Kherson Regional State Administration Obliged to Amend Tender for 135 Million

A department of the Kherson Regional State Administration has to change the tender conditions for the reconstruction of an outpatient clinic in Vysokopillya. Antimonopoly authorities found that the documentation contained requirements that restricted competition.

This is evidenced by the AMCU's decision published in the Prozorro procurement system.

In early August, the Department of Territorial Development of the Kherson Regional Military Administration announced a tender for the reconstruction of the building of the Vysokopil village council. The project envisages a complete re-equipment of the premises into a modern outpatient clinic for general family medicine, which should provide the community residents with affordable primary care. The expected cost of the works is UAH 135.22 million, and funding is provided under the Ukraine Facility program of the European Union.

However, on August 13, Avtomagistral-Zakhid LLC filed a complaint against the procurement. The company challenged the requirement of the tender documents, according to which the average annual turnover of participants over the past year had to be at least 60% of the expected cost of the reconstruction, i.e. UAH 81.13 million.

According to the applicant, this condition is discriminatory, as it effectively cuts off small and medium-sized enterprises that have the necessary experience and can perform the work, but do not have such a volume of working capital due to martial law. The company asked the customer to make changes to the documentation, but the Department refused to adjust the conditions.

In this regard, on August 22, Avtomagistral-Zakhid filed a complaint with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. On August 26, the AMCU Commission accepted it for consideration.

On September 3, the AMCU Commission for Review of Complaints in Public Procurement issued a decision. According to its results, the Department of Territorial Development of Kherson Regional State Administration was obliged to amend the tender documentation for the reconstruction of the administrative building of the Vysokopil Village Council into an outpatient clinic. The relevant adjustments should eliminate the violations specified in the reasoning part of the decision.

Another tender for the reconstruction of the main water supply system in Kherson region caused outrage. The client demanded to provide certified welders and a site manager, although the law does not provide for this. Participants believe that such conditions discriminate against companies that have qualified personnel but cannot submit the imposed documents.

Анна Бальчінос