The appointment of a new director for EPS (Electric Power Industry of Serbia) is already five months behind schedule, and according to information from Forbes Serbia, it’s at a complete standstill. However, despite this delay, the state-owned enterprise proceeded on May 7 to select a consultant for the second time, who had previously been engaged in the process of selecting the initial CEO.
The chosen firm is Tonchew Advisory Associates, based in Belgrade, led by Bulgarian consultant Edward Tonchev.
Based on information from the Public Procurement Portal, this company won two open bids announced by EPS on April 12 this year, and the contract was finalized on the first working day following the May Day and Easter holidays.
The scope of the new procurement includes “assessing the leadership potential of managers,” while the official description of the second is “developing and implementing a set of leadership competencies along with mapping the motivational factors of managers.”
Public records indicate that Tonchev’s consulting firm was the sole bidder in these procurement processes, and it’s noted that their proposals met all criteria for awarding the contract.
EPS will pay a total of 22.6 million dinars for these services, with the first contract valued at 10.8 million dinars with VAT, and the second at 11.8 million.
Interestingly, the same consulting firm also received two nearly identical contracts from EPS during the previous year, one of which had the same title. The amounts paid for these procurements were also similar.
In August of the previous year, EPS conducted a similar procurement under the title “assessment of the leadership potential of managers.” Once again, Tonchev’s firm was the only bidder, and the contract amount with VAT was 11.98 million dinars.
Additionally, EPS also engaged Tonchev’s firm for headhunting services in August of the same year, with an identical contract value of 11.98 million dinars.
At that time, media reports, based on information from EPS’s PR service, suggested that Tonchev had been involved in recruiting new staff, including the CEO, just days before announcing the competition for the EPS director’s selection on August 15, 2023.
The representative of Boyden Western Balkans in Serbia, engaged in the “hunt” for the new EPS director, was selected through all legal procedures with the aim of further modernizing and improving the operations of this crucial state-owned company. The current acting director was appointed based on their assessment, and an analysis of the leadership potential of lower-level managers was also conducted.
Forbes Serbia has yet to receive any responses from EPS regarding the status of the competition or its current phase. Similar questions were sent at the end of January, but no response was received then either.
Regarding Tonchev’s firm, Tonchew Advisory Associates, it was founded in 2010 and reported a decline in business and total revenue in 2023 compared to 2022. However, there was a significant increase in net profit, jumping from 29,000 dinars to 1.59 million dinars. The firm, classified as a micro-enterprise with three employees, primarily engages in consulting activities related to business and management. Tonchev’s website boasts collaborations with numerous foreign and domestic brands, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Red Bull, as well as various foreign banks operating in the Serbian market.
According to publicly available data, Tonchew Advisory Associates also won a tender from the National Employment Service, Kragujevac branch, two years ago, for the procurement of employee training services, with a contract value of 9.39 million dinars.
