Response to the reaction of EXPO 2027 company

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Reacting to the press release of TS according to which the average number of bids in EXPO procurement is 1.64, and the average number of acceptable bids is 1.16, the company EXPO 2027 stated that the average number of bids is 1.93.

The problem, however, is that the EXPO 2027 company calculates the average number of bids as a ratio between the total number of submitted bids and the procurement procedures carried out, but not the lots within the procedures, which essentially represent separate procedures.

With such logic, for the procurement of burek and yogurt for breakfast, where one bid for burek and one for yogurt arrives, it could be concluded that there were two bids for breakfast and that there was competition. But actually, there wasn't any.

If we move from the fictitious breakfast to the example of concrete procurement for the EXPO, for the procurement procedure of machinery for the needs of public lighting maintenance services at the EXPO location, which was carried out in 2026, a total of 18 bids were submitted in a total of 18 lots into which the procedure was divided. According to the method used by TS, the average number of bids for this procurement procedure would not be 18, but 1.

The company EXPO 2027 announced that since 2024 it has conducted a total of 152 procurement procedures for the needs of the organization of specialized exhibitions, within which 293 bids were submitted, i.e. an average of 1.93 per procedure.

The analysis conducted by TS showed that from 2024 to November 1, 2026, in a total of 176 conducted procurement procedures (one lot = one procedure), a total of 289 offers were submitted, that is, an average of 1.64 bids per procedure. However, if only acceptable bids are counted, the average is 1.16.

An illustrative example is the procurement of marketing services highlighted by the company EXPO, in which a total of 17 bids were submitted through three parties. Out of these 17 offers, only 6 of them were acceptable.

EXPO 2027 claims in the announcement that all procurements are carried out in accordance with the current regulations of Serbia, including a special regulation regulating the procurement rules for the needs of the international specialized exhibition. However, the crux of the problem lies precisely in these valid regulations, because the Law on Public Procurement is not applied and there is no possibility of appealing the decisions made on the selection of bidders or irregularities in the implementation of the procedure.