Miracles in the tender. The result? We paint for twice the price.

The pedestrian crossings and lanes could have been painted for around 85,000 złoty, but something strange happened during the tender process. Now it turns out we're getting them for almost twice that amount. Why?

In mid-April, the Trzebnica Municipality announced a tender for the renovation (painting) of pedestrian crossings and other horizontal markings. Indeed, the crossings are wearing out and losing visibility, so repainting is necessary from time to time.

In early May, bids were opened. Only one bid was received. A Warsaw-based company offered to complete the project for approximately 85,000 PLN. The price was quite attractive, as the city had estimated the project would cost 160,000 PLN and had budgeted that amount. The authorities could therefore be pleased, as they would have saved thousands of zlotys. But that didn't happen. At the end of May, they were informed that the tender had been canceled.

The municipality announced another tender at the end of June. Bids were opened in early July. Once again, only one company submitted a bid, or rather, a consortium of companies: Grabowiecka.pl – SAFETY, INNOVATION Monika Urbaniak-Grabowiecka (consortium leader) and JGM Jacek Grabowiecki – CONSORTIUM PARTNER. Both companies are from Trzebnica and provided the same address. Interestingly, the price of the service was almost twice as high as the previous bid, amounting to just over PLN 150,000. Interestingly, the municipality stated that it intended to allocate PLN 155,000 for the project.

On July 11th, news broke that the municipality had made its selection and the work had been awarded to the aforementioned consortium. However, our readers pointed out that the painted stripes were being painted for twice the price, even though almost nothing had changed in the tender. But "almost" always makes a difference.

We managed to reach the Warsaw company by phone. We asked what had happened to prevent their bid from being selected. Company representatives explained that it was a rather strange tender, as it turned out that the bidders had specified painting the lanes with "chloroform" paint, which, firstly, was no longer available, and secondly, it couldn't be used because it was harmful to the environment. They said they had informed officials about this and requested permission to use a different paint, the kind commonly used for lane markings. Unfortunately, the municipality refused to grant permission and instead invalidated the tender.

When we examined both tenders, it turned out that the second tender didn't mention "chlororubber" paint. A different one could have been used. However, the Warsaw company didn't participate in the second tender because, as we were told, it had other plans. Another question remains: why did the Trzebnica consortium propose a price twice as high, and shouldn't officials, seeing such a discrepancy, have announced a new tender?