Prizren municipality prepares the tender for container supply to a company

“Framing with container and waste basket”. So it's called the tender, which was opened a few days ago by the Prizren municipality, which has doubts that are being manipulated by municipal officials.

For this procurement activity, <x0 signing for contract” was made on the 20,10,2020. According to the KCPP website, offers have not been opened yet, while the main criterion for the contract has been the lowest “price”.

News.net has learned that they have offered several companies.

According to documents published on the KCPP site and complaints two companies have made, it is seen that the municipality has prepared the tender file in the way it discriminates against one company and favours another. Meanwhile, the public procurement law sanctions this, as under this law, contracting authority must set comprehensive and non-restrictive criteria.

As the news has seen.net, during the drafting of the tender file and technical specifications, the municipality has set several discriminatory criteria that lead to limiting free competition.

That some of the criteria have been set by limiting equal participation, have also questioned two competing companies for this tender, who have complained to the municipality to improve them. But the municipality has rejected complaints, using arrogant and arrogant language “we are the ones who set criteria, not you, so they will remain that way”.

The projected value of the contract is 120 thousand euros.

But what are the points that the municipality has used discrimination or favourability?

Technical and professional capacity required: The list of employees submitted to ATK in the past three months along with the short description of the workplace, the short description of the workplace for regular staff, for the new staff contracts attached to the project.

This demand is discriminated against by many companies, as this procurement activity has to do with a contract for supply where the supply is once available, which can be carried out overnight. So without any purpose in implementing this project, the municipality has demanded that “the description of the workplace and evidence that these workers be notified three months earlier at ATK”. Even companies in their complaint to the municipality have written questions about this point: “How will it be done if a foreign company is applied that has no record of business in Kosovo”.

So this municipality requirement would only increase the operational cost of the tender companies, who then implement it at the price of the tender.

On the other hand, this contract has to do with supply, while in “the particular terms of the contract”, there is no description or note on the form of contract realism. Nowhere is it said what jobs will be done, though the AK has demanded that the number of workers be four (4) announced three months ago in ATK.

Competitive companies have shown dissatisfaction, with the municipality at this point as well, and have provided answers to the municipality. This is a supply contract and there is nowhere to be any particular supply programme, how to assess the AK a company, such as from Albania, which has workers, but has not reported to ATK<1>.

So, based on the type of contract, this demand has been unnecessary and discriminated against, especially for companies that only take on supplies, those that are open no longer than three months in the consortium, or coming from another country.

The other discrimination request from the tender file is also at the point where it says: “OE participants in this tender should prove to us that it owns or has at least one transport tool of up to 5 tons of transport to which it will carry the required” equipment.

Supply products usually come from another country, as there are no producers in Kosovo. So they would thus be packed to download the items from the carriers once and then be issued to the Comunas through the 5 - ton truck. So the municipality has limited the weight, even though this is a supply contract and that such products come from outside Kosovo.

Also, the other discrimination requirement placed in the tender file that may have been adapted only to one operator is the request: the proposed “OE for contract should bring evidence that it owns or exploits a point in the Prizren municipality from which the distribution of these components” will be made.

So, the municipality has made exceptions to many companies that do not have warehouses in Prizren, even though it can be done directly by trucks within the period the municipality has seen supplies. Even this demand would increase the cost of the project. Meanwhile, companies making these supplies have their own warehouses in municipalities where they operate, and during the supply such a demand could be realised within an hour where they have their points. At least nowhere does a municipality point to the form of literature.

Competitive companies have expressed great disappointment even at the “point to address your bid equally with other offers you are obliged to bring the required samples to the address no later than 15 minutes before the opening of the bid”.

Competitive companies have demanded that this point be removed, even though the municipality has rejected them. The request to bring in the samples of the three junk containers over 1m3 is unnecessary and to raise the cost of the project”. Imagine the cost of bringing such a sample from Italy, Austria, or Greece. All this cost will be charged to the AK at the” tender price.

Under public procurement regulations, samples are usually required for products that do not have catalogs or technical drawings that companies should stick to. In the meantime, these products possess the production certificate, the standard form of appearance shown through technical drawings, has the weight, thickness of the component material. So the elements that are necessary during technical accession.

“All tenders coming from Europe possess the EN840 standard, which the AK has mentioned in technical specifications and possess ISO 1461, so why it takes samples when the municipality has no lab or means to measure its quality”, it says in a complaint of an economic operator directed to the municipality. So doubts are that a certain company owns such samples in stock.

Doubts are even bigger because AK has named for branding. He requested a specific product “PG&GP”, which shows that a certain company has been prepared for this product. This is prohibited from being used in technical specifications.

LPP Article 27 and 18th Our RRUPP that: “is prohibited from preparing the tender file in a way that favours or discriminates against one or more potential economic operators”.

The news.net has learned that the Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (KRPP) has warned Prizren's AK-Communate concerning this tender, urging them to take it to base the Public Procurement Law for non-discriminating companies. But, so far the Prizren municipality has not yet made a difference in the tender file.

Racing companies have considered that even the technical description the municipality has given to containers seeking to buy has been adapted only to a company that is based in Prizren.

“From technical specifications is clearly seen that the municipality has not used minimum-machsimum potential as an ordinary or interval in dimensions. These dimensions do not limit either the standard itself to the EN-840 on which these articles are produced to such strict dimensions, nor do we have any standard that requires that. Each producer of these products has its own dimensions that are very close to what the AK has put on technical specifications, but no other producer has exactly as requested by the AK, because the standard itself of EN-840 allows such a thing”, said in the disappointment of one of the contesting companies.

According to this company, the limit of access to minimum Xmmm, maximum Ymm, approximately XXkg, or approximately Zmm fat, or setting intervals for example: height from X mm to Ymmm, absolutely limits competition and allows only one manufacturer to offer in this tender.

This affects the tender price very negatively, since since such a producer realizes that only one OE, which he authorized, can compete in this tender, then even to the increase in costs for their purchase. According to research we've done on the Internet, these characteristics can only be met by a certain producer, and according to other sources we possess, that producer represents only one OE from Prizren”, it is said among other things in the contest company's complaint.

The municipality is looking to buy container of three species, 100 containers from galvanized steel, 1.1 m3, 150 pieces of plastic containers, 1.1 and 3000 pieces of plastic containers, 120 liters.