Albania probes into botched privatization of power corporation

Albanian parliament launches probe into botched sale of its power corporation to find out whether there was breach of law during its privatization process

A general view of Albania's parliament.
TRT World and Agencies

A general view of Albania's parliament.

Albania's parliament launched an investigation of the botched sale of its power corporation, which reportedly cost the state 414 million euros.

A statement Friday said an 11-member parliamentary commission was voted a day earlier to conduct a three-month probe into whether the law was broken in the privatization process.

The center-right Democratic Party government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, now in opposition, in 2013 sold Albania's power corporation to the Czech state-run power utility CEZ. It canceled the deal in 2013, when the electricity system was in crisis due to theft, unpaid bills from customers and network losses.

In 2014, the left-wing coalition government agreed to resolve the dispute by repaying the Czech power utility 100 million euros ($136 million at the time).

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