Sich Ukraine, a manufacturer of medical turnstiles, accuses the National Guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of colluding with the winner of one of the tenders for the supply of these products. The company expressed its claims in a post on its social media page, UNN reports.
This is a tender for the supply of turnstiles for the Military Hospital of the National Guard of Ukraine. The announced amount of the tender was UAH 51 million.
According to Sich Ukraine, the tender conditions were written for one supplier.
"The National Guard has once again held a tender for only one manufacturer of turnstiles with technical specifications: a metal stick and a Velcro fixing clip. Only one hemostatic turnstile from Dnipro can fit through this artificially created gap. CAT-Tourniquet, for example, does not have a metal stick, and SICH-Tourniquet or SOF-T does not have a Velcro clip," the post says.
At the same time, the company quotes a letter from the NGU Commander Oleksandr Pivnenko, according to which their turnstiles meet all the necessary characteristics.
"We also inform you that there are at least three turnstiles on the domestic market that meet the characteristics of the procurement subject defined by the structural unit of the Main Directorate of the National Guard of Ukraine for tourniquets: Dnipro 2 generation tourniquet manufactured by PROSTIR, Ukraine, Sich tourniquet manufactured by SICH LLC, Ukraine, and SOFTT-W tourniquet manufactured in the United States," the document signed by Pivnenko, quoted by the company, reads.
The company claims that it reduced the starting price by five million hryvnias, and another bidder reduced it by seven million. Instead, the winner was a company with a price offer of UAH 51 million. The bidders who reduced the price were disqualified because the goods did not meet the stated conditions. Sich Ukraine called it a conspiracy between the tender organizers and the supplier.
"We expected that there would be some healthy competition, that the turnstile from Dnipro would go down, and we would go down. Realizing the need, we were ready to reduce the price as much as possible, because these are official budget purchases, for people's taxes paid for the country's defense. But nothing happened. The price of the tourniquet from Dnipro did not drop by a penny. And the prices of the participants did not change during all three rounds. Do you know what it looks like? It looks like a conspiracy!
When the manufacturer has 'resolved the issue' with stakeholders and the tender is 100% customized for them," the company summarized.