Smart Technologies was unable to supply foreign-made printers to the Federal Tax Service for several hundred million rubles

2022: Termination of Office Equipment Contract

On July 19, 2022, it became known that the Federal Tax Service (FTS) terminated a state contract for 685.5 million rubles with Smart Technologies (it owns the computer manufacturer Aquarius). Information about this is contained on the public procurement portal.

As follows from the act of acceptance and transfer of goods, Smart Technologies was unable to supply printers to the Federal Tax Service by almost a third of the contract amount (229.01 million rubles). The contract mainly supplied Xerox and HP printers.

According to a CNews source familiar with the progress of the contract, HP Inc disrupted the delivery dates of its printers to Smart Technologies after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine at the end of February 2022.

According to the tender documents, Smart Technologies was supposed to supply printers and multifunctional devices (MFPs) for 107 branches of the Federal Tax Service throughout Russia. The contract implied the transfer of 2223 printers and 1706 MFP Xerox, 412 HP printers, as well as 67 software and hardware systems of secure printing of Russian production (the vendor is not specified in the documentation).

The contract was to be executed in two stages. The first was completed at the end of 2021. As part of this stage, Smart Technologies delivered all the necessary equipment for a total amount of 203.3 million rubles. However, when executing the second part of the contract, which fell on 2022, the supplier had problems.

The goods under the second stage of the contract were to be delivered by May 11, 2022. By a letter dated April 7, 2022, Smart Technologies notified the Federal Tax Service "that the supplier did not have the opportunity to deliver the goods provided for by stage two in full," follows from the decision to unilaterally refuse the contract. In May, the service nevertheless accepted part of the goods in the amount of 133.9 million rubles. But printers in the amount of 229.01 million rubles. were not delivered. In this regard, the customer decided to unilaterally refuse to fulfill the contract. The contract was terminated on July 4, 2022. Fines and penalties to the supplier were not charged.

The tender for the supply of a software and hardware platform for secure printing and document replication for the Federal Tax Service was published in the format of an electronic auction in June 2021. The maximum contract price for it could be 714.03 million rubles.

Two companies took part in the auction (the name of the second in the documents was not disclosed). Smart Technologies offered the lowest price of 685.5 million rubles. against 689.04 million rubles. competitor. The contract was signed in August 2021^[1].

Notes