Certain ministries avoid the obligation to announce the procedure for public procurement of airline tickets for official trips, even though they spend more than 5.000 euros a year on them, so they pay the money directly and non-transparently to travel agencies through direct negotiations.
In 2022, the Ministry of Science and Technological Development allocated more than 11.000 euros for airline tickets, without signing a contract as required by the Law on Public Procurement. A similar situation was recorded a year earlier, at the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, which in just one month, without a procurement contract, paid the same agency 7.516 euros for air tickets and accommodation, based on four invoices.
The Law on Public Procurement foresees the possibility of a direct agreement or a direct bargain, which can be concluded for an amount of up to 5.000, excluding VAT. From January 2023, the amended law stipulates that this method can be implemented if the value of the annual procurement for the same purpose is up to 8.000 euros. Simple procurement of goods, services and works by direct selection of a specific bidder, with acceptance of the estimate/invoice, fiscal account or contract, is not mandatory to be carried out through the Montenegrin electronic public procurement system (CEJN).
The invoices, submitted upon request for free access to information to the Institute of Alternatives, show that some ministries violated the Law on Public Procurement, but also "shared" the subject of public procurement of airline tickets, not taking into account the assessment of the value of the subject of procurement on an annual level.
Although millions of dollars are annually allocated for the cost of airline tickets at the Government level, these procurements are not often the focus of special control of the inspection for public procurement and the State Audit Institution (DRI).
The absence of tenders is also justified by cyber attacks
In 2022, the Ministry of Science and Technological Development (MNTR) allocated more than 11.000 euros for air tickets for official trips, through direct negotiations with agencies that later invoiced the costs.
That Ministry paid 2022 euros to a tourist agency during October, November and December 6.759,76 based on invoices, although it was obliged to carry out the procedure through the electronic public procurement system. In response to the research draft, the MNTR explained that in the last quarter of that year, they continued the realization of official trips, in the way it was done in the period June-September. They also claim that they only made necessary trips, extremely rationally and economically.
In MNTR, they admit that they did not have a signed contract on the procurement of organization of official trips in 2022. They claim that the reasons why they did not sign the contract are multiple - a cyber attack on the information infrastructure of the state administration in August of last year, the dates of the budget rebalancing, but also the fact that they were formed only in May 2022, with "an extremely small amount allocated for official trips". .
In this Ministry, they say that for each trip they separately sought offers for air tickets and accommodation from several travel agencies and claim that they chose the most affordable offers. We have to take their word for it because they are not required to document it. Although MNTR claims otherwise, in the report on direct simple procurements for this year, it is stated that one bid was received for these procurements.
In 2021, the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism did not have a contract for the purchase of airline tickets either. In 2021, through the mechanism of direct bargaining, that ministry spent 41.700 euros without VAT on airline tickets and hotel accommodation. In December 2021 alone, they paid 7.516 euros to a travel agency for plane tickets and accommodation, based on four invoices. In this way, they violated the Law on Public Procurement, because before the trip they were obliged to carry out the procurement through CEJN. The inspection determined that the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism committed a serious offense by dividing the subject of public procurement, but they did not initiate the offense procedure due to the passage of time.
"After reviewing the documentation and the CEJN, it was determined that there was no procedure or concluded contract for the aforementioned services in 2021, but they were realized by direct acceptance of invoices, whereby the subject of supervision acted contrary to Article 27, paragraph 2 and Article 27, paragraph 3 and committed a misdemeanor from Article 211..., but due to the passage of time, the misdemeanor procedure will not be initiated", it is written in the decision of the Public Procurement Inspectorate, which initiated the inspection at the initiative of the Institute of Alternatives.
According to the Law on Public Procurement, fines for this offense amount to 5.000 to 20.000 euros for legal entities.
The Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism confirmed that in 2021, during the term of the minister Ratko Mitrović, they had not concluded any contract on the basis of which they invoiced the costs of air tickets.
90.000 euros passed through direct negotiations
Most ministries purchased airline tickets for official travel using the mechanism of direct bargaining. Eight of the 12 analyzed air ticket ministries procured air tickets using this method, instead of implementing the service through a simple procurement or framework agreement. Both procedures imply the publication of calls on the CEJN website, the possibility of all agencies that meet the conditions to participate as bidders through a transparent procedure, and appeals, if they are dissatisfied with the outcome.
During 2022, eight ministries spent more than 90.000 euros through direct contracting on airline tickets.
Last year, the Ministry of Economic Development purchased airline tickets from eight different agencies and for this purpose spent 43.000 euros, which is more than half of the total amount (85.147,45 euros), allocated for simple purchases under 5.000 euros.
The Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism spent 15.000 on airline tickets, and the Ministry of Science and Technological Development nearly 11.000 with three agencies. According to the invoices, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare spent 10.000 euros, Human and Minority Rights more than 7.000, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 5.000 euros.
Fines for sharing procurement items
The Public Procurement Inspection during 2022 found that in 11 cases the subject of public procurement was shared, in order to avoid the application of the Law on Public Procurement and the announcement of an open procedure.
According to the responses of the Directorate for Inspection Affairs (UIP), 366 simple public procurements were controlled, including the division of procurement items in order to circumvent the transparent procedure. 23 irregularities were found, almost half of which relate to the sharing of procurement items. Due to these irregularities, the inspection imposed 18 fines, in the amount of 25.050 euros, and submitted nine requests to initiate misdemeanor proceedings.
A year earlier, 361 simple procurements were controlled and 36 irregularities were identified, and 12 related to the sharing of procurement items. The UIP said that they imposed 32 fines by issuing misdemeanor orders in the amount of 52.800 euros.
This inspection also controlled the procurement of airline tickets, but only in connection with the fact that the contracting authorities do not keep records according to the descriptions of the procurement items due to the large number of procurement items, as well as variations, because it happened that part of the state authorities procured airline tickets and hotel accommodation. others only air tickets, while some are looking for the services of travel agencies, business trips and the like.
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