Minimum wage increase reason for cancellation of 6.8 million tender at UCCK

The University Clinical Center of Kosovo has canceled a 6.8 million euro tender for physical security, citing the increase in the minimum wage to 425 euros gross and changing financial circumstances. Meanwhile, an economic operator who filed a complaint claims that it was declared the winner, even though no contract award notice was sent, describing the cancellation as arbitrary.

The increase in the minimum wage by the Government of Kosovo, which from January 1 has been set at 425 euros gross, was given as the reason for the cancellation of the Kosovo University Clinical Center's tender for physical insurance. 

This tender had been open for 15 months and in the tender dossier the basic salary was foreseen at 402 euros gross. 6.8 million euros were allocated for this contract for 36 months, in case a winning operator was declared.

After the cancellation of the procurement activity, the economic operator "SIG sh.pk", which had participated in the tender, submitted a complaint, claiming that the cancellation was made arbitrarily and in violation of the Law on Public Procurement.

"We consider that a Government decision to increase the minimum wage should not be a reason for canceling the procurement activity, since the LPP and the Public Procurement Regulation do not define such a thing. We have applied according to the tender dossier, with a gross salary of 402 euros, calculating all obligations arising from the Labor Law and the ATK. The CA is obliged to find a solution for the EO in accordance with the LPP and the Public Procurement Regulation. A procurement activity cannot be canceled for criteria that are not provided for in the tender dossier and in the Contract Notice," states the complaint of the company "SIG"

According to the UCCK, the cancellation of this tender is based on Article 62 of the LPP.

This institution says that the Government's decision constitutes an objectively unpredictable event. 

"Considering the fact that there is a substantial change in circumstances, the continuation of this procurement activity has been impossible, since the change in the calculation of salaries is large and the financial analyses of the offers for the basic salary, including all legal obligations, have not been accurate. In the absence of a legal basis to adjust the price of the offer, the CA-QKUK has been forced to cancel the procurement activity," QKUK explained. 

According to Article 62 of the LPP, a procurement activity may be cancelled only if the responsive bids contain prices that exceed the contracting authority's budget, or if the termination becomes necessary due to objective events beyond its control. 

Five economic operators have bid in this tender. 

The lowest bid was 6.5 million euros, while the highest was 6.7 million euros. So none of the operators exceeded the value foreseen in the tender dossier.

In its complaint, the company "SIG" emphasized that all additional documents were requested from the UCCK, which, according to them, only happens when an operator is declared the winner. 

"You have all the documentation exchanged between the CA and our consortium in e-procurement in the documents-Standard Letters. So this is proof that we as a Group of Economic Operators are responsible and according to the LPP we have been declared the winner even though the Contracting Authority has not sent the Notice of Decision. Such documents, namely TAK Certificates, Court Certificates and Original Insurance are required for the EO to whom the contract is intended to be awarded."

UCCK has announced that after the cancellation of this procurement activity and the complaints submitted to the Procurement Review Body, it has opened an emergency tender worth 1 million euros, with a duration of 5 months. 

The SIG operator also had a contract with QKUK during the summer months of last year, which has since ended. This contract was signed after the previous contract had expired and QKUK was left without physical security.

For one month, 33 police officers provided security for UCCK clinics, an effort that cost UCCK around 31,680 euros.

The Kosovo Police, through a response to KOHA, said that the agreement for securing the UCCK Emergency Clinic is still valid.