Considering the recent interest in the procurement procedure regarding documents of state importance, especially identity documents of the national passport system, driving licences and registration certificates, and also the speculations and misinterpretations on this topic, the Public Services Agency provides the following clarifications.
The relevant public procurement was only initiated in 2021 without allocating the financial means in the PSA budget for 2021. The procurement itself will be made in 2022-2023 with the allocation of the necessary amounts in the PSA budget for 2022 and 2023 that are required for the execution of the contract concluded as a result of the public tender. We emphasize that in order to avoid a possible financial indebtedness of the PSA, the procurement procedure includes mandatory contractual clauses on payment to the manufacturers - only after the completion of documents by the PSA. At the same time, taking into consideration that the PSA is a public institution and operates on the basis of financial autonomy (according to the provisions of Government Decision no. 314/2017 on the establishment of the PSA), the financial means for the procurement of blank forms are to be allocated from the budget of the PSA.
The need to organize public procurement procedures during 2021 is well-reasoned from a procedural and technological point of view, as the conduct of these procedures includes a set of activities that must be performed within a period of at least 12 calendar months (procurement procedures, procedures for the implementation and manufacturing of the blanks, adjustment and correlation of the entire technological system for manufacturing and personalization of documents with all accompanying technical processes and other related activities).
In order to use the external resources and inform the business environment from outside in accordance with the provisions of Article 29 of Law no. 131/2015 on public procurement, the PSA published the Notice of Intention and the Notice of Participation regarding the public procurement of goods stated in the Official Journal of the European Union, in Romanian and English. The stated documents can be found by accessing the links below:
-Notice of Intention in Romanian: https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:237115-2021:TEXT:RO:HTML&src=0
-Notice of Participation in Romanian : https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:240111-2021:TEXT:RO:HTML&src=0
-Notice of Participation in English: https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:252051-2021:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
The technical requirements and tasks, which are submitted within such tenders, are developed on the basis of international standards (ICAO DOC 9303, ISO 7816, ISO 14443, ISO 15417, etc.), being applicable to registration documents, travel documents and identity documents.
The set of documents related to this tender was requested by 4 economic operators:
- Certsign (Romania);
- Tipo Direct (Moldova);
- Garsu Pasaulis (Lithuania);
- Muhlbauer (Germany).
On 24.06.2021, at 15:00, through the AIS SRPP platform (MTender), the bids for the mentioned public procurement procedure were opened. According to the information posted on the AIS SRPP platform (MTender), 3 economic operators submitted their bids:
- Certsign (Romania);
- ANY BiztonsagiNyomdaNyrt (Hungary);
- Garsu Pasaulis (Lithuania).
According to the public procurement procedures, the PSA has already started the
Comparison of tenders conducted in 2012 and 2017:
In 2012, it was organized the tender for the procurement of passport books with integrated chip (1500000 cards). For the first time, that tender, was organized not by a contracting authority (SE “CSIR “Registru”), but by the Ministry of Finance, which was not the beneficiary of the blanks. The beneficiaries of the blank forms were the SE “CSIR “Registru”, the Bureau of Migration and Asylum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.
As a result of the tender, which was organized by the Ministry of Finance, the joint-stock company “Gemalto” SA became the winner with one of the most expensive bid. The price accepted by the Ministry of Finance was 5,90 Euros for each passport book of the citizen of the Republic of Moldova (while the minimum price offered by the company "Oberthur Technologies” was 4,7 Euros).
Having no other grounds according to the legislation on procurement, based on Government Decision no. 776/2012 on empowering the State Enterprise “Center for State Information Resources “Registru” to conclude a contract on the procurement of passport books with integrated chip, this company was empowered to negotiate and sign the contract with the winner of the tender (“Gemalto” SA).
That tender and the organization of the contract execution lasted about 3 years. The tender procedure took place in 2011-2012, the contract was signed in 2013, and the first delivery was made at the end of 2014.
In 2017, the SE “CSIR” Registru” organized a tender on the procurement of passport books with integrated chip (1500000) with the same technical requirements for the blank forms. 4 companies participated in the tender, including “Garsu Pasaulis” and the “Gemalto” SA.
It should be mentioned that at the auction in 2017 the joint-stock company “Gemalto” SA submitted the bid with a lower price (3.85 Euros) than the price of its bid in 2012. But as a result of the auction, the bid price of 3, 60 Euros for each passport book submitted by the UAB “Garsu Pasaulis” company was recognized as the winning bid.
The PSA rejects all insinuations and suspicions that any violation or abuses were admitted in the mentioned process. We also urge all those interested in the PSA activity to refrain from speculating about it. The PSA reserves the right to take legal actions to defend the institution’s image.
The Public Services Agency is open to provide any truthful information about its activity and relies on the correctness of all those who are interested in this information.