The State Audit Institution’s (DRI) report on the regularity of the operations of the state-owned power company, Elektroprivreda Srbije (Electric Power Industry of Serbia – EPS) in the part covers the compensation provided by EPS under contracts concluded with other companies in 2019 and public procurement for 2018 and 2019.
The report shows that, during the two above-mentioned years, EPS concluded public contracts worth 31.53 billion dinars (approximately 265 million euro) without charging VAT which is in violation of the provisions of the Law on Public Procurement.
In addition, EPS allegedly entered into a contract for the purchase of services worth 1.64 billion dinars, for which it did not launch a public procurement procedure, although, as stated in the report, “there was no basis for exemption from the application of the Public Procurement Law.”
Regarding employment on the basis of contracts for temporary work, the report found that in 2019, 45.8 million dinars were paid illegally to least 1,049 people, who were not performing work of a temporary nature.
Furthermore, for more than four years, the same person has been serving as a deputy director of the company, although, according to the law, he could do so for a maximum of one year.
The report goes on to say that neither the CEO of EPS nor the members of the Supervisory Board are in compliance because their terms expired in 2018 but they continue to serve.
Most violations were found in the assessment of the value of public contracts, as for 23 contracts worth 14.1 billion dinars, the company did not demonstrate how it determined the estimated value.
For eight public procurements worth 9.2 billion dinars, the auditors did not receive evidence that the public procurements were planned in line with the criteria for procurement planning and that these procurements were actually necessary.
In the case of procurements with an agreed value of two billion dinars, the description of the item stated in the invitation to tender and in the tender documentation did not correspond to the subject matter of the procurement specified in the technical specification of the documentation.
Plus, the company concluded public procurement contracts in nine public procurement procedures worth 6.2 billion dinars with bidders whose bids contained significant deficiencies, due to which they had to be rejected as unacceptable.
(Danas, 20.01.2021)
https://www.danas.rs/ekonomija/eps-potrosio-250-miliona-evra-krseci-zakon-o-javnim-nabavkama/
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