Last days of the year: the STT again searched for (and found) corruption risks in the Rokiškis district

The Special Investigation Service (SIT) has made the last days of the year 2025 a little bit shorter for the Rokiškis District Municipality by presenting the findings of the Corruption Risk Analysis launched in autumn, related to the public procurement procedures for tractors bought in the last two years. The STT identified corruption risks in the procurement processes of the new machinery for the municipalities of Pandelis, Juodupe and Jūžintė, but only suggestions were made to the district municipality on how to avoid risks in the future.

Half-year analysis

The STS evaluated the procurement of tractors purchased by the municipalities of Kaunas, Pasvalys, Rokiškis, Šilalė and Telšiai districts in the period 2023–2025. Rokiškio Sirena“ knew that the service was "investigating" the purchase of a tractor for the Jūžintai municipality as early as in August, but unfortunately, the STT representatives said at that time that the need for a corruption risk analysis was being assessed in a number of the country's municipalities, and that only after this analysis had been carried out would a decision be taken on a more detailed corruption risk analysis.

It emerged at the end of September that, following the assessment of the need for a corruption risk analysis, the actual corruption risk analysis on the tractors purchased was launched on 3 September, And now, in the last days of this year, the STT has presented its conclusions, the very first sentence of which reads as follows: „The assessment of the procurement processes for municipal tractors has identified corruption risk factors that increase the likelihood of corrupt, unethical behaviour, various abuses that may have a negative impact on the objectives and activities of municipalities“.

Three out of six

According to the documents submitted by the Rokiškis District Municipality Administration to the STT, the municipality purchased 6 tractors in two years. All of them were purchased through public procurement, but in none of the 6 cases was a description of the market study carried out provided, although the municipality's own description of the procedures for the conduct and internal control of centralised and decentralised public procurement obliges the initiator of the procurement to carry out a market study in order to identify market prices, potential suppliers, and to provide the information on the market study carried out at the stage of the initiation of the procurement.

The first purchase analysed by the STT was a tractor purchased in 2023 for Pandelis municipality. According to the specialists who carried out the analysis, the technical specification of the tractor purchased through an open tender includes technical requirements, such as an engine displacement of at least 4500 cm³, an engine power (nominal, without power boosting system) of at least 74 kW/100 hp, according to the public information, the requirement of the engine displacement potentially eliminates many of the popular tractors with 100–120 hp (74.57 – 89,48 kW) tractors, as their engine capacity is generally less than 4500 cm³. The specified wheelbase requirement of not more than 245 cm – also potentially excludes most mid-range tractors, as their wheelbase is usually more than 245 cm. According to public information, only the new „John Deere“ 5100, 5111 series tractors meet the full set of requirements, one of which was offered by the sole supplier in the tender, UAB „Dojus agro“, which submitted a „John Deere 5100M“ tractor. The value of the tender is – EUR 77 thousand 270,60 including VAT.

Conditions – for a specific supplier?

The STT notes that in the context of this procurement, the district municipality administration received a request from other suppliers concerning the requirements of the technical specification that may restrict competition, but the organisers of the public procurement decided not to modify the requirements of the technical specification...

Also, by means of a low-value, open tender procedure with a single supplier, UAB „Dojus agro“, an attachment for this tractor, namely a snow plough, was purchased in April 2023. According to public information, these snow ploughs are manufactured, for example, by UAB „V. Padagas ir Ko“, which makes the decision to go to a single supplier without consulting the manufacturer itself and other distributors and without assessing alternatives to other makes and models of snow ploughs questionable. The value of the contract is EUR 8,954 including VAT.

Brought forward the fact of kinship

While the Pandėlis eldership was rejoicing over the new unit, the district politicians, specifically the opposition of the district council, brought to public attention (and questioned the transparency of the procurement) the fact that the winning company, UAB "Dojus agro", employs the son of the district mayor Ramūnas Godeliauskas. The district manager confidently stated that this had no influence, relevance or impact on the procurement. The STT Corruption Risk Analysis also notes that the mayor of the municipality was not directly involved in the decision-making process during this procurement.

The second sentence of the conclusions of the Corruption Risk Analysis reads as follows: „As a rule, municipal leaders with links to the suppliers involved in the procurement are not involved in the preparation, discussion or decision-making process related to tractor purchases. Nevertheless, the subjective conditions of tractor procurement, the procurement procedures and their outcomes, and the relationships with the successful bidders indicate potential risks of influencing the decisions of those involved in the procurement process.

