The Court of Auditors buys five Apple Iphone Xs as service phones

In the technical specifications of the procurement procedure for GSM mobile phones, the RM's Court of Auditors has provided technical parameters corresponding only to the Apple Iphone X model of 256 GB. This model in stores in the country costs between 18,999 lei – 29,105 lei. To acquire the five phones, the Court provided 96,000 lei, or 19,200 lei per piece. The public procurement procedure was launched on November 26 and is hurriedly launched: one day was reserved for clarifications and two days for tenders.

The purchase of luxury phones at the public money has already become a tradition at the Court of Auditors. Recently, at the end of October 2018, it was bought a phone Samsung GALAXYNOTE 9at the price of 17,440 lei. Only two companies participated in the procurement procedure and prices remained unchanged after three calls for tenders. Initially, 21,600 lei were provided for the purchase of this phone.

At the same time, for another category of budget members working in the National Center for Prehospital Medical Assistance, a procurement procedure in which it is necessary to buy 200 GSM phones. The lowest price offered was 268.80 lei / piece. In this case, it was a real competition in which only seven companies were involved and where prices had fallen by almost half.

The examples above highlight how a contracting authority, through the "tendentious" booklet, can "legally" carry out public procurement procedures. And for this indulgence in which luxury goods become a "service necessity", taxpayers continue to pay a high price.

We recall that recourse to public authorities has recently become obligatory Automated Information System "Register of Public Procurement" (MTender). The basic concept of MTender is that all acts and procedures are public and that everyone can access them in real time. This obliges the authorities to publish in the system all documents relating to public procurement. In the same way, MTender makes it possible to visualize the whole procedure, including all the documents submitted by the economic agents. The launch of MTender significantly contributes to the transparency of the procurement procedures and minimizes the intervention of the human factor in the procedures. Unfortunately, "errors" related to the human factor are still in the planning stage of procurement and documentation, at the stage of qualification / exclusion of offers, as well as during the award of the contract.