The Ministry of Defense concluded a contract with the construction company "Incom" from Podgorica for the delivery and installation of new steel cables on the school ship "Jadran".
The operation involves the removal of all existing metal cables in the so-called fixed bracing on the ship's masts and rigging, and the delivery and installation of 2.664 long meters of new galvanized steel cables of different profiles, as well as the manufacture and installation of three new lightning rod antennas on the tops of the "Jadran" masts, and 20 new cable clamps.
"Incom" offered at the recently completed tender of the Ministry of Defense that it will perform this work on the most valuable ship of the Navy of the Army of Montenegro (VCG) for a total of 120.008 euros without VAT. The company has given a deadline of 130 days from the signing of the contract to complete the work on the "Jadran", moored in the port of Bar.
The Commission of the Ministry for the Implementation of Public Procurement entrusted a very sensitive job to a company that has no experience in performing similar challenging and complex interventions on the fixed track of a classic sailing ship such as "Jadran", built more than 90 years ago. The fixed shackle is used to fasten the mast, hold the crosses, halyards, halyards and other parts of the ship's rigging and equipment.
The second bidder has experience, but is also more expensive
The second bidder in the tender was the company "Wooden Boats Bokovac" from Bar, which asked for 133.993 euros without VAT and gave a deadline for the completion of the works of a maximum of 120 days, but the commission of the Ministry excluded its offer from the public procurement procedure, allegedly because of this that the part of the offer that refers to the "Declaration of the business entity... was not made on the form prescribed by the Rulebook on the form of the declaration of the business entity".
A few months ago, that company completed an extensive and complicated job of making and installing 22 new wooden tackle elements on the "Jadran". The caulkers from that company, on special order from the Ministry of Defense, made new wooden elements of the tackle - crosses, props, cotter pins, etc., which was a technically very challenging job that cost the Ministry about 300.000 euros.
For the production of these mast elements, which are made according to the highest standards, 25 cubic meters of quality material from adequately dried spruce wood, 300 kilograms of special epoxy glue, 155 liters of various thinners, varnishes and fungicides, and numerous metal cables, screws and fittings were used. Thus, after several years, "Jadran" once again got the opportunity to raise and unfurl the sails on its three masts, which the old sailing ship did this summer to the joy of all lovers of the sea and ships, sailing between Bar and Tivat.
Now, however, on part of those long-awaited and carefully crafted newly installed valuable wooden elements of the "Jadrana" tackle, someone completely different - the company "Incom" - needs to replace the old and install new cables. That is why, as "Vijesti" unofficially learns, "Incom" will hire two subcontractors from Bar for the implementation of this work, who have only partial experience in similar operations on sailing ships significantly smaller than "Adriana".
"Incom" is a construction company whose main activity, as it says on the company's website, is civil engineering, reconstruction, adaptation, rehabilitation, conservation, restoration, revitalization, extension and construction of new buildings.
On the other hand, the company "Wooden Boats Bokovac" deals with the highly specialized activity of overhauling existing and building new wooden boats, many of which are equipped with sails, and has decades of experience in working on ships, including the "Jadran".
The Ministry of Defense, headed by him Dragan Krapović, in this case it did not act in accordance with what is the usual technical practice, once applied in Tivat's "Arsenal" where "Jadran" several times during its history received new wooden tackle elements and metal cables in the rigging. This practice dictates that the newly made wooden elements, on which, among other things, a part of the new cables should be mounted, after trial assembly on the masts, be taken off the ship again and inspected in the workshop and properly treated, covered and protected, which also implies applying them at least five layers of special varnish. Only after that, the wooden parts of the rigging are returned to the ship and new steel cables are then mounted on them.
However, for unknown reasons, the Ministry of Defense eliminated that part of the procedure, which a construction firm like "Incom" certainly could not have done, from the trend where that company won.
However, since the new wooden tackle elements on "Jadran" made by the company "Wooden Boats Bokovac" are still under its warranty, they will ask that during the upcoming work that "Incom" will do, a special technical supervisor will be hired to monitor the work and supervise the flow of work, trimming the cables, as well as ensure that all persons involved in the installation have a license to work on braiding cables and experience in these jobs.
"You don't have to be too wise to understand what it means to have cables too tight or too loose, and to understand that this can cause great damage to the ship itself and, even worse, to the ship's crew as well as other people on deck sailing ship", said the interlocutor of "Vijesti" who is familiar with this issue, adding that the way the Ministry carried out the tender can directly devastate everything that has been painstakingly achieved in the past two years to restore the ship's technical ability to sail.
Ministry: Equal treatment
The Ministry of Defense told "Vijesti" that the Law on Public Procurement "does not stipulate the obligation of bidders that, in order to participate in the public procurement procedure, they are obliged to engage in the activity that is the subject of the procurement".
Explaining why they chose "Incom" in the tender, the department said that the law "prescribes the duty of the contracting authority to ensure that all business entities in the public procurement procedure have equal treatment, as well as prohibiting the contracting authority from determining conditions under which national or territorial discrimination is carried out by subject of procurement or other discrimination of business entities, as well as discrimination arising from the classification of activities performed by the business entity".
"In the procedure in question... the criterion for choosing the most favorable offer was not only the price, because in open public procurement procedures it is forbidden to use only this criterion. The tender documents stipulated that the customer would choose the most economically advantageous offer based on the criteria of price and quality ratio. Apart from the price parameter, which is mandatory for this criterion, the quality parameter was the delivery and installation time," they claim.
Ministry: There are protective measures in case of default
The Ministry says that it "cannot be held responsible for possible non-fulfillment of contractual obligations by the bidder, given that the decision was made in accordance with legal procedures, tender conditions that we set in accordance with the needs and assessments of the Navy of the Croatian Republic of Croatia".
"We consider it unfounded and inappropriate to insinuate in advance that there will be default. The contract prescribes protective measures for the client in case of non-fulfillment of the contractual obligations in the agreed manner and within the agreed term", said Krapović's department, without answering precisely who from the ministry will be responsible if "Incom" does not perform the work in an appropriate manner and damages the new wooden structures. elements.
When asked if they were aware that "Incom" hired two natural persons as subcontractors, i.e. entrepreneurs from Bar and Budva, the Ministry said that according to the Law on Public Procurement "there is also the possibility of using the capabilities of another entity, which the bidder is obliged to state data in the offer".
"'Incom' submitted an independent offer, which the Commission for the implementation of the public procurement procedure noted in the process of reviewing and evaluating the offer. The tender documentation did not provide for the conditions for participation in the public procurement procedure in terms of professional and technical skills, which concern the professional and personnel capacities required for the execution of the contract. The professional and personnel capacities that the business entity will hire for the execution of the contract are a matter of the business policy and work organization of the business entity itself".
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