Speech delivered by Prime Minister Edi Rama at Parliament’s plenary session on draft law on the building control discipline:

This is an important piece of legislation and it contains a series of necessary elements that were missing in the existing legal framework. But, in addition to this law, what I would like to underline is the need to complete this legal basis also as a reflection following the November 26 tragedy and by this I mean those who not long ago used to block, even inside this very hall, what indeed should have enforced long time ago, that is the application of the criminal responsibility for the entire construction chain, which means putting an end to any opportunity for anybody to wash hands of responsibility after making money by adding illicit construction volumes in violation of construction permits.

This is indeed the most heinous and most dangerous phenomenon accompanying Albania over the past 30 years in terms of the building safety, the quality of urban space and certainly in terms of the ugliness that has characterised the subsequent degradation of the process extending from the issuance of the construction permit to its implementation. So true is it that if we were to examine the approved projects and the implemented projects, the result would be two completely different worlds.

I assure you all that a large part of the buildings in Tirana, and certainly in other cities too, have nothing to do with the approved construction permits, not only in terms of quality, but also in terms of volume and shape. Should all the projects approved by the local government authorities in all municipalities were properly implemented, then today, 30 years later, we would have had much more qualitative cities in terms of urban planning and architecture.

What has historically happened and what has brought about the unacceptable situation with hundreds of thousands families being denied the opportunity to own their properties after having paid the last penny to purchase them from builders is indeed a violation of the entire construction permit with illicit additions. It is actually an intolerable number of cases that begins with the approval of the construction permit and the structure turns out then to be a giant building that violates the law.

Why didn’t control over the legal constructions has not worked out at the start of work to construction these illegal additions?

Control has not worked out because it can’t really work according to the system that has been fiercely defended by people in this very hall for decades. It has been a battle waged by me in the early years of my term in office as the Mayor of Tirana and has been constantly lost starting with the initiative to impose stiffer penalties on every builder for each illicit addition, an initiative which in the then Parliament turned out to be an incentive to build more, because a 100% to 150% fine rate I had proposed to impose respectively on the illegal additions to dwellings and businesses was indeed cut to four and eight percent respectively by this Parliament.

Now, imagine it. It is quite simple! The reduced 4 percent fine was indeed a kind of an incentive to build illegal additions, because no builder would mind to pay such fines.

The building control discipline will not work out if no direct criminal responsibility is applied to the entire chain of builders and the construction industry, which means it will be no longer acceptable for architects just to hand over the design and just leave. Architects are responsible for implementation of the entire project and they should sign when project completes to certify that the structure has been built according to the original design that have submitted to local authorities. Builders cannot be absolved of responsibility if, after obtaining permission for a 5-storey building from the municipality, the developer tells builder to construct an 8-storey building. It is impossible!

Supervisors and inspectors will no longer be able to supervise and certify new buildings without reporting first whether the building includes illicit additions that violate the construction permit. It is totally illegal even a criminal offence when families pay to their last penny in buying an apartment, yet no property ownership is issued to them as nothing is put up as collateral. They move to new house, or buy business premises, but they can’t obtain the property ownership, because they face a single hurdle which has yet to be passed by corruption and that is the final signature by the municipality for the exploitation permit. All municipal specialists are very prudent when it comes to issuing the exploitation permit as they may face imprisonment if they issue such a permit to a building that fails to meet the construction permit requirements. Because, what actually took place in Durres, despite what has been said and is being said as part of a frenzy media and political propaganda, it is entirely a story about buildings belonging to the category I am talking about. No buildings that have respected the construction permit requirements have collapsed, or sustained structural damages. The buildings that collapsed killing people are the ones that have failed to meet such requirements.

