​Terra Building and Eventya, two companies from Sibiu, won last month through an auction after two appeals by the GMP Advertising group controlled by Felix Tetaru, a contract worth more than 8 million euros to promote more than 300 tourism destinations from Romania. The contract is financed by PNRR and managed by the Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE).

4 associations of companies applied for the contract, initially estimated at more than 10 million euros

The contract award notice was published on Wednesday, March 1, in the Electronic State Procurement System (SEAP).

The initial estimated value of this contract, which HotNews.ro wrote about last summer, was more than 10 million euros (more than 49.4 million lei).

MIPE received 4 offers from the following business associations:

• 1. Gândul Media network (leader), MIRA International and Edu Tech Labs
• 2. Terra Building (leader) and Eventya Co
• 3. Mida Sift Business (leader) and Angel Hot Soft Romania
• 4. GMP Advertising (leader), GMP Public Relations and Webstyler

After two auction appeals, which we will talk about later, the contract was awarded to an association of companies: Terra Building and Eventya, worth more than 39.8 million lei (over 8 million euros).

Who controls the two winning companies from Sibiu

Terra Building is a construction company from Sibiu, wholly owned by Ștefan Mihai Băcilă (43 years old, born in Sibiu) and whose main field of activity is “road and highway construction”, according to Trade Register data seen by HotNews .ro.

The average number of employees in the company is 157, and in 2021 it reported a net profit of more than 3.4 million lei, which is more than the previous year.

Company Eventya is a software development company that in 2017 created the official application for the promotion of tourism in Romania, as well as several applications for the promotion of tourism for several county councils of Maramures, Harghita, Brasov and other tourism associations, according to Economica.net.

Eventya is owned by Jonuts Aleksandr Muntian (44, born in Sibiu), who controls 59.41%, Andrii Jonuts Luka (25.46%) and Robert Ioan Balan (15.13%).

With an average number of 12 employees, this company ended 2021 with a net loss of over 290,000 lei after a net profit of over 96,000 lei in 2020.

Felix Tetaru’s GMP group filed 2 appeals. What the CNSC decided

The contract won by the two companies from Sibiu was only possible after the decision of the National Appeals Board, which analyzed 2 appeals filed by the GMP communications and advertising group, founded by Felix Tetaru.

• SEE CNSC’S DECISIONS ON 2 GMP CHALLENGES HERE

In the first appeal, the GMP group requested the annulment of the MIPE decision, which identified the tenders of 2 Siberian companies as the winners, citing two aspects:

• 1. a potential reason for exclusion from the tender, as the leader of the association – Terra Building would have deliberately concealed the existence of a discovery document, also published in SEAP by the municipality of Sibiu, which showed that this company had delays in the execution of some contractual works for which he paid fines in the amount of more than 17,300 lei.

Regarding this accusation, MIPE showed that within the framework of this contract with the City Hall of Sibiu, Terra Building would not have seriously and/or repeatedly breached its obligations under the contract, and the application of penalties (paid by the company, in the amount of 0.1% of the total contract value) did not lead to early termination of this contract or compensation for damages.

The CNSC gave MIPE the right, emphasizing that in the relevant procurement dossier, the City Hall of Sibiu mentioned very good quality of works, adherence to contract terms, good organization and execution of works.

“The mention of fines in the amount of 17,340 lei paid by the tenderer for non-compliance with the work schedule in no way justifies the assessment of “serious or repeated violation of the main obligations imposed on him under the public procurement contract.” Especially since in the end it is about the absence of any losses for the customer,” the CNSC decision reads.

• 2. The second accusation related to the fact that the requirement regarding the ability to engage in professional activities would not be met by the association “Terra Building – Eventya Co.”

The GMP group accused the company Terra Building, which works in the field of construction, does not have a permit for the activity of advertising agencies, because of which it could not reach the weight of 43.29% of the object of the contract, as it was done in the association agreement.

CNSC decided that this claim of the appellant has no serious basis and is only speculation because the association agreement shows that Terra Building is not responsible for the provision of promotion services and that activity is carried out by another member of the association – Eventya Co. .

The CNSC also reveals that the company has committed through the association agreement to perform other contractual activities for the promotion of 12 tourist routes in Romania, such as marking and local signaling for each of the 306 tourist attractions.

GMP’s second appeal was belatedly rejected by the CNSC.

How to promote 12 tourist and cultural routes with more than 300 destinations

12 tourist and cultural routes with more than 300 tourist attractions, such as castles, Roman forts, fortified churches, monasteries or the Danube Delta, will be marked and signposted and will be promoted online and offline at local and international levels by creating digitized information or phone applications, said the tender specifications that MIPE launched last summer.

• SEE THE ASSIGNMENT HERE

The promotion of 12 tourist and cultural routes includes 306 tourist destinations, namely:

• 1. Route of castles – approximately 30 objects;
• 2. The route of the Transylvanian Curia – approximately 25 goals;
• 3. Hills course – approximately 15 goals;
• 4. Route of traditional Romanian gastronomy – approximately 30 destinations;
• 5. Route of churches-fortresses – about 20 objects;
• 6. Route of wooden churches – approximately 30 objects;
• 7. The route of the monasteries of the Moldovan territory – approximately 30 objects;
• 8. Route of St. Ladislaus on the territory of Romania – about 20 objects;
• 9. Route of Roman forts – approximately 20 objects;
• 10. Route of fortresses – approximately 30 objects;
• 11. Restoration of the cultural landscape of the Danube Delta in order to increase the attractiveness of the territory – approximately 36 tasks;
• 12. Route of villages with traditional architecture – about 20 objects.
• In addition to the 306 sites, the 12 routes also include another 450 tourism/cultural sites, for which the responsibilities of the winning companies will be limited to identifying online promotion sources and posting links to them on the platform. /in the application “Attractive Romania”.

The specification also states that this is only one of the tenders related to the PNRR’s investment to promote 12 tourism/cultural routes.

Another tender will concern the purchase of restoration, revitalization and construction services.

The expected benefits of the signposting, marking and digitization of tourist/cultural routes are to increase the annual number of visitors to the sites that are part of the 12 cultural-tourist routes, a fact that will stimulate private investment in the vicinity of tourist destinations, leading to increased tourism revenues and job creation in this area.

The estimated duration of the provision of services is 45 months, but no later than June 30, 2026.