The city posted a request for quotations on its website concerning the printing of posters and invitations for the Ceramic Festival. Specifically, the order involved designing and printing 350 posters, 350 invitations and 250 bills. The Gliwice-based company Taurus Doradztwo i Reklama contacted the municipal office and offered a price of PLN 2,992. However, officials selected an offer from Proart, owned by Grzegorz Matoryn, for more than PLN 7,200.

“This is outrageous. A request for quotations published in the Public Information Bulletin should be subject to the same rules as a tender. Meanwhile, a company is being selected that offers a price almost two and a half times higher. I do not consider this a normal situation. When I asked the officials what the criteria for selecting the offers were, they were unable to answer. They simply said that they had chosen that company,” says Taurus owner Adam Widuch.

Taurus serves several dozen municipal offices, public administration offices and marshal’s offices. Its largest client is the Prime Minister’s Chancellery. The company monitors all tenders announced in Poland concerning the preparation of advertising and promotional materials. They encountered a situation like the one in Bolesławiec for the first time.

“I was very surprised—not only by the decision, but also by the procedure. All city offices to which we submit this type of quotation request always inform us whether we have won or lost. This time, we received no information about the result. We visited the Bolesławiec City Office website. It turned out that a company had already been selected. When we saw a price 250% higher than ours, we were speechless. The fact that something is financed with EU funds does not mean that this money should be squandered,” says Adam Widuch.

The company filed an appeal. The officials kept silent. We asked the deputy of Elżbieta Chojnacka, head of the City Development and Promotion Department, who specifically was responsible for selecting this offer and why such an expensive offer had been chosen. He did not answer. He referred us to spokesperson Agnieszka Gergont. The spokesperson promised to comment on the matter today. As soon as we receive her response, we will publish it.

Update 2010-07-13 14:30

According to Agnieszka Gergont, an explanatory investigation was launched at the City Office today. Elżbieta Chojnacka was responsible for this order, and after returning from leave, she will provide an explanation.

(information from Krzysztof Gwizdała)