Serbian Justice Ministry forced to terminate contract awarded to Telekom

Following a year-long process, the ministry ruled all the offers unacceptable and suspended the procurement pending the adoption of a public procurement plan for 2020, the magazine said citing a January 31 notice. It recalled that the ministry launched the public procurement procedure in November 2018, inviting offers to maintain and upgrade its court communications network. The tender was disputed by a group of bidders led by Orion Telekom and QMS.  

A group of bidders at the tender filed a complaing with the Rights Protection Commission, claiming that only equipment made by Forcepoint (represented in Serbia by Comtrade which bid at the tender with Telekom) meets one of the conditions of the tender. The group are Orion telekom, Orion telekom TIM, Macchina Security, NES Communications, Algotech and LOGO.  

The group, led by Orion, made an offer of 40 million Dinars while Telekom and Comtrade made an offer of 58,223,700 Dinars. The group of bidders filed the first complaint in November, 2018 but the process was not interrupted and initial decision to award the contract to Telekom and Comtrade was taken in April, 2019. Orion filed multiple complaints, finally forcing the ministry to terminate the contract.