prijava
SARAJEVO, February 15 (FENA) - Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TIBiH) has filed criminal charges against the management of the Gacko Mine and Thermal Power Plant (RiTE), which awarded Optima Group a fuel procurement contract worth 29.1 million KM without any public tender.
Contracts were awarded through a negotiated procedure that can be applied only in exceptional cases prescribed by the Law on Public Procurement, and the explanation for such a move is 'extreme urgency caused by unforeseen events', TIBiH stated in a press release.
TIBiH warns that these 'unpredictable events' have been repeating for five years "because the management of RiTE Gacko has not yet carried out a successful tender for the supply of fuel, which each time dismisses complaints from dissatisfied bidders, and then the contract is awarded to Optima Group".
TIBiH published information on this behavior of that contracting authority in July last year because from 2015 until then, Optima Group received around 25 million KM.
As they further state, in the meantime, another procedure was annulled and Optima Group received three more contracts worth around four million KM "due to extreme urgency".
“The Law on Public Procurement explicitly prohibits that the reasons for the application of the negotiated procedure are justified by events that can in any way be related to the contracting authority announcing the tender. However, the contracting authority itself causes 'unpredictable events', which has been repeatedly confirmed by the Procurement Review Body, reminded TIBiH.
TIBiH points out that from all fuel procurement procedures conducted in the previous five years, it is evident that the management of RiTE Gacko favors Optima Group, and calls only them for negotiations in negotiation procedures, and the decisions of the Procurement Review Body further confirm that this company has been placed in a privileged position during the open proceedings.
As TIBiH said in the statement, even though almost 30 million KM were spent illegally, which was also confirmed by auditors and Procurement Review Body and that the public has already been informed about everything, the same practice continues unhindered, and the competent judicial institutions do not react.
(FENA) A. B.
