State tenders worth RSD 23.3 billion annulled

Published on 27. July 2016., News

For only seven months in this year the Commission that controls public procurements declared tenders in the amount of RSD 23.3 billion null and void.

As shown by the research conducted by Blic, from January until July the state has basically declared half of the tenders null and void. According to the data ofthe RepublicCommission for Protection of Rights in Public Procurement (RCPP) that deals with claims of the companies that believe to have suffered damage, 323 tenders of 672 public procurements were annulled. Out of 47 billion dinars that was the total amount of these tenders, 23 billion were irregularly handled.

– There are several reasons for declaring tender null and void, from incorrectly written tender documents to discrimination of some companies and favoring others. It is noted that competition among tenderers is narrowed down using unnecessary requirements as additional conditions –RCPP stated for Blic.

Many state institutions, ministries and state-owned companies were among these Contracting authoritiesthat had bad tenders, and estimated tender values were from several hundred thousand dinars to tens of millions.

In the previous months state companies that “made mistakes” were “Srbijašume”, “Resavica” and “Transnafta”, then RTS, “Beogradske elektrane“, clinical centers of Vojvodina and Serbia.

As for ministries, the black list of Republic Commission included the Ministry of Finance and Justice. Their tenders were declared void partially or fully. Reasons were incorrect tender documents, discrimination of some companies and favoring other.

Private companies filed complaints that some state bodies awarded the most expensive companies, i.e. they were written specifically for some companies.

In that period, Republic Commission partially declared void the tender of Public Enterprise “Jugoimport SDPR”. For this tender one private company complained that the winner of the tender offered goods, i.e. toners for printers and copiers that are not being produced.

Nemanja Nenadić from “Transparentnost Srbija” said for “Blic” that declaring tender void may have different consequences for responsible persons.

– In the event of procedural mistakes the officer could be assigned a misconduct penalty. Directors usually have to pay a fine and there is a possibility to be held criminallyliable.  In that event it is necessary to determine that tender was set up for someone and that bad intention existed–assessed Nenadić.

RSD 30 million thrown away

Due to incorrectly written tenders or favoring target companies, ministries, state companies and state institutions threw away more than RSD 30 million only in this year.  That is how much Contracting authorities had to pay for taxes with the money from citizens to private companies, and they amounted to around 100 000 dinars average per each irregular tender.