Despite the difficulties it has encountered with tender procedures, bidders’ complaints, and the State Commission for the Control of Public Procurement Procedures exceeding statutory deadlines, the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System has managed to secure a significant number of new meters.
Following the completion of the tender procedures, around eighty thousand new metering devices will be delivered to CEDIS by the end of this year under these contracts.
At the beginning of March, seven thousand meters were procured through the tender “Metering Equipment for Improving the Metering System – Lot 2 – Meters for Specific Metering Points” of 6 May 2022. In the meantime, the tender procedure “Meters and Metering Equipment for the Maintenance of Metering Points in the Existing AMM System” of 29 December 2022 has also been completed, and the delivery of a further fifteen thousand meters is expected in the autumn. A further eight thousand meters have been delivered under the tender “Procurement of Metering Equipment for the Needs of the Metering Sector” of 27 December 2022.
To ensure transparent and accurate information for the public, we emphasise that the Commission for the Control of Public Procurement Procedures issued decisions in proceedings No. 60/22 of 6 May 2022 for the procurement of goods – Metering Equipment for Improving the Metering System – Lot 1 – G3 PLC Meters and Equipment, and No. 59/22 of 6 May 2022 for the procurement of goods – Metering Equipment for New Consumers, Producers and Transformer Stations. The complaints submitted by the bidder consortium “INFINITY ITSS AND ENERGY” LLC Podgorica – “PROINTER ITSS” d.o.o. Banja Luka – a member of Infinity International Group were dismissed as entirely unfounded. Accordingly, once these two contracts are concluded, more than fifty thousand new meters will be delivered to the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System.
We emphasise that CEDIS, as the Contracting Authority, respected the powers of the second-instance body and did not disclose facts relevant to the public procurement procedures themselves, despite untrue claims published in the media throughout the appeal proceedings.
In previous statements, Executive Director Vladimir Ivanović noted that the tender procedures had slowed down their implementation, but that once they were completed, our company would have more than eighty thousand meters.
“Many controversies have surrounded the tender procedures for the procurement of meters, dating back to an earlier period. What matters most, however, is that there were no complaints about the technical specifications for the meters, except in the procurement of goods – Metering Equipment for Improving the Metering System – Lot 1 – G3 PLC Meters and Equipment, and the procurement of goods – Metering Equipment for New Consumers, Producers and Transformer Stations, where the Commission ruled in favour of CEDIS. All meters are being procured from the companies Somborelektro and Mezon,” Ivanović noted.
We would like to inform the public that since 2021, CEDIS has launched as many as seven open tender procedures for the procurement of metering equipment, and that the contracted deliveries will provide CEDIS with metering equipment worth more than twelve million euros.
