(PODGORICA, 22 November 2011) – As the new documentation in the Bemax affair indicates, the Public Procurement Control Commission (PPCC) has decided to ignore the Administrative Court’s ruling by nevertheless granting the public works contract for the dump near Mojkovac to that company.
Last week, MANS submitted a complaint against the President and members of the PPCC with the Special State Prosecutor, Đurđina Ivanović. The complaint alleges that the Commission’s decisions in the tender openly favored Bemax (which won the contract in spite of being ranked third).
On the basis of a complaint submitted by Tehnoput – which had ranked first in the tender, having offered the lowest price – Montenegro’s Administrative Court ruled in December 2010 that it was annulling the PPCC ruling that granted the contract to Bemax. The Administrative Court also asked that the PPCC run the tender once more in accordance with the law and on the basis of factual information submitted by the bidders, while taking into consideration the Court’s ruling on the matter.
A key problem identified by the Administrative Court relates to the PPCC’s decision to approve a request for an electro-installation license, which hadn’t been included among the criteria for the tender and that only Bemax had submitted. In the end, the PPCC decided that such a request was important after all and on this basis granted the contract to Bemax.
According to the Administrative Court such a course of action violates the criteria of the tender, which requires that bidders abide by its conditions. The Administrative Court also notes that the Public Works Directorate’s public call did not mention the electro-installation licenses that are now in dispute. Consequently, all of the bidders – with the notable exception of Bemax – failed to submit requests for an electro-installation license.
In spite of such clearly defined problems with the initial tender, in late-January 2011, the PPCC made an identical ruling to the one that had been overturned by the Administrative Court. The contract was again granted to Bemax on the same grounds, totally ignoring the admonitions of the courts. The PPCC maintains that Bemax was correct in submitting a request for such a license regardless of judicial rulings (which the Commission is required to comply with).
If the PPCC had wanted to include the electro-installation licenses as a new criteria in the tender, it should have done so by issuing a new tender document. Instead, the Commission decided to follow Bemax’s lead, essentially allowing it to redefine the criteria of the tender to fit its own bid and thus eliminate the competition.
Such behavior by the PPCC and its President, Marko Lazarević, seems to confirm suspicions that the laws and judicial rulings of this country are no obstacle to the profit-seeking interests of companies like Bemax. Nevertheless, we would like to remind Mr. Lazarević that the failure to implement a court rulings is considered a criminal act punishable by either a fine or jail-time of up to two years according to Article 395 of Montenegro’s Criminal Code.
The documentation that MANS has collected to date indicates that this affair is not exceptional and that the PPCC has adopted a disposition towards illegal behavior as an everyday practice in its work. MANS calls on all companies that have had similar ‘experiences’ with the PPCC, or that suspect that there were irregularities in their tenders, to contact us and share any information that would eventually shed light on its inner workings.
