Hospital tender at Bardovci awarded to company linked to director’s cousin

A contract to provide IT maintenance and renewed software licences at the Bardovci Psychiatric Hospital has been awarded to a company whose ultimate owner is a cousin of the hospital director, according to the hospital's procurement paperwork. The contractor, Indigo Inc DOOEL Skopje, is owned by Besim Abdulai; the hospital director is Isa Avdulai.

The contract covers maintenance of a network security system (firewall); purchase of mail-server licences for 300 mailboxes; a one-year licence for remote monitoring of 300 computers or servers; and a "next-generation firewall" for one year. It also includes maintenance and technical support for the mail-server system, upkeep of productivity software, and remote management and monitoring of existing IT devices (desktops, servers and other equipment).

The maximum potential expenditure under the agreement for one year is €42,000 (2,594,820 denars). The contract is to be executed successively over 12 months, and the hospital reserves the right not to complete the procurement in full.

Signatory, recusal and legal references

Unlike most other hospital contracts, the signatory on behalf of the hospital is Elise Salahi, who in 2022 was appointed at a public call to the position "junior associate for public procurement" at the Bardovci Psychiatric Hospital. The director, Isa Avdulai, confirmed by telephone that he is related to the company owner and described him as "a second or third cousin" and said he does not hide the relationship. The company owner, Besim Abdulai, did not reply to emailed questions about the family connection.

Avdulai told hospital officials and provided a written explanation that he was not a member of the commission that chose the economic operator and that, "for the avoidance of a possible conflict of interest and so that the procedure is lawful, I as director completely recuse myself from the public procurement procedure." The written response cites Article 38, paragraph 1 of the Law on Public Procurement, which requires the responsible person to sign a statement that no conflict of interest exists; Article 38, paragraph 3, which allows an authorised official to take decisions and sign the contract when a conflict would otherwise exist; and Article 37, which incorporates relevant anti-corruption and conflict-of-interest rules into procurement procedures.

Biljana Ivanovska, the former chair of the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, said that "although in this specific case the procedure was formally respected, the fact that a close person of the director wins the tender nevertheless leaves room for suspicion of a prearranged tender." She added: "Unfortunately, such 'legal' cases are appearing more often, which points to the need for the legislator to make changes in the regulation following the example of Western European countries."

The current head of the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, Adem Chuchulj, said that the new law foresees prohibiting certain categories of relatives from concluding public procurement contracts where they have a relative who is a director, but under the present law there is no problem because the director recused himself. "Under the current law it is not possible to prevent a company owned by his cousin from participating in a public tender," he said.

The contract indicates the contractor will have access to strictly confidential information belonging to the hospital and to personal data. Clause 8 obliges the service provider to keep all confidential information strictly secret and not to use, copy, alter or disclose it to a third party or use it for any other purpose or profit even after the contract ends. Clause 9 states that the company will have access to personal data and is likewise obliged to keep it confidential. The hospital did not provide a breakdown of what services have already been delivered or their value to date.

Photo: press material from the event