He opened his own copy of the manual. Page 47: Çimento (CEM II 42.5R) – 9,800 lekë/ton. Page 112: Gips karton (12.5 mm) – 720 lekë/m². Page 203: Dorëpunimi për muraturë tullash – 1,450 lekë/m² (përfshirë ngjitësin).
It was the Manuali i Çmimeve të Ndertimit 2024 .
The first thing Ardi noticed when he walked into the state tender office was the silence. Not the calm kind. The nervous kind. Three contractors sat in plastic chairs, each clutching a worn tablet or a folder of printed spreadsheets. They weren’t looking at each other. They were looking at a single, spiral-bound book on the clerk’s desk. manuali i cmimeve te ndertimit 2024
Ardi had been a site engineer for twelve years. He’d survived the price chaos of 2022 when a bag of cement jumped 40% overnight. He’d seen subcontractors walk off sites in 2023 when diesel hit 300 lekë per liter. But this—this thin manual—was different. This was the government’s final word on how much a brick, a beam, or a bucket of paint was allowed to cost in public works.
Then Ardi remembered something. On page 289, buried in the annexes: “Për materialet e importuara me çmim doganor mbi referencën manuale, kontraktori mund të aplikojë me faktura.” For imported materials with customs value above the manual’s reference, the contractor could apply with invoices. He opened his own copy of the manual
Last year, the 2023 manual had been a joke. The listed price for rebar was 110 lekë per kilo, but the market was selling it at 155. Every bidder had to fudge numbers, hide margins in “transport costs” or “unforeseen earthworks.” It was a game of lies. Two contractors had even gone to jail for fraud.
That was it. The window. The aluminum frames for the school’s windows—they were Italian, not local. Their invoice price was 15% above the manual’s figure. The ceramic tiles? Spanish. Also above. Ardi could bundle those exceptions into a single “special materials dossier” and legally lift his bid by 7.2%. Page 203: Dorëpunimi për muraturë tullash – 1,450
Ardi smiled. The manual’s volatility cap worked both ways. If rebar prices dropped, the state would pay him the lower indexed price. He’d have to buy smart, store well, and waste nothing.