Rasi: Investment Ministry to File Criminal Complaint over Flaws in NASES Tender

Bratislava, March 18 (TASR) - The Investment, Regional Development and Informatisation Ministry intends to file a criminal complaint over flaws in a public procurement that occurred under the former leadership of the National Agency for Network and Electronic Services (NASES) in 2022 and cost the state €1.2 million, Investment Minister Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) told a news conference on Tuesday. "We have a suspicion that the financial interests of the European Union have been damaged, that obligations when managing someone else's property have been violated and that machinations have occurred in public procurement, and this will be part of the criminal complaint that we are filing over NASES's activities during the term of the former leadership under Veronika Remisova ('Slovakia' party, For the People, Christian Union/KU) and state secretary Jan Hargas (Progressive Slovakia/PS)," said Rasi. The agency announced a tender for the management and design of forms in the state's e-communications in November 2022. It concerned the purchase of licences for a product that was supposed to make the work of NASES, which provides services to the public in Slovakia, more transparent and simple. Three firms enrolled in the tender, with a company called Jump Soft submitting the lowest bid amounting to €680,000. However, it was excluded from the tender, and the former NASES management chose another company as the winner. The winner submitted a bid that was twice as high at €1.2 million and supplied NASES with a system for purchasing licences that was functional but unusable, as it needed additional programming, claimed Rasi. A company called Slovensko IT was then tasked with additional programming for €1.3 million. However, the company failed to carry out the programming, meaning that the EU funds had to be returned, with the state ultimately having to pay for the entire system. The Public Procurement Office (UVO) began looking into the matter, investigating why NASES wasn't satisfied with Jump Soft and its cheaper bid. According to UVO, the cheaper bid was in order, and the result of the tender violated the law, as it was won by a firm that offered double the price for supplying the product. Rasi added that the whole tender was tailor-made for a bidder chosen in advance. NASES in the past claimed that the firm with the cheaper bid failed to meet the description of the subject of the contract. Ministry State Secretary Ivan Ivancin added that the ministry last week received a criminal complaint from the unsuccessful bidder in question, claiming compensation for the financial damages stemming from its bid. ko/df