Recently, government procurement has often raised a lot of questions, and some tenders look strange and illogical.
Here is a recent example: the state enterprise Ukrposhta announced a tender for repair and maintenance services for Renault cars. The amount is impressive – 62,199,364.50 UAH. The tender was announced on July 8, 2024, and proposals are accepted until July 17
The repairs will be made to the Renault Dokker, a compact commercial vehicle produced by the French automaker since 2012.
Cars must be serviced throughout Ukraine so that the Ukrposhta vehicle fleet is always on the move. The cost of repairs depends on the complexity and location, and is paid by man-hours.
The tender executor may involve subcontractors, but bears full responsibility for quality and deadlines. Ukrposhta, in turn, can reduce the volume of services and, accordingly, the price of the contract.
Now to the interesting bits. In 2018, Ukrposhta purchased these same Renault Dokkers. Then they bought 90 cars for $1,785,300, which at current exchange rates is only 15% more than the repair tender amount.
A newer model costs about 850 thousand UAH, that is, for the tender amount you can buy almost 78 new cars.
It turns out that repairing old cars for that kind of money is not entirely logical. It seems that it would be easier to buy new cars. But there is always something in government procurement that makes us raise our eyebrows in confusion.
