Republic of Cyprus is considering the purchase of an “anti-drone” 

The Ministry of Justice is studying the purchase of an “anti-drone” system for the Central Jail of Nicosia, and for that it included a relevant provision for budget expenditure for the year 2020, according to an article in the newspaper “PHILELEFTHEROS”.

These systems will eliminate the drop of drugs, weapons, mobile phones and other objects from drones on Central Jail premises.

In Greece, the police are setting up such systems in their penitentiaries after the incident that took place last June in the prisons of Trikala, where a drone approached the courtyard of the long-term convicts penitentiary wing and dropped a mobile phone, batteries and other items.

Airports

The Republic of Cyprus has decided to equip itself with “anti drone” systems to protect its airports. However, the competition was canceled due to incorrect handling and lack of funds. 

In July 2018, the Police announced an open tender for the supply of this system with an estimated cost of € 600,000 plus VAT. Although the tender documents were received by 15 economic operators and seven manufacturers participated in the on-site visit, only two economic operators submitted bids.

In October 2018, the tender report of the technical department of the tender was submitted to the Tender Council of the Ministry of Justice. Eventually two bids were submitted and the Evaluation Committee suggested that the financial files of both be opened after they were judged to satisfy the terms and conditions of the competition specifications. 

During the examination of the issue by the Tender Council, the representative of the Audit Office pointed out that not all the information about the on-site inspections had been included in the evaluation report and that, despite being based on the tender documents, the audits of the offered systems should be done at their places of installation, i.e at the airports of Larnaca and Paphos. Finally, based on the evaluation report it seemed that they were done abroad and that the views of the Civil Aviation, the National Guard’s General Staff/Ministry of Defence were not asked.

The Tender Council agreed with the positions of the Audit Office and decided to ask the Evaluation Committee to draw up an additional evaluation report. In November 2018, the additional evaluation report of the competition was examined. The Tender Council unanimously decided to re-instruct the Evaluation Committee / Police to submit an additional evaluation report as not all of the remarks made were answered.

The Police, which was the Contracting Authority, failed to submit a comprehensive evaluation report on the basis of which a final decision on the matter could be taken in 2018, despite the fact that it had been pointed out by the Bidding Council.

As a result, in July 2019 the Bidding Council decided to cancel the tender as the necessary credits for the year 2019 for the implementation of the project had not been secured.

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