Center for Civil Communications: Electric-bus tender run three times in 15 months, winning bid was not the lowest

The Center for Civil Communications published a new report titled "Public Oversight of Public Procurement: Case Studies (edition no.3)" that reviews the procurement process for electric buses launched by the national authorities.

Key findings

The report says the procurement procedure was run three times over a period of 15 months, and that each repetition made the participants, their prices and their bids increasingly known to the market.

According to the study, Hungarian company Ikarus Electric and Chinese firm Zongtong Bus Holding competed against each other in the second tender, while in the third they submitted a joint offer that was selected as the most favorable.

The value of the procurement is 60 million euros. The winning offer was not the lowest: two cheaper offers were rejected during the evaluation.

The Center warns that repeating the tender, changing the conditions, shifts in the composition of bidders and a lack of explanations for some of the amendments increase the risk of favouring particular suppliers and restricting competition.

The report also notes that the Ministry of Transport did not provide requested documents, including the analysis on the basis of which the tender documentation was prepared and subsequently amended.

Photo: press material from the event