A particular purchase caught the eye

The procurement of a second-hand mini-tractor with a cab and a snow-clearing shield for the Juodupe municipality, initiated in November 2024, was also brought to the attention of the STS. The amount set for the purchase of this equipment was set at EUR 10 thousand 20 including VAT (or EUR 10 thousand 20 if the tender is submitted by a non-VAT taxable person). According to the STT's findings, the minutes of the meeting of the Public Procurement Commission not only set the price of the purchase, but also decided to purchase a tractor from a specific company (with a snow shield) and to carry out the purchase by means of a non-public (oral) tender. The only tenderer invited was UAB „Gringrasas“, which offered the tractor „Iseki TF19F“ for EUR 10,000.20 incl. VAT.

The CFI notes that the goods to be procured should be characterised by functional or other criteria, and that the purchase of a specific brand may not be in line with the transparency principle. This is especially the case as there are more legal and natural persons who are selling second-hand mini-trackers.

Why this?

Questions were also raised when analysing the procurement of a used tractor for the Jūžintai municipality through an open tender. According to the STT investigators, the technical specifications of the tractor in the tender submitted on 3 March 2025 may have been tailored to a specific farmer's tractor, the John Deere 6155M“. As a result, there may have been no competition in the tender, and the tractor offered by a particular farmer (the tractor was purchased from farmer Irmantas Seibutis – author's note) may have ideally met the set of requirements. A single supplier submitted a tender worth €105,000 incl. VAT.

This farmer was the only supplier in the tender.

Another nuance noted by the STT in this situation was that no documentation on the compliance of the parameters of the proposed tractor with the technical specification requirements was submitted with the tender.

Received recommendations

The SSTT's Corruption Risk Analysis assesses only the bids submitted by the investigators to a district municipality such as: Establish internal controls for conducting market research to ensure that there is more than one product on the market that meets the entirety of the requirements of the technical specification for the procurement; Require suppliers to provide objective data and documentation on the compliance of all the envisaged technical data with the requirements and evaluate them during the evaluation of the bids; Ensure that the requirements of the technical specification describe the required functional characteristics of the tractor and that the technical specification sets out the minimum requirements of the tractors only, while leaving open the possibility for the suppliers to offer a variety of tractors with different specifications to meet the required functional characteristics.

Attention...

Valerijus Rantsevas, director of the Rayon municipal administration, said he had read the STT's analysis, but was calm that no serious violations or misconduct had been committed, and that in the future it would be necessary to monitor the procurement procedures more closely, taking note of the suggestions made by the service.

The Director reiterated that the municipal administration performs the function of central contracting authority (performed by the municipality's Public Procurement Unit). As regards the purchase of tractors, Mr Rancev said that the procurement was initiated by the representatives of the district elderships, who prepared the technical specifications according to the necessary requirements for the work to be carried out: power, capacity, etc. According to him, according to the law on public procurement, it is not possible to specify only a specific model.

Noting that in the STT's conclusions on the purchase of a used micro-tractor for Juodupe Elderly Municipality, when a specific manufacturer was named, the Director of Administration was a bit puzzled, saying that it should not be the case, but he could not explain the situation.

Other comments

V. When asked to comment on the STT's statement that during the procurement of a tractor for the Pandelis municipality, the municipal administration had received a request from other suppliers about the technical specification requirements potentially restricting competition, but had decided not to change the technical specification requirements, Rantsev responded with a question: if there is a desire to buy a more powerful, better tractor, why reduce the requirements?

„Example: the Rokiškis rural municipality has a wood chipper that also pushes snow, but when driving it „jumps“. When buying new, this experience would already be taken into account, but if we „reduce“ the requirements in the technical specification – specify lower power, lower mileage, we would buy the same unsuitable one. The tractor was bought for Jūžintai with a forward-looking approach: to be able to attach a shredder on the side, which would not be possible if the tractor was smaller. What is the point of it then? Public procurement is very restrictive: you have to play by all the rules and sometimes you buy the wrong thing. And then there are comments: where is the municipality, what is it buying and so on? I agree with the comment that maybe the market itself should be more researched before buying, so we will stick to it in the future," promised Mr Rantsev.