An auction that can rise over 4 billion lei through which the state wants to ensure for the first time, centralized, the gasoline and diesel needs of public institutions for 4 years, launched last month by the National Office for Centralized Procurement (ONAC) within the Ministry of Public Finance (MFP), was suspended, after being challenged by Lukoil Romania, the local fuel distribution subsidiary of the Russian group of the same name, writes Profit.ro.

The procurement procedure was organized for the purchase of fuel for the fleet of more than 1,300 institutions, consisting of ministries, subordinate and territorial structures, decentralized agencies, national authorities, national companies, autonomous administrations, universities, military units, prisons, courts, medical units and others, based on a 48-month framework agreement. According to the award documentation, ONAC wants to buy in 4 years up to 1.01 billion liters of gasoline and diesel (689.5 million liters of gasoline and 320.98 million liters of diesel), the maximum estimated value of the framework agreement rising at 3.86 billion lei plus VAT (almost 4.6 billion lei including VAT).

Lukoil is dissatisfied, among other things, with the fact that the award documentation stipulates that the framework agreement will be concluded with a maximum of 3 suppliers, with which subsequent contracts will be signed later, and that, moreover, in 2021, all contracts will be concluded with a single player, the one who will rank first in the price discount ranking.

The company requests CNSC to cancel the participation notice, the specifications and all other documents related to the tender, to order measures to remedy the disputed issues and to oblige ONAC to resume the award procedure from the moment prior to the issuance of the afore-mentioned documents.