Wojnicz: The bus tender could have involved criminal activities

During an extraordinary press conference, PGZ’s President of the Management Board, Błażej Wojnicz, made a comment on the issue of the Polish Army buses procurement tender, the value of which was being defined as PLN 30 million. Within the procedure mentioned above, the Autosan company’s offer was not accepted due to the submission made 20 minutes after the deadline expiration. MAN Trucks & Bus Polska Sp. z o.o company based in Nadarzyn has remained the sole contractor the offer of whom has been accepted. 

The Autosan’s offer has been rejected and due to the legal regulations in force, the company had no right to file in an appeal concerning the decision made, in order to take part in the proceedings. As for the PGZ Group, this has been very painful for us, as we were ready to execute the work required to finalize this order. We wanted to make effort related to this order for the Polish Ministry of Defence. We are going to analyze the procedures that were not implemented, so that similar situation does not occur anymore.

President Wojnicz also emphasized the fact that the person who is responsible for the situation has been dismissed for just cause, meanwhile the company has decided to initiate civil actions to file its claims against the aforesaid person. The issue has also been reported to relevant organs and authorities, with a proper investigation going on. - It is our belief that criminal activities could have taken place in this situation. If the relevant state-governed bodies confirm our suspicions, the company will submit a motion to have this procedure annulled, and in such situation, as the PGZ Group, we would like to participate in the aforesaid procedure once again. - as it was added by the President of the PGZ company. 

At the beginning of August this year, 2nd Regional Logistical Base has decided to acquire MAN Truck & Bus Polska buses, as this was the sole company which has submitted its offer within the procedure. Autosan company, however, also remained interested in delivering the buses. Nonetheless its offer has been placed several minutes past the required submission deadline.

The issue was being dealt with also by the Polish MoD. As Bartosz Kownacki, Secretary of State at the Polish Ministry of Defence, announced via Twitter, as the first person to provide information on the issue “the person responsible for the situation in question has been dismissed for just cause. Central Anticorruption Bureau and Military Counterintelligence Service have been notified too”. What is more, the politician also noted that the “management board is going to claim damages through a civil action”. 

The information provided by the Deputy Minister Kownacki was confirmed, within its statement, by the Management Board of the Autosan company. The release was signed by the President, Michał Stachura. He also stressed that getting involved in the procedure made it impossible to place the offer after the deadline - The person responsible for the emerging situation has faced consequences, as the Management Board of the AUTOSAN Sp. z o.o company has dismissed him for just cause, and submitted a notification to relevant organs, the Board is going to claim damages through civil action - as the statement reads.

Furthermore, we would like to inform that the new Management Board, within a period as short as 3 months, has signed contracts concerning procurement of 23 buses, and awaits for the tenders to be resolved, in case of which the AUTOSAN Sp. z o.o company has submitted the most beneficial offers concerning 27 buses in total.

On 31st May this year, Michał Stachura has been appointed President of the Board at the Autosan company. PGZ Group was stressing the fact that the change is a result of the requirement to modify the company management model, and to carry out integration of the said model with other companies of the Group, also in order to prepare the facility to perform work related to new tasks assigned. 

The procurement order announced in May this year by the 2nd Regional Logistical Base, consisted of two parts, concerning the delivery of passenger buses for the Armed Forces, with the first part assuming that six buses capable of carrying 16 persons would be procured (with three examples guaranteed and optional procurement of another three vehicles). This part of the ordered has been valued by the military at the level of PLN 1.6 million. 

The second part of the procurement assumed that 16 passenger buses (with 47 seats at least) would be acquired, with 8 guaranteed and 8 additional buses to be procured optionally. In this case, the total value of the order has been estimated at the level above PLN 15.3 million. However, in May this year the military has changed the quantity of buses to be ordered within the second task, it went up to 26 vehicles, 18 guaranteed, and 8 to be acquired optionally. The estimated value of the order has also gone up, to ultimately reach more than PLN 24.8 million.