A public procurement of school bags (backpacks) and supplies was organized and conducted, this year, too, for the students who attend the first grade of primary school in the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja in the 2016/2017 school year. The announcement was posted on the Public Procurement Directorate’s portal and on the Coordination Body’s website on July 8, 2016, while the estimated value of the public procurement amounted to 2,500,000.00 dinars without VAT. The criteria for selecting the best offer or bidder was the lowest offered price.

Seven bidders took part in the bidding and they include: Albas doo from Presevo, Novateks doo from Nova Varos, Novo Beogradsko Knjizarsko doo from Belgrade, Amphora doo from Belgrade, Epoch doo from Pozega, Savremena Poslovna Obrada doo from Stara Pazova and Gea Graf doo from Stara Pazova.

The commission established that the Novo Beogradsko Knjizarsko doo bidder from Belgrade had met all the legal requirements and evaluated it as the appropriate supplier. Accordingly, Jelena Colic, the Acting Deputy Director of the Coordination Body’s Office, adopted the proposed decision on the selection of the above-mentioned bidder to deliver school supplies. The total price of the delivered school bags or backpacks and supplies was 2,475,216.22 dinars without VAT.

The Epoha doo bidder from Pozega filed an appeal against the said decision.  Although the said bidder had been informed by means of tender documents and an e-mail that it should pay the appropriate fee for the appeal, it failed to do so and sought protection from the Commission for the Protection of Bidders’ Rights. The Commission for the Protection of Bidders’ Rights decided   that the Coordination Body’s Office, apart from the instructions it had previously provided in tender documents, should once again inform the bidder that it was obliged to pay the fee.  Although the bidder had been re-informed by the Coordination Body’s Office to pay the fee,  it failed to do it, so that the bidder’s appeal was definitely rejected, which left no legal possibilities for the bidder to go on with the procedure or re-appeal and request legal proceedings to be instigated against the Coordination Body’s Office.  

"We believe that by acting in this way, the supplier, unnecessarily and in an unacceptable way, tried to exercise its right, which only extended the deadline for completion of the procedure by more than two months, and yet it failed to challenge the valid and meritorious work of the commission and of the Coordination Body's Office,” said Zoran Stankovic, the President of the Coordination Body.

“The point at issue is an obvious intent to postpone the procedure, which is why there was a delay in the delivery of student school bags and supplies, but the Coordination Body’s Office could, in no way whatsoever, prevent the supplier from acting the way it did, " Mr. Stankovic said.  

Source: Coordination Body