In its response to MANS’s text on embezzlement of five-million worth tender for the procurement and installation of lighting in Podgorica, reported director of Utility Services, Radoica Popovic, has not denied anything of what was argued in the criminal complaint.
It is impossible to hide the fact that this procurement would provide for the replacement of existing lighting in villages in Tuzi, Golubovci and Kuci, where there is no public lighting on the installed wooden or concrete poles. Moreover, the plans include the replacement of lighting in those villages where there are no electric poles along the roads.
In this sense, it is not clear how the lamps would first be removed and then new ones installed, when they do not exist in many places, or maybe it was a way to get through the tender documents increase the price of the basic work. This should certainly be verified by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office by inspecting the field, i.e. all the places that are mentioned in the tender.
In the middle of March, MANS visited the rural areas in which, according to the tender documents, the lamps will be replaced, although in many of them there are no lamps. Some of the places that MANS visited are Korita, Poprati, Vuksanlekici, Sukuruc, Vranje, Vladne, Dusici, Gostilj, Mahala, Vukovci…
Regarding the technology model for saving, it is very interesting that the utility company chose to install LED lamps. The job was then assigned to a Niksic-based company “Ramel”, which ceded another work of installation of LED lamps, in Herceg Novi, to the “BB Solar” company, owned by Blazo Djukanovic, the son of former prime minister Milo Djukanovic.
In this regard, it is very curious that Popovic has the need to align MANS with “swindling lobby,” while simultaneously defending the one to which the son of former prime minister Djukanovic belongs.
One of the main activities of the company belonging to the son of former prime minister is the wholesale of LED lighting. Therefore, it is interesting that many municipalities, under the pretext of technical achievements, opted for this very technology of energy saving in street lighting, without having previously considered whether there are other alternative solutions for which less money would be budgeted.
Money is one of the key arguments why all municipalities should opt for a particular bid, but it is generally known in Montenegro that often other criteria prevail, rather than the economy and the public interest.
Also, we would like to remind that the tender documents literally “drew” characteristics that must be met by the LED lamps, such as prescribed color shades, or, for instance, materials the light fixtures should be made of.
In this way, certain tenderers have been favored in advance, which violates of the principle of competition, as one of the basic principles that are guaranteed by the Law on Public Procurement, which bans restriction or prevention of competition among bidders using discriminatory requirements or criteria.
Coordinator Ines Mrdovic
MANS Investigation Center
