(Podgorica, 14 November 2011) – Today MANS lodged a complaint with the Special State Prosecutor for Corruption and Organized Crime, Đurđina Ivanović, against the President of the Public Procurement Control Commission (PPCC), Marko Lazarević, and members of the PPCC Slobodan Marinović and Ana Miljanić. The complaint alleges that they violated the Law on Public Procurement by allowing Bemax to win the tender for the sanitation and rehabilitation of the tailing dump near Mojkovac.
The Public Works Directorate, in late February 2010, announced a tender to build a storm water drainage system as part of the “Rehabilitation and Re-cultivation of the Lead and Zinc Tailing Dump in Mojkovac.” The value of the tender was 3-million euros, while the main criteria for selecting the eventual winner was the bidders ability to demonstrate the most cost-effective plan for the project.
In addition to standard criteria established for participation in tenders, the Public Works Directorate also wanted bidders to submit traffic, hydro and expert licenses related to the implementation of the contract.
17 companies submitted tender proposals by the deadline, including Bemax. Following the initial evaluation of the bids, it was concluded that 11 companies met the requirements of the tender, having obtained all the required licenses demanded in the public call as well. After evaluating the qualifying bids, the most cost-effective project was the one submitted by Podgorica’s Tehnoput DOO – valued at 1.59-million euros (to be completed within six months).
The minutes from the bid opening in mid-June 2010 state that: “The Commission considers the bid submitted by Podgorica’s Tehnoput DOO to be the best given that in compliance with the Law on Public Procurement the bidder submitted all the required evidence concerning its fulfillment of tender conditions listed in the public call, complying with Article 51 of the Law on Public Procurement and thereby receiving the highest score according to the tender’s ranking system.” Bemax was ranked third with a 1.74-million euro bid (to be completed according to the same timeline as proposed by Tehnoput).
The minutes also note that Bemax submitted with its bid a license for work on strong and weak current electrical installations, which were never mentioned in the public tender call. During the bid opening, Bemax pointed out that the other bidders had not submitted such a license. The claim was rejected given that the end client had not requested such a license and that the other bidders had therefore not attempted to obtain it.
Following this negative decision, Bemax appealed to the PPCC and in July 2010 it was upheld.
In light of the successful appeal, the Public Works Directorate reevaluated the bids and rejected all other contenders on the basis that they did not hold the electrical installation license. These licenses effectively became a retroactive criteria for the tender, which meant that Bemax – as the only holder of such a license – would win by default.
Instead of issuing a new public tender call, which would have allowed the other bidders to obtain this new license, the PPCC directly protected Bemax and proceeded in a way that automatically disqualified all other bidders. As a result, the Commission ended up approving a more expensive bid.
