Ministry of Communications and Transport of BiH: Tender worth 17 million KM rigged for two companies

On Monday (22 August), it will be known which IT company will procure Microsoft licenses for computers used in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The tender is worth about 17 million KM, excluding VAT. The contract covers the period from 2016 to 2019, Patria reports.

The commission for reviewing submitted bids will not have many dilemmas. The Ministry of Communications and Transport of BiH has issued such a tender that only two companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina can win this multi-million job: the IT company SYS Co from Sarajevo or the company Lanaco d.o.o. from Banja Luka.

Other IT companies from the country cannot meet the conditions required in the tender, regardless of their previous references.

Why will exactly one of these two companies get to procure Microsoft licenses for the needs of BiH institutions?

The tender documentation issued by the Ministry of Communications and Transport of BiH states that only companies with the status of so-called Microsoft LAR can apply for the tender. These are Microsoft partners specialized for large customers.

On the Microsoft website, it is clearly stated that their LARs for BiH are precisely these two companies: SYS Co and Lanaco d.o.o. There is no third company with LAR status in BiH.

The owner of the Sarajevo company SYS Co is Faruk Telibečirević. He is also a co-owner of the company Logosoft. He sold the majority stake in Logosoft to Serbia's M:tel a few years ago.

The owner of the Banja Luka company Lanaco is Nebojša Ninić, one of the closest associates of Milorad Dodik. The portal Žurnal published last year that this company is linked to million-euro scandals. Journalists of this portal wrote that Lanaco gets some of the biggest jobs in public institutions of Republika Srpska without tenders.

There are about 150 Microsoft partners in BiH. But none of them can offer the conditions under which they would procure Microsoft licenses for the needs of BiH institutions. They are eliminated by point 3.5 of this tender, Patria reports.