On January 31, 2018, a press conference on tender malpractice by Kyivdorservice ME, which was faced by our client Plastics-Ukraine, was held in a press center of Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
For about 10 years already EUCON has been providing legal support and advocacy for Plastics-Ukraine, a major distributor of polymeric materials from European and global manufacturers, a part of the Plastics Group and which has been operating on the Ukrainian market for over 20 years. The situation that emerged around the Kyivdorservice ME tender (now known as the Traffic Management Centre) was not an exception, as Plastics Ukraine has recently experienced a discrimination during the evaluation of bidders’ offers.
“Until 2014, we never took part in tenders announced by public or municipal enterprises, but after the introduction of Prozorro Public Procurement System we thought it could be an opportunity for us to participate in tenders on honest and transparent conditions along with other companies,” – sais Ireneusz Derek, General Director of Plactics Ukraine.
In the summer of 2017, Kyivdorservice ME announced a tender for the purchase of reflective film for road signs. According to Mr. Derek, Plastics-Ukraine took part in 3 tenders, offering the most favorable price, but all three proposals by Plastics Ukraine were rejected by the tender committee. Each time the tender results were “cooked up” and the winner was the company whose price offer was considerably higher than the Plastics-Ukraine’s offer.
Yaroslav Romanchuk, an attorney, managing partner of EUCON International Legal Center, explained this situation from a legal point of view. He noted that after each of the tenders EUCON lawyers had conducted a full analysis of documentation of all the bidders, which was possible due to the openness of the public electronic auctions system, and every time the discriminatory actions against our client were discovered, which was also recorded in four decisions by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine .
He added that the Kyiv City State Administration will be informed about this situation in the nearest future, and an appropriate request to the Office of the Business Ombudsman will be prepared and sent as well.
Also, Yaroslav Romanchuk mentioned five principles that should be observed when conducting ttenders by Kyivdorservice:
- Openness and transparency of procurements;
- Observance of the principle of non-discrimination of participants;
- Objective and unbiased evaluation of tender offers;
- Prevention of corruption;
- Compliance with competition rules.
Mr. Ireneusz Derek added that the main purpose of the press conference was to convey that competition should be transparent for all traders. “Taking into account the latest experience, I came to a conclusion that Prozorro Public Procurement System works well, but it is also necessary to make state and municipal enterprises work honestly and not to impose discriminatory requirements towards bidders. Despite this, Plastics Ukraine is ready to fight and defend its rights, and ready to offer the best products at affordable prices”, said Mr. Derek.