Global Courant 2023-05-04 02:01:19
The candidate of the “Together We Win” coalition for Tirana, Belind Këlliçi, has stated that the funds to provide free public transport for the capital will be nothing more than citizens’ taxes.
Invited to “Top Story” with Grida Duma, Këlliçi says that: “I am not taking money from my pocket, but I am simply allocating citizens’ taxes from a service that is not offered, or even from tenders with 99.9% of the value, or from luxury expenses and operating expenses that the Municipality of Tirana has today, for a service for 200 thousand citizens per day.”
Asked about the cost of the rented bus he is traveling with during the campaign, Kelliçi says that it is somewhere around 4 million old lek.
Excerpts from the debate:
Duma: You say that you were denied funds because they were given to the official PD, however, Roland Bejko, who is the candidate of the Democratic Party, does not even come close to your expenses at the stadium, that bus that comes with you…
Kelliçi: You know very well that I did not do the activity in the stadium.
Duma: It is an activity of the “Together We Win” coalition, which clearly does not lack funding.
Kelliçi: The “Together We Win” coalition has its own leaders and Belindi is not the winner among them. I didn’t even do opening activity.
Duma: Did you need an opening activity when you entered the stadium by bus and you were the central figure of that opening?
Kelliçi: If the fact that I have rented a minibus for a month seems like a staggering expense to you, it is the minimum.
Duma: What funds does this rental come from?
Kelliçi: From donations of course.
Duma: Because it is not free that you are also right-wing…
Kelliçi: Yes, of course, it’s not free, but I’m just reallocating funds. I am not taking money from my pocket, but I am simply allocating citizens’ taxes from a service that is not offered, or even from tenders with 99.9% of the value, or from luxury expenses and operational expenses that the Municipality of Tirana has today, where 60% of the municipal budget goes for salaries, for luxury, for office furniture, for fuel, for rental cars, for plane tickets, for the chancellery, I am taking these funds, I am reallocating them for a service for 200 thousand citizens per day.
Duma: No, no… what Belind is doing now. What you do next is a matter of program. Ask about your expenses today?
Kelliçi: The expenses he is making today are within the legal framework required by the CEC and will certainly be reflected one by one in the financial statements.
Duma: How much does the rental bus cost? For more curiosity…
Kelliçi: I don’t know, somewhere around 4 million old lek, something like that. But I have to see it in those who deal with finance, I don’t know…
Duma: SP has captured two points. That of the degree and being a groom. “We have our son-in-law”, says the SP. Are you feeling good or…
Kelliçi: How can you not feel good when you don’t have any charges of corruption against you.
Global Courantl
