without bidding, while experts estimate that the same technology could be secured for tens of millions of dollars less.

Without transparency, without a tender and without the publication of the real costs, this project remains under the shadow of suspicions of misuse of public funds, favoritism toward selected companies and infringement of citizens’ fundamental freedoms.

We demand the immediate publication of the full detailed cost estimate, an independent international audit of the costs and clear legal guarantees for the protection of every Albanian citizen’s personal data.

No government can take on hundreds of millions of dollars in debt in the name of Albanians and spend it without competition, without accountability and without transparency.

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