Modernizarea sistemului de iluminat public al Municipiului Edineț

24 Aug 2022, 13:40

The main scope of the tender

1. As it is specifically expressed in the Technical specification, the main scope of the tender is the design and building of the investment object (Achiziția lucrărilor de execuție și proiectare pentru obiectul de investiție), where the term “proiectare” assumes that there have not been chosen any specific ideology, technical standards or topology of the system. All those mentioned above should be defined within the project documentation ONLY. It means, that the main scope of the project has to be described by the Contractor in general conceptual matters, with no specific (obvious or hidden) referrals to any proprietary technologies and solutions. We must state that this principle was not respected in the Technical specification to the tender, whilst the Contractor included a number of criteria that clearly favors specific producers. After a detailed analyses of the Technical specification we have a firm conviction that tender requirements were drafted exclusively for Schreder smart lighting and Panasonic video surveillance solutions or extremely similar solution providers. The question is the following: What is the meaning of this tender if the announced technical conditions by default make impossible the participation of other vendors AND the Contractor has already decided upon the equipment and the technologies to be applied?

24 Aug 2022, 13:41

Chapter 3, point 3.5, page 14 “Modul de control instalat pe aparatul de iluminat”

2. In Chapter 3, point 3.5, page 14 “Modul de control instalat pe aparatul de iluminat”, the Contractor specifically referred that he proposed management system should be Cloud-based. Is it a normal practice to construct a municipal street lighting system using cloud-based technologies, where all information is processed through foreign servers outside Moldova, in Germany or Austria, for example? Shouldn’t it be considered as a potential threat to energetic security and independence of municipality? We strongly believe that such solution will not favor any of the beneficiaries of such project: not the Edinet municipality, not the Red Nord SA and neither the Republic of Moldova in general, if scaled and propagated in entire country, because in order to provide the energetic security of the country, the servers, software, management systems should be based inside the country, and, even better, in the municipality of Edinet itself. The question is the following: Why the Contractor imposes the Cloud-based solution which is neither common for city smart lighting nor secure and reliable for the municipality?

24 Aug 2022, 13:42

Point 3.5 on page 14

3. Point 3.5 on page 14 provides that the controller should communicate directly with the cloud-based server, and any intermediary equipment such as data concentrators should be strictly avoided. On the contrary, classic topology of smart lighting systems of the majority of providers consists of: a server, nodal solutions (concentrators) and controllers. In such a way the full and centralized automation of the city lighting system is assured both on the trunk main level (streets) and on the level of each lighting unit (LED). The question is the following: Why the Contractor, lacking any technical project or design, from the very beginning imposes a certain smart lightning system architecture which is, above all, not the most common one for the industry?

24 Aug 2022, 13:42

Chapter 3, p.3.5. on page 13

4. The Chapter 3, p.3.5. on page 13 provides that a specialized connector for sensors should be located on the inferior part of the luminaries. This provision again seems to be specified especially for a proprietary solution, that already comes equipped with such a socket, because technically this socket can be located on other parts of the luminaries or could be incorporated into the luminary or controller itself, preserving the same functionality and capacities. Therefore, we have a reasonable suspicion that the tender technical specifications where drafted to favor a specific producer (for example Schreder), thus discriminating local Moldavian smart solution providers or other European provides of such technologies. The question is the following: Why the Contractor, lacking any technical project or design, from the very beginning imposes a certain form factor of the lighting unit?

24 Aug 2022, 13:43

p. 3.8., page 19, “Camerele pentru supraveghere video”

5. As according p. 3.8., page 19, “Camerele pentru supraveghere video”: the technical specification for the video surveillance system with AI is practically copied from the Panasonic i-PRO series datasheet, or extremely similar product. Moreover, some technical requirements are quite contradictory: -for example, in general characteristics one of the requirements is the image resolution of 1920x1080 with 60 fps while effective pixels required for the camera are 2.1 MP. Will this resolution be sufficient for a smart city project? Definitely not. The average requirement should be 6-8, but not less than 5 MP. The question is the following: Why the Contractor, lacking any technical project or design, imposes an extremely detailed specification which suspiciously resembles the characteristics of a particular product/vendor?

24 Aug 2022, 13:43

Chapter 2, p.2.4. Descrierea generală și cerințele generale minime a lucrărilor

6. As for Chapter 2, p.2.4. Descrierea generală și cerințele generale minime a lucrărilor, in paragraph “Descrierea modului de realizare a lucrărilor de bază”, item 6 (page 8) provides for installation of presence sensors only. In fact, the desired function could be even better performed using a smart motion sensor or video analytics of image capture. The question is the following: Why the Contractor, lacking any technical project or design, from the very beginning imposes a certain technical solution?

24 Aug 2022, 13:44

Chapter 2, p.2.4. item 7

7. As according the Chapter 2, p.2.4. Descrierea generală și cerințele generale minime a lucrărilor, in paragraph “Descrierea modului de realizare a lucrărilor de bază”, item 7 (page 8) – contains the provision that the bidder should provide acoustic signaling for the visually impaired pedestrians. The required functionality is performed only by the traffic light installations and in no way could be included in the smart lighting tender, but should be part of a separate tender on traffic management or urban mobility. Please, clarify this issue.

24 Aug 2022, 17:12

Point 3.8, letter B and C., page 19.

8. Point 3.8, letter B., page 19. „Interval Dinamic 144Db (Super dynamic: activat”) – this type of cameras is capable of shooting in any, even extremely difficult lighting conditions, the minimum value for providing a high-quality image is 120Db and the maximum is 140Db. The specification of the exact value of 144Db – means it was copied from a particular model datasheet. Super dynamic is a proprietary name for the so-called technology that due to a specialized software achieves additional 4DB , but any laboratory tests can prove that in fact it is only 140 Db. C. LENTILE : the same situation is with the lens properties. Exact specifications were given instead of stating the minimum and maximal thresholds for lens capacities. Rough copying of data from a particular vendor (Panasonic or extremely similar) datasheets led to the fact that such proprietary (commercial) names as Smart VIQS and AI Privacy Guard were included in the technical specification requirements. The question is the following: Is it acceptable and appropriate that the contracting authority is compiling the tender technical specifications based on specific product/provider, thus ignoring the main principles and provisions of the public procurement law?