Skopje will get new electric buses - but at a price that rose precisely after the first tender was annulled. The repeated procurement goes to the same names: Hungary's “Ikarus” and Austria's EVN. Only now one bus costs about 8,000 euros more than in the previous tender. Multiplied across the whole procurement, the difference is over a million euros of public money.

The numbers are clear. In the first tender, the price per bus was around 314,000 euros. In the repeated one - around 322,000 euros, plus about 33,000 euros for one charging station. The joint bid by “Ikarus” and EVN comes to around 51 million euros without VAT for 150 electric buses, of which 100 are intended for Skopje and the rest for other cities.

The difference of about 8,000 euros per vehicle means the total bill is higher by around 1.2 million euros. And here comes the most painful question: with that money, estimates say, the existing buses could have been serviced and their air conditioning repaired. Because while people wait for the new vehicles, citizens ride in old buses where the summer temperature reaches up to 45 degrees.

This is the third attempt at procurement, after the first tender was annulled by the State Appeals Commission. Four companies took part in the repeated one, including manufacturers from China, Denmark and Turkey - but once again the most favourable was the same Hungarian-Austrian bid. The procedure is not yet finalised; a 10-day window for possible appeals follows.

Delivery, if everything goes without new hold-ups, will run in three phases: the first 30 buses within six months, the next 60 within a year, and the remaining 60 within 18 months. Until then, the people of Skopje will keep waiting at the bus stop in 40-degree heat and asking how a repeated tender for the same buses from the same manufacturer came out more expensive - not cheaper.