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Lipsic: Cleaning Tender at Ministry Looks Ready-made for One Company
Thursday 14 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 14 (TASR) - Opposition Christian Democrat (KDH) MP Daniel Lipsic is convinced that the latest tender for cleaning, construction-assembly and other works run by the Interior Ministry raises many questions.
He said at a news conference on Thursday that these uncertainities are arousing suspicion that the tender is overpriced and "made" for one specific company. Lipsic was speaking in reaction to a Pravda daily article, according to which the ministry procured the said services for €26 million.
Also on Thursday, the ministry responded to the information published in the daily that the tender was announced and carried out in a non-standard way.
Lipsic directed four questions to Interior Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) concerning the tender.
Firstly, he says it needs to be ascertained what kind of project experience the winning company ISS Facility Service (based in Bratislava) has. The ministry claims the firm has been carrying out not only cleaning works, but also construction-assembly projects. "But - based on the records in the Business Register - the construction-related activities of the company have been registered only since May 8, 2008," Lipsic pointed out, adding that bidders in the tender had to hand down an evidence that they performed construction-like activities between 2005 and 2007 – and the projects were supposed to have been relatively major.
Secondly, Lipsic wants to know if it's true that bidders who failed to provide security services themselves (doing it only via subcontractors) were excluded from the tender. "Because even the winning company cannot provide it, as it wasn't security-screened by the National Security Office," he said.
Also, Lipsic is asking which local companies can offer these services less expensively. The Interior Ministry claims that if individual departments at the ministry are able to purchase these services elsewhere, there's no obligation to follow the wording of the framework agreement signed with the winner of the tender. "We have information that in central Slovakia, for example, offers by local firms are half the price (compared with Bratislava)," he said.
Finally, Lipsic asked if it's true that the framework agreement has been extended to include construction works that were not a subject to it previously.
At the same time, he called on Prime Minister Robert Fico to respond to this matter the same way he did in the case of former defence minister Frantisek Kasicky, who was dismissed due to a hugely overpriced cleaning-works tender in January 2008.
Lipsic said he was ready to file a petition towards the Public Procurement Bureau (UVO), although the authority has expressed no reservations to the tender yet.
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