In his reaction to the research story of MANS about malpractices with a tender worth five million for the procurement and installation of lighting in Podgorica, the reported Director of Communal Services, Radioica Popović did not deny none of what we claimed in the criminal complaint, MANS announced.
They claim that it is impossible to "hide the fact that this procurement envisages the replacement of existing lighting in the villages of Tuzi, Golubovci or Kuči, where there is no public lighting on wooden or concrete poles, as well as that their replacement is also planned in those villages where along the roads there aren't even electricity poles".
"In this sense, it is unclear how it is planned to first remove the lamps and then install new ones, when in many places they do not exist at all, or perhaps it was a way to increase the price of the basic work through the tender documentation, which should certainly determined by the Special State Prosecutor's Office by going to the field and checking all the locations mentioned in the tender," states the statement signed by MANS coordinator Ines Mrdović.
He reminds that in mid-March, MANS visited numerous rural areas for which the tender documentation states that lamps will be replaced, although in many there are none, and some of the places we visited were Korita, Poprati, Vuksanlekići, Sukuruć, Vranj, Vladne, Dušići, Gostilj, Mahala, Vukovci...
"When it comes to the model of technology for saving public lighting, it is very interesting that the utility company decided to install LED lamps. The work was then assigned to the Nikšić company "Ramel", which, in a separate business of installing LED lamps in Herceg Novi, entrusted those works of the company "BB Solar", owned by Blaž Đukanović, the son of former Prime Minister Milo Đukanović. In this sense, it is very interesting that Popović classifies MANS with the "fraudulent lobby" and at the same time defends the one in which the son of former Prime Minister Đukanović is located. One one of the main activities of the company of the son of the former prime minister is the wholesale of LED lighting, so it is interesting that many municipalities, under the pretext of technical achievements, opted for this technology of saving electricity in public lighting, without first considering whether there are other alternative solutions for which it is necessary to allocate less money from the budget," the announcement states.
It is precisely money, as it is added, that is one of the key parameters that all municipalities should determine for each tender.
"But it is common knowledge in Montenegro that some other criteria, rather than economy and public interest, often prevail. Also, we repeat that the tender documentation literally "draws" the characteristics that must be met by LED lamps, such as prescribing the shades of color in which must be, or let's say what material the lamp housing should be made of. In this way, certain bidders were favored in advance, which violated the principle of competition, as one of the basic principles guaranteed by the Law on Public Procurement, which prohibits the restriction or prevention of competition among the bidders using discriminatory conditions and criteria," concludes the MANS announcement.
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