Lack of passport supply material, speaks of Periscope by German company

Kosovo's Ministry of Internal Affairs has recommended contracts worth four million euros to the German company “Veridos” for the material supply for passport production for 12 months. However, although it has been promised that the equipment of citizens with passports will begin in early January, this decision has been postponed until the end of the month under the argument that the company has no metarial.

Periscope has asked the German company “Verridos” what is the reason that it's not immediately done extenuating passports and when they will be willing to do so. The company has admitted there's some trouble in supplies, but they haven't shown when to start implementing the deal.

If even most industries around the world are facing challenges in the supply network. In individual cases, this can affect times and change delivery dates. We hope the current situation will change soon. As for our projects in Kosovo, we beg you well to understand that our contracts with public authorities are issues of strict contractual clauses. We, Verdos GmbH, can't reveal any more details about this matter. We hope in your understanding”, has said about Periscope Andrea Alton, public relations officials from Verdos GmbH company.

There are two interpretations left on the part of the answer saying: “as far as our projects in Kosovo are concerned, we beg you to understand that our contracts with public authorities are issues Strict contractual clauses”.

The interpretation is that, the ministry may not have signed the contract or signed it any longer, and the supply will be made just as the parties have agreed on.

On the E-procubation website, in tenders for the Ministry of Interior, the last document in charge of this procurement activity has to do with the identification of the contract signing. Even so, no contract has been filed there, leaving the doubt that it has not yet been bound or kept secret.

In a media communiqué, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has said the “supply will begin by the end of January, and that it expresses regret over the created situation and requires understanding from all citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, until the resolution of this matter”.

On January 7th, media have reported that Interior Minister Jhelal Svechla has sent official letter to Germany's state in prayer to allow the trip of Kosovo citizens with expired passports to resolve the situation.

Initially, on April 21st, 2022 was opened a tender of great value from the MPB procurement office, titled “Funding with personal identification documents and the maintenance of electronic systems”. The projected value of the contract was 12 million and 524 thousand euros, and as seen by the title, besides the supply included the maintenance of the system.

For the tender in question, only two companies had applied:

“Augetic GmbH; IN Group at the value of 12329261, 27 euros, and Group of Enterprises 1, “Muhlbauer IDs GmbH; Ymako KPS, worth 12456071, 43 euros. This group of companies, although offering a little higher price than the other group, has been more complete with documentation.

The group Muhlbauer is the only technological partner worldwide for the production and personalisation of cards, passports and RFID applications that offer everything from a single source. There are about 3,500 employees and technology centres in Germany, Malaysia, China, Slovakia, the US and Serbia.

Bids had been opened since June, but in November MPB has decided to throw both down. So he canceled this procurement activity. But after that decision, there have been complaints by the two companies, which have not agreed to be found irresponsible. The ministry in the legal term has reviewed their complaints and rejected both, leaving its decision in effect. The only route for companies has been to complain to the Procureing Organization OSHP. Shortly after complaints were filed at the institution only by the group Muhlbauer, the ministry has suspended its decision to annul the procurement activity. This suspension will be in effect until the O Board The time has come to make a decision regarding the two complaints filed.

According to documents that are loaded on E-procurement, the offer of “Augetic GmbH; IN Group shpk” is deemed irresponsible for a number of reasons.

“Muhlbauer complaint ID Services GmbH; Ymako KPS”, which also has the basis of production, has been rejected with the reasoning that: “you have not submitted to compliance with the requirements in the technical specification tender file, period 7.4 The worker for the proceedings centre, no technical bids have been submitted at all, and catalogs of which have not been identified were required according to technical specifications at the Tendra File 1,”, etc.

Since companies have addressed O complaint The EPS, this institution has authorized its examiner's own expert to see the evidence.

Periscope has seen two experts, Majlinda Bedroli and Kreshnik Spahiu, draw up the expertise report and have sent the same to the Board to make the decision. The expert report has compiled the work to the MPB because it has ordered this institution to cancel the announcement of annulment of the tender procedure, and to reassess the offers of the contesting companies, because MPB's reasoning has been unstable. If the OSHP Board, as experts have decided, makes a new situation for the ministry, which is already scheduled to be supplied by the German company with which it negotiated agreements, avoiding competition. But even if it turns into re-evaluating the tender of open value from the O Board The EPS, the ministry will find another form to annul this procurement procedure. State institutions have a legal obligation not to make any tender moves until the O Board decides. The DPS for a tender procedure, but the MPB has been called to extreme emergencies, and is now negotiating negotiated contracts with a company that has never competed.

Because the procedures hadn't been conducted in time, in half of September 2021, The MPB had been contracting 12 months of negotiations with the German company “Verdos GmbH” for the tender “Emergency Planning with ID documents and maintenance of the” systems. The value of the contract in which passport production has been involved has been 392980 euros. The contract has surpassed the currency for up to three months, and the company had stopped framing, and the ministry operated on very small amounts that remained in stock for emergencies. /Periscopi/