The CEC reported the PRB for fraud against the company that it once declared the winner of a tender worth nearly 37 thousand euros.

The Central Election Commission ended up without a supply of vests for commissioners of the Municipal Counting Centers and the Counting and Results Center for the 2025 local elections, after the company that was declared the winner of the tender worth around 37 thousand euros refused to sign the contract and was subsequently reported to the Procurement Review Body for fraud. This resulted in the cancellation of the tender and the inclusion of the company on the blacklist for six months.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) recommended a company for the contract to supply commissioner vests in the 2025 local elections, which it then reported for fraud to the Procurement Review Body (PRB).

On September 6 last year, the CEC recommended “Europrint Group”, but it did not show up to sign the 36,800 euro tender contract in which it had bid. As a result, commissioners at the Municipal Counting Centers (MCC) and the Counting and Results Center (CRC) were left without vests. 

The CEC tender dossier required that the vests be blue and gray, while the company that was declared the winner said that they submitted green vests as samples.

"In this procedure, we participated with a green vest sample and, in accordance with the LPP and the legal provisions in force, if the sample does not meet the technical specifications (in this case the color), our offer should have been eliminated at the evaluation stage. However, after we were declared the winner by the Contracting Authority - CEC, they asked us to submit vests with a different color than the one we applied with and submitted as a sample. For us, this was impossible, given the extremely short deadline for submission, as well as the fact that we were prepared to participate in this activity with green vests," they said in "Europrint Group".

According to the PRB Panel, the technical descriptions of the tender dossier contained clear product requirements. This instance found that the economic operator deceived the contracting authority and therefore approved the CEC's request to blacklist the economic operator for six months.

"The AKM's claim of fraud remains due to the fact that the economic operator also submitted a written statement in its bid regarding the technical specifications and delivery deadline of the product," the decision of the PRB review panel states.

"Europrint Group" called the company's inclusion in the blacklist unfounded and even tendentious, as they said that "the main criterion in this procurement activity was the submission of the vest sample." 
The CEC had cancelled the procurement activity, following the economic operator's refusal to sign the contract, finding that the failure caused damage. Before the PRB, the CEC presented an e-mail received from "Europrint Group", after the recommendation for the contract.

"We have received an e-mail from the EO 'Europrint Group sh.p.k', which, among other things, stated that 'in this tender our offer was third and we did not expect to be the winner and for this reason we did not deal with this tender'", states the email submitted by the CEC.

According to the PRB document, the CEC informed the economic operator that "the terms of the tender dossier and the offer are non-negotiable at this stage."

KOHA requested clarification from the CEC as to why it recommended this company for the tender if it submitted a vest sample with a different color than the required specification, but did not receive a response on Tuesday. The CEC did not respond to the question of whether, apart from submitting the application to the PRB, other steps have been taken regarding this tender.