GPS-s tender: technical acceptance promised in 10 days
Prishtina, 23 September 2011-Today, Movement FOL held the procurement debate on the topic “The procurement process in the Ministry of Public Administration – Tender: Expenditure management system of vehicles” or known as GPS-s tender. This tender received media and institutions attention, including investigations by the Anti Corruption Agency, whose representatives were not present at the debate.
Policy Researcher at Movement FOL, Armend Mazreku, stated that “the purpose of this debate is to clarify the mess created in the award of the GPS tender, in order to obtain a more objective overview of the different attitudes of institutions involved in this procurement process.”
The Director of Procurement Department in the Ministry of Public Administration, Arton Berisha, said “this ministry after the evaluation of the GPS tender bids, received a complaint from the Anti-Corruption Agency, which has complained that the company PBC Kosova has forged documents, thus we, the procurement board, have canceled the tender, and then we have been critisized from our ministry for cancellation of this tender, since the Anti-Corruption Agency decisions are only advisory and should not be taken as final. Then we turned the tender for re-evaluation and the tender was awarded to the company PBC Kosova “.
Whereas the expert of Procurement Review Body, Besim Mulaj, who had investigated this case on the appeal of the company “Logistics Plus”, justifying his opinion and the Evaluation of the PRB announced the official decision which was made with manufacturing companies to verify the licenses that the company PBC had. He further stated that “the Anti-Corruption Agency has sent a letter accusing the PBC Kosovo Company that has madeforgery of documents and then sends a written memorandum stating that he was not filing any charges against anyone, and this is absurd to our opinion”, stressed Mr. Mulaj.
On the other hand, PBC Kosova company director, Gazmend Selmani said “when the bids were opened, and we were potentialy to win this tender, the competitive company has asked us to withdraw from the tender. I do notwant to suppose that ACA has been influenced by the complainant but there is a connection between this company and the letter of Anti-Corruption Agency. “Mr. Selmani in this debate presented various documents showing that there is nothing counterfeit in this tender. Further, he claimed that the device that they have offered has been more advanced than it was required in the tender. Such a claim has been confirmed also by the MPA Procurement Officer, Mr. Berisha.
GPS tender was awarded in 2010 and is still in implementation stage. Most of the official vehicles are already equipped with GPS and it is nearly completed the control center, which enables visual control and real-time location of official vehicles and the amount fuel refill. Mr. Selmani from PBC Kosova said that within 10 days it may also be technical acceptance of the contract.