Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) has published today the analysis “Problematic road maintenance, delays and favors”, which reveals the findings from monitoring the three-year contract of the Ministry of Infrastructure for the summer and winter maintenance of the national and regional roads of Kosovo (2017- 2019).

At the opening of this roundtable Arben Kelmendi, Program Manager at KDI, showed that this report presents findings from proactive public procurement monitoring at the Ministry of Infrastructure (MI).

Whereas, Fjolla Uka, researcher at KDI, announced that the procurement process for this contract was analyzed starting from the planning stage, the tendering stage – the criteria set out in the Tender Dossier, the award phase as well as the complaints of the Economic Operators (EOs) and decisions of the Procurement Review Body (PRB) regarding these complaints.

She emphasized the delays on contract award by MI for more than a year as a result of multiple complaints from EOs regarding MI decisions for contract award. Due to the lack of proper review of the complaints by MI, these OEs have lodged complaints in the PRB that caused the extension of the procurement process, and consequently the roads were left without maintenance. “Many complaints rejected by MI as ungrounded have been approved by the PRB as grounded,” Uka reported.

“Delays untill contract award have forced MI to conclude an emergency contract for winter maintenance, and the price for this contract was 289,326.27 euros higher compared to the prices on the regular contract,” she added.

Another finding of this report is the fact that MI from 2014 to 2020 has signed contracts for the maintenance of roads with the same economic operators.

Another disturbing finding of this report are the prices offered by the winning EOs. Within the bids of the EOs were noticed abnormally low prices. Concrete example, in Lot Gjakova 1, MI has rewarded with contract the EO that has offered a price for employee work hours of 0.01 Euros. If we calculate the monthly salary for a worker, according to the bid of this EO, this EO pays it’s employees a salary of 1.68 euros per month.

The findings of the report appeal that the planning of the procurement process for road maintenance needs to be done carefully, and the tendering procedures should begin on time.

Also, procurement activity notices should be published in the e-procurement platform in accordance with legal requirements.

Also, KDI recommends that the criteria set out in the Tender Dossier should be set in accordance with legal norms so that no complaints can subsequently arise which may affect the reliability but also delays in the tendering process. MI based on the Rules and the Operational Guidelines for Public Procurement, on Unit Price Contracts should use the method of scoring, which in the concrete contract elaborated in this report was not used.

KDI further requires MI to respect the decisions of the PRB and to respond to it within legal deadlines when the latter has requests regarding the documents that MI has in possession. To prevent delays, KDI

recommends the PRB to make decisions within shorter timeframes, always conforming to the legal provisions of the PPL. It is also suggested that the PRB review experts conduct a detailed review of the complaining claims of the EOs and the final decisions of the PRB should be as concrete as possible.

According to KDI, the PRB should penalize or issue an ordnance against the Contracting Authority which does not respect its decisions and is not cooperate when any activity is under procedure in the PRB.

This report is part of the public procurement monitoring project in public institutions such as the Ministry of Infertructure, Health, Central Procurement Authority and Kosovo Energy Corporation and is funded by the British Embassy in Pristina.

You can download the report with full findings and recommendations here.