Apă Canal Chișinău (ACC) provided details about the way in which the tender contest for buying smart water meters was held. In a press release, the company says the regulations concerning the goal of public procurement were respected as SRL “Partener Energo” submitted the lowest price bid and was chosen the winner. The procurement commission assessed the bids according to such criteria as the quality, the lowest price and the most advantageous offer from technical and economic viewpoints.
The public procurement procedure held by the ACC in 2020 was transparent and the invitation to take part in the contest was published repeatedly on www.acc.md and in the Official Gazette so as to ensure the participation of an unlimited number of bidders. The winner, Partener Energo, purchased 1,000 electronic automatic reading system meters DN-15mm, L-110mm; 69 electronic automatic reading system meters DN-20mm, L-190mm and one outdoor gateway system.
These smart systems implemented by the operator exclude the human factor from the meter reading process, while the efficiency and performance of the technologies implemented by the ACC can be anytime shown to those interested. Furthermore, the problem of share of the public water supply system disappears together with the implementation of this project.
Under the regulations, each members of the procurement commission is obliged to sign, on own responsibility, a confidentiality and impartiality statement by which they pledge to unconditionally obey a number of provisions, including not to be husband/wife or related up to the third degree inclusive to members of the administration board or another administrative body of the bidders.
The exhaustive list of legal bans shows that the company’s acting director general Anatolie Lichii wasn’t an interested party in the procurement procedure. Together with the adoption of the decision by which the procurement commission designated the winner according to the lowest price proposed, the discretionary right of the director general not to sign the contract with the chosen economic operator is excluded.
