Companies that bought security measures and equipment were captured: special attention was given to the Vilnius municipality



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According to Jovita Petkuvienė, acting head of the Public Procurement Office (VPN), the value of acquisitions that caused doubts for various reasons was approximately 2.5 million. four of them for almost 1.9 million. EUR was implemented by the Vilnius city municipality. Purchases of respirators and face masks were evaluated in all cases, except for artificial lung ventilation equipment purchased by the capital municipality.

In total, around 100 contracts for over 5 million were selected and evaluated. euros

“Perhaps there are logical and normal justifications for contracting authorities for why they chose those providers. Some are likely to be justified, some may not be, so you don’t want to put them all on one shelf. One of the key elements in evaluating the risk and select purchases have been those companies that have never participated in such specific activities or have never participated in public procurement, “he said.

The VPT is also clarifying the agreements between Lietuvos Paštas, Klaipėdos Energija, the Vilnius district and the municipalities of the city of Klaipėda, and two contracts from the Ministry of Social Security and Labor.

If there are no obstacles to obtaining the necessary documents, it is expected to evaluate the purchases and present the conclusions within a month.

“We do not rule out the possibility that the data may also have to be transferred to law enforcement,” said the head of the service.

Special attention is paid to Vilnius self-government

According to J. Petkuvienė, purchases in which large advances were paid to suppliers also received more attention. For example, the municipality of the Vilnius city of the Andrikus company, which has not yet sold medical equipment, for 278 thousand. The full amount was paid in advance for the purchase of ten artificial lung ventilators. According to Lietuvos Rytas, the municipality did not receive these devices from China until the end of April and promises to request a refund. The transaction is also valued by the police.

“The Special Investigation Service is clarifying the circumstances of this acquisition, the procedural decision has not yet been made,” Renata Keblienė, representative of the Special Investigation Service, told BNS.

According to J. Petkuvienė, the fact that the full amount provided for in the contract was paid in advance to a company, which until now had nothing to do with supplying medical equipment, raises serious questions.

“It is not the only purchase, it is only the one that got stuck. But we have a similar situation with other contracting powers. Only the municipality of Vilnius stands out, because they have many purchases that fall into that circle, when it is not clear with the reasons for select a provider, ”said the head of the service.

In the case of the Vilnius municipality, it stated that the equipment was purchased through negotiations without prior notice from three suppliers. According to her, two companies specialize in this field, but a smaller part of them was purchased, at which time a large part of the equipment was purchased from Andrikus.

“The supplier’s turnover is such that it would not normally” actually “happen through public procurement, the contracting authority would never choose a company whose annual turnover is several times less than the purchase,” said J. Petkuvienė.

Povilas Poderskis, director of the Vilnius municipal administration, told BNS that the VPN “does what it was created for,” that is. oversees compliance with the Public Procurement Law, but promises to provide a more detailed comment later Tuesday.

According to the VPN, so far the country’s public sector has allocated more than 82 million euros for the purchase of tools and equipment in the fight against the coronavirus. euros

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