Chornomorsk chose a school bus supplier from two absolutely identical offers

The Department of Education of the Chornomorsk City Council of Odesa Oblast has reviewed proposals from two companies that expressed a desire to sell a school bus to the city council for UAH 3.4 million.

The relevant information was published in the Prozorro electronic procurement system.

According to the system, the auction took place on December 10 with the participation of two companies - Etalon Auto Trading House Limited Liability Company and Bas Motor Limited Liability Company. Both companies offered buses for 3.4 million hryvnias, and, at least according to Prozorro, the offers did not differ in any way.

However, Etalon Auto Trading House was chosen as the winner of the procurement. According to the YouControl service, the Etalon Auto Trading House Limited Liability Company was registered in 2006 in Kyiv. The ultimate beneficial owner, who has indirect decisive influence, is a Swiss citizen, Peter Herbert Schwotzer. As for the competitor, Bas Motor is also registered in Kyiv and owned by Oleh Mishchenko, a Kyiv resident.

The procurement was carried out in the format of "request for quotation (price) is a procurement method through Prozorro Market that can be used by the customer to determine the best price.

The procedure may seem similar to an open tender, but there are some peculiarities:

• of all competitive procedures, Prozorro's is the fastest - at least four days;
• there is no stage for submitting questions, demands or complaints;
• there is no need to prepare qualification documentation and, accordingly, the customer does not need to qualify;
• there is also no "Reduction" stage.

The customer announces a request for a product of a certain category, and then the system sends notifications to all suppliers who are accredited in it.

If a supplier already has a product in the catalog, he can

• respond to the request with the same price as in the catalog;
• offer the customer their own price.

The supplier can either accept the offer or ignore it. If the supplier decides to respond to the request, in this case, in the "Registration of offers" block, it is necessary to indicate its price (it may be lower than the customer specified in his request) and select the product.

On September 6, the Department of Education and Science of the Odesa Regional State Administration amended the agreement with the Limited Liability Company "Trading House "Etalon Auto", which won the tender for the supply of school buses. The bus supplier was selected at a full-fledged auction, in which three other companies participated in addition to the winner: Bas Auto LLC, Zhytomyr-Auto LLC, and Cherkasy Bus Joint Stock Company. The offer of Etalon Auto LLC was the most favorable of all. The company agreed to supply buses for UAH 86 million 996 thousand. The procurement was also conducted in the format of a request for proposals.

Кирило Бойко