On Monday, Lithuanian public figure and journalist Andrius Tapinas questioned the price of services purchased for the Vilnius NATO Summit due to take place at the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre Litexpo in July. Authorities say the procurement was transparent, while the prices were increased by the urgency of the process.
“The company Up Records will rent sound equipment for 553,000 euros. It has an annual income of 120,000 euros and made a loss of 50,000 euros in 2021. The structures will be rented for 630,000 euros by Topaz, which has an annual income of 409,000 euros,” Tapinas wrote on Facebook.
“The videoconferencing equipment will be rented for 1.6 million euros by Screen Service, which will receive double its annual income for the deal. Lighting equipment will be supplied by Muzikos Ekspresas for 1.5 million euros, which is also twice its annual income. Last year, the company made a loss of 250,000 euros,” he added.
Previously, BNS has reported that market players were questioning whether the state-owned Litexpo’s purchase of communication services and equipment necessary for the NATO summit was transparent. The service was bought from the telecommunications company Telia for almost 3 million euros.
Litexpo awarded a contract worth 2.70 million euros to Telia at the end of last year by means of undisclosed negotiations. According to the procurement report, the process was subject to government decisions and had to be carried out with extreme urgency.
The Public Procurement Service (VPT) said it is monitoring the situation and is currently carrying out an assessment of the procurement of communication services.
“The risk of overpaying is higher in a procurement conducted by means of undisclosed negotiations and depends on the timeframe of the contract, the number of suppliers operating on the market, the number of suppliers invited to participate in the procurement, and the procuring entity’s ability to negotiate,” VPT told BNS.
However, the conditions for transparency have been met, according to the service.
“Transparency in public procurement is ensured by complying with all the requirements laid down in the Public Procurement Law. […] The information made public shows that the procuring entity has done this, and the market has access to the planned procurements and their results,” it said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis stressed that he was not involved in the procurement and was only briefed on the results of the purchases.
According to him, the urgency of the procurement could have had an impact on the prices, as the exact date of the NATO summit was confirmed quite late, and some of the procurement had to be coordinated with the alliance.
“The approvals came quite late and, to my knowledge, the possibilities to organise the procurement were limited, especially given that some of the decisions had to be made quite fast,” Landsbergis told reporters on Tuesday.
“Ideally, it would be best if the organisation that is doing the procurement [Litexpo] commented on this,” he added. “But I would suspect that the price could be explained by the timing, the special requirements, which are also related to security, and the volume of the purchase, given that it is a very large event.”
The NATO summit in Vilnius will take place on July 11-12 and is expected to bring together around 40 delegations from NATO member and partner countries.
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