It is impossible to escape responsibility this system that has brought the state to its knees whenever the state has sought to take actions, because developers have bluntly violated the requirements of the construction permit and whenever inspectors have decided to demolish their buildings they have referred the case to the court and with the court’s help they have actually succeeded in bringing the state to its knees by illegally obtaining also the legalization permit for the illicit additions. I am talking about a typical example about an apartment building few meters away from the Tirana Police Directorate building, where a four-storey addition has been built, and a legal battle between the State Police, the Construction Inspectorate and the developer took place, with the State Police and the Inspectorate being humiliated at the courtroom and the developer scoffing at the state.

Therefore, with approval of this law, we should also pass the new amendments to the Criminal Procedures Code that hold directly responsible the entire chain in order to make it clear to every architect that when a developer violates his or her design, he should no longer cooperate with the developer and report the case to the relevant state bodies as it is supposed to happen in every country around the world. Of course, it is unimaginable that such things can happen in Germany of France. In the meantime, the builder will also assume the role of the certifier and supervisor, along with the developer.

It is impossible to task judges with deciding whether a building or an illicit addition is a dangerous one. No matter whether it is risky or not risky, building an illicit addition is a violation of the law as it primary violates the legal certainty of the property of the buyers, and, secondly, it generates illegal economic and financial proceedings at the citizens’ expense. Therefore, this aspect is necessary to complete this legal framework and it ultimately ensure that the system doesn’t protect the developer, who builds illegal additions in violation of the legal permit requirements. There can be no half legal and half illegal buildings. If you obtain a construction permit to construct a five-story building, but instead you build a six-storey one, then the whole building is considered an illegal construction. It is impossible to demolish the six floor only as it would cost the state a lot, in terms of economic cost, engineering solutions and time, while the builder escapes unscathed. Even in the case when this presumably can take place, the whole story of cases handled by the court has shown that this is impossible to happen, because the so-called KÇK group has not allowed it to happen. Quite the contrary. The KÇK group has brought the state to its knees and has favoured builders. That’s why it is indispensable to stipulate it as not an appealable subject by law so that any additions built by developers and builders to maximise profits – I am talking about apartment buildings and not about private homes in the rural areas – should be either demolished or sequestered for social purposes. It can no longer be a property owned by those who have built it. Only by ending this cycle we will make sure buildings that meet all law requirements and urban planning and construction standards are built in Albania.

To this Parliament’s disappointment, all three-decade long efforts to pass laws on urban planning, territorial development and control were wasted! All efforts made by this state over the past three decades to put the territory under control were wasted, when, at the end of the day, those who pose the main problem, all of those who build for profitable purposes, have tremendously benefited at the expense of everyone, violating the urban space, the quality of life in community.

Today, everyone rightly complaints over the unimaginable transformation the parking spaces in the residential neighbourhoods have gone through as parking lots have been transformed into stores and coffee bars, seriously threatening the buildings’ solidity and safety. The same is the case of the ground floor spaces that have been turned into shop and service units. However, although it is too late to restore them back to their previous state, today time is ripe to prevent all these phenomena from happening following the November tragedy.

So, everyone is forgiven to forget the November 26 earthquake, even the 51 earthquake victims and more than 1000 injured people, but we cannot afford doing so. In no way! Let all Albania’s builders come together, let them all alienate and hate us and let them do whatever they want to do, but they will no longer be tolerated and enjoy flexibility. They should expect no flexibility from this government and hopefully not from the others here, because this has nothing to do with the left or right wing politics, but with completely basis aspect of the state’s integrity.

That’s why I took the floor to make it clear to the public that our legal actions on what should ensue as a lesson learnt in the post-Nov 26 future will not cease with the bill we are about to adopt today, which is a necessary piece of legislation that contains many missing elements in the existing legislation and which would be useless if we fail to complete it with actions against the entire construction industry chain  and if we fail to decide once and for all by vote that any building that violates the construction permit will be either demolished or sequestered.

So, by respecting all those who invest and build because they generate for families, for business, the economy, we must send a very clear message that the limit between the state and them, between public and private interest is insurmountable. And this limit is determined by law, plans, master plans, detailed plans and official building permit documents.

Thank you!