Transparency International Files Criminal Complaint Over RS Public Health Institute Procurements

BANJA LUKA, (Patria) - Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) has filed a criminal complaint with the District Public Prosecutor's Office in Banja Luka against the management of the Institute for Public Health of Republika Srpska over disputed procurements of medical equipment from unqualified bidders. During April this year, the Institute procured medical protective masks from the company Procontrol from Banja Luka, which deals with architectural and engineering activities, as well as medical protective equipment from the travel agency Travel4Fun, through a negotiated procedure. Neither company has a permit for the trade of medical devices, although such a condition was required by the tender documentation that the Institute submitted to TI BiH. Regardless of these conditions, the Institute invited unqualified bidders in three separate negotiated procedures, which raises reasonable suspicion that the criminal offenses of Unlawful Granting of Benefits to Business Entities and Negligent Performance of Duties have been committed.

At the beginning of April, the Institute awarded two contracts to the company Procontrol for the procurement of protective masks and protective suits – one worth 345,000 and the other worth 1.65 million KM excluding VAT. In both procedures, the conditions were that the bidder is registered to perform the activity and that it has a permit from the Agency for Medicines of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only this bidder was invited, even though it did not have a permit from that Agency, and the Law on Public Procurement clearly stipulates that the invitation could only be sent to a qualified bidder and that the conditions must be determined in advance. Both contracts were awarded to the company Procontrol, and a notice about this was published on the portal of the Public Procurement Agency on April 6. In the meantime, one contract worth 1.65 million KM was terminated with the explanation that "Procontrol did not meet the delivery deadline." The owner of Procontrol d.o.o. is one of the co-owners of the company "MMSCODE," which receives million-dollar contracts in Republika Srpska in the field of software services, and one of the recent contracts is the procurement of radars for the needs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska worth 10 million KM.

In an almost identical case, a criminal complaint was also filed regarding the conclusion of a contract worth 2.38 million KM for the procurement of medical protective equipment with the travel agency Travel4Fun. The tender documentation in possession of TI BiH also required that the bidder be registered for that activity and possess a permit from the Agency for Medicines of Bosnia and Herzegovina. TI BiH received official confirmation from the Agency for Medicines that Travel4fun does not have a permit for the trade of medical devices, but the contract was nevertheless awarded to this company, and a notice about this was published on the public procurement portal on April 29 this year. The Institute later stated that Travel4Fun was part of a group of bidders with the company Promeding d.o.o. from Laktaši, which has a permit from the Agency, but this company is not mentioned in the Institute's notice on the public procurement portal.

A decision was also published on the Institute's website, from which it is evident that the Institute's actions were illegal. The document states that the invitation to participate in this procedure was sent only to the unqualified bidder Travel4Fun, and that the company Promeding appeared at the meeting on the terms of the offer on April 10. Article 28 of the Law on Public Procurement explicitly prohibits such conduct, because only bidders who have been previously determined to meet the conditions are invited to negotiations, so their appearance with a company that may have met the conditions at that time is irrelevant in this case. Moreover, it is indicative that Promeding d.o.o. is not mentioned in the decisions published on the public procurement portal, from which the public learned about these cases, which raises suspicion that it was subsequently mentioned to justify the conclusion of these contracts, which TI BiH also pointed out in the criminal complaint.