“Golob’s” Director of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Dr Marko Jug, has bought himself a new prestigious SUV, and the public tender is said to have several potential signs of corruption. According to the web portal preiskovalno.si (investigating.si), the vehicle was purchased by the University Medical Centre through a public procurement at the request of the Director, and the original tender was annulled due to the Director’s aesthetic whims.
According to the investigative portal, on the 23rd of May this year, the first small-value tender was launched for the purchase of a company car for the needs of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, but it later turned out that the vehicle was a request and wish of the Director, Dr Marko Jug.
Did the Director choose the “fashionable” colour of the vehicle?
They were looking for a new or second-hand electric SUV with less than 50 thousand kilometres of mileage, which should not be more than two years old. The company PAN-JAN applied for the tender and met all the conditions, but the Director did not like the colour of the vehicle they offered, as it was, according to him, “too blue”. The company offered a Škoda Enyaq for 47,690 euros. For aesthetic reasons, the tender had to be repeated.
In their justification for the repeat of the retender, they stated that they would substantially modify the technical characteristics of the vehicle, but they also specified the colour of the vehicle. The call for tenders that was published on the 27th of July stated that the colour of the car should be black, grey or dark blue. However, in order to avoid making it seem as if the colour of the car was a matter of the Director’s pickiness, the new public tender added some trivial technical requirements as well (namely, they increased the engine power, the mileage, and also reduced the condition of the battery warranty – to 12 months).
Once again, the PAN-JAN company was the only company to submit an offer for an electric Škoda Enyaq, costing 47,500 euros, in the colour the Director wanted. The investigative portal preiskovalno.si also claims that Director-General Jug and Drago Kreš (who is the Assistant to the Director-General of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana for Procurement) boasted around the University Medical Centre that, together with Prime Minister Dr Robert Golob, they form a “coastal alliance”.
Why were the tender conditions so specific?
If it was indeed a whim of the Director, this only tells us that the vehicle will probably be used for private purposes – otherwise, he would not have cared about the colour of the vehicle. What is more striking than the colour are the things that the portal did not highlight in its investigations. Why does the vehicle have to be electric? Why does it have to be an SUV if it is going to be used by a Director who probably does not go on interventions in the mountains and forests? Why does it have to have the mileage of 50,000 kilometres? Why a minimum battery warranty of 12 months? The batteries of the average electric vehicle typically have a warranty of at least five, and sometimes even ten years.
Volkswagen’s electric vehicles are among the worst performers on the market
The reason for the long-lasting warranties on batteries in electric vehicles is that the battery is a critically important part of the powertrain. If it fails, replacing the battery can cost upwards of 20,000 euros. In this case, it appears that the tender was artificially restricted to a single bidder. For example, if they had not asked for an off-road vehicle, there would have been many more bidders for cheaper, easier-to-maintain and also longer-lasting cars. In recent years, it has become clear that electric vehicles from Volkswagen (which includes Škoda) are among the worst performers on the market.
We are less interested in the whims of the Director about the colour and instead want to know more about the original terms of the tender. Why does the Director of the University Medical Centre need an electric vehicle? Perhaps because they are currently trendy, like the colour black? And what is even more interesting is that a state hospital, which is drowning in debt, can afford a luxury electric SUV for its director.
I. K.
