Photo: Belarusian ministry's signboard costs $2860

The Belarusian Ministry of Trade was officially renamed to the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade on August 26. The ‘new’ Ministry needed a new signboard. A tender was announced.

The signboard cost... 5600 roubles or $2860. The tender was over on August 31.

This is the signboard. It does not look special: the size is standard, the letters are not gilded. You can see similar signboards near every Ministry! Why does it cost so much?

"We wanted the signboard at this price and we got it. There were other offers but the prices were higher,” Alyaksei Navolski from the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade told Euroradio. “The signboard was made by the Belarusian Unions of Artists.”

“There was one more company – Bronza-Art. We asked them for this price [5600 roubles. – Euroradio] but they wanted more at first. Then they lowered the price but we did not reach an agreement... They were taking too much time and did not send us any reply. I think that the signboard would have been better if it had been made by Bronza-Art. The price could have been lower too.”

The Belarusian Union of Artists fulfils a lot of governmental orders. Its masters made metallic signboards for the metro stations Hrushauka and Malinauka, bridge handrails for the National Library Park and the molding for Minsk Town Hall.

"We do not have price lists. All the orders are individual,” the enterprise explained. “Designers make drafts and then we define the price. If the price is too big, we can try to reach a compromise to get the order.”