Rail vehicles tenders rigged – Commission for Protection of Competition confirms TENT's suspicions

TENT Obrenovac, a branch of the public enterprise Elektroprivreda Srbije, submitted on 13 March 2016 a notification to the Commission for Protection of Competition that there might be a possibility of unfair competition in the public procurement procedure by the Enterprise for repair of rail vehicles MIP-RSV from Cuprija, Enterprise for production, trade and services Intermehanika Smederevo, Tatravagonka Bratstvo from Subotica and the limited liability company for the repair and production of rail vehicles Sinvoz from Zrenjanin and started a legal procedure against them by official duty.

In the clarification of its decision to start a legal procedure against these enterprises by official duty, the Commission for Protection of Competition cites that it has determined that TENT is carrying out the public procurement procedure of the repair service for around 100 rail cars for the transportation of the Arbel brand of coal at least once a year. From 2014 to January this year, these four companies have made bids in the public procurement procedures that have been carried out. By checking the documentation, the Commission has determined that neither of the repair companies, from the list of the qualified bidders, has the capacity to repair all the vehicles from April 15 till June 30 this year.

Following a detailed analysis of the documentation gathered, the Commission has justifiably assumed that the companies MIP-RSV, Intermehanika, Tetravagonka and Sinvoz have violated the terms of fair competition by rigging their bids in the public procurement procedure for the repair service of the railway cars for the transportation of the Arbel brand of coal. This kind of behavior of bidders in public procurement procedures, says the Commission's statement, amounts to a forbidden agreement between the market participants/competitors about the conditions of the participation in the public procurement procedure.

The Commission has established that the criterion for awarding the contract in the public procurement procedure was the lowest price offered per party, and that the contracts were awarded to bidders which hadn't offered the lowest price. The statement also says that the tender call was answered by all four bidders with nearly identical prices, and it has also been recorded that the prices offered were significantly lowered by all bidders relative to the estimated value of the public procurement, with the differences coming down to minimal deviations between the offers.

No complaints are allowed against this decision by the Commission, but it can be disputed by an appeal against the final decision.

Akcionarsko društvo Elektroprivreda Srbije Beograd

Ogranak EPS Termoelektrane Nikola Tesla- TENT d.o.o. Obrenovac

Komisija za zaštitu konkurencije Srbije

Inter-Mehanika Skorenovac

Tatravagonka Bratstvo Subotica

Šinvoz d.o.o. Zrenjanin

TENT Obrenovac

MIP RSV Cuprija

Intermehanika Smederevo

Tatravagonka Bratstvo Subotica

Sinvoz Zrenjanin

coal transportation railway cars