The Greek company Avax has filed a lawsuit against Croatia’s State Commission for Control of Public Procurement Procedures. The reason is a decision by the commission to annul the decision by the Croatian Roads to award the company the contract for the construction of access roads to the Pelješac Bridge, the Duboka-Sparagovići section, reports Večernji List on May 23, 2019.

The High Administrative Court has confirmed that they had received the Avax’s lawsuit on May 16, adding that, in accordance with the Public Procurement Act, a decision on an administrative dispute must be made within 30 days from the date the lawsuit is filed, unless there are exceptionally justified circumstances.

This means that the decision should be made no later than June 16. With the Avax's lawsuit, the tender for the construction of the Pelješac Bridge access roads faces a new twist and further delays. Bids for the tender were opened last June, but the Croatian Roads public company made the decision on the selection only in late February this year. The decision to award the contract to Avax, estimated at 482 million kunas, was appealed by the Austrian company Strabag and the Greek company Aktor. The appeal was rejected.

In its appeal, Strabag stated that the Croatian Roads should had excluded Avax due to the participation of the company in a cartel agreement in Greece between 2005 and 2012. Croatian Roads responded that it did not determine there was a professional omission by Avax because it had no proof of this, and that the company had paid a fine for being in a cartel agreement.

Avax said in its statement that it received a fine of 18.3 million euro being in a cartel agreement and that the last case of a breach of market competition rules occurred in 2012. They also said that the company was not excluded from public tenders in Greece. The commission instructed Croatian Roads to reconsider all the bids received and see whether there were reasons to exclude Avax.

It is expected that Croatian Roads will wait for the court ruling on Avax's lawsuit before making a new decision. Avax has offered to construct the Duboka-Sparagovići section for 464.9 million kuna, while Strabag was ready to do it for 478.3 million kuna. The offer of Integral Inženjering from Bosnia and Herzegovina amounted to 321.2 million kuna, and by GP Krka and Euro-asfalt to 444.3 million kuna. Aktor asked for 464.6 million kuna, and Colas for 521.9 million kuna. The offer of the China Road and Bridge Corporation amounted to 647.8 million kuna.

While the Pelješac Bridge construction is progressing according to schedule, the construction of access roads is running late.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Josip Bohutinski).

https://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/novi-zaplet-oko-peljeskog-mosta-grci-podnijeli-upravnu-tuzbu-1321029

More Pelješac Bridge news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, April 13, 2019 - The State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures (Dkom) decided on Friday to annul the state-owned Hrvatske Ceste (HC) road operator's decision to award the Greek company J&P Avax a contract to build the Pelješac Bridge access roads, ordering HC to pay 100,000 kuna within eight days to a group of bidders led by Austria's Strabag to cover their appeals procedure costs.

HC invited bids for the construction of said access road to the Pelješac Bridge on 9 March 2018, and decided on February 28 this year to award the contract to J&P Avax. Seven bids had been submitted, of which four were shortlisted, and Dkom found the one by J&P Avax to be the most favourable in financial terms.

Construction was expected to last 33 months. J&P Avax's offer was 464.9 million kuna before VAT.

One of the bidders was the Bosnian company Integral Inzenjering, which asked for 321.2 million kuna but was turned down after HC said the bid price was unusually low.

GP Krk and Euro-Asfalt offered 444.3 million kuna, Greece's Aktor asked for 464.6 million kuna, the Croatian branch of France's Colas asked for 521.9 million kuna, Strabag asked for 478.3 million kuna, while the China Road and Bridge Corporation, which is building the Pelješac Bridge, asked for 647.8 million kuna for said road section.

The section on which access roads to the bridge will be built is 12 kilometres long. HC's deadline for the completion of all works is 31 January 2022, the same deadline for the completion of works on all four stages of the complex project that will link southern Dalmatia with the rest of the country by road.

In mid-March, Strabag and Aktor lodged appeals against the choice of contractor for the Duboka-Šparagovići section. Earlier this month, Dkom dismissed Aktor's appeal because the company paid too little to instigate the appeals procedure.

As for Strabag's appeal, in which the company contested the legality of the bid evaluation process and the validity of J&V Avax's bid, Dkom found that it was well-grounded and granted Strabag's request that it be paid 100,000 kuna to cover the appeals procedure costs.

More news about Pelješac Bridge construction can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, April 3, 2019) - The State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures has rejected a complaint filed by the Aktor company against the state-owned Hrvatske Ceste (HC) road operator's decision to award the Greek company J&P Avax a contract to build access roads to the Pelješac Bridge, citing as the reason for its decision the fact that Aktor paid an insufficient fee to launch the complaint procedure.

The job to build access roads was awarded to J&P Avax, after which complaints were submitted by Austria's Strabag company and Greece's Aktor.

J&P Avax offered to build 12 kilometres of access roads to the Pelješac Bridge at a price of 464.9 million kuna before Value Added Tax.

Aktor's appeal, the Commission said, contained proof of a fee paid to launch the complaint procedure in the amount of 13,490 euro or 99,778.65 kuna, however, in cases of procurement that exceeds 60 million kuna, the complainant is expected to pay a fee of 100,000 kuna to have the procedure launched.

A total of seven bids had been submitted for the construction of access roads to the Pelješac Bridge.

Of those seven bids, four were shortlisted, and the Commission found the offer made by J&P Avax to be the most favourable in financial terms.

The selected bidder is expected to wrap up construction work by 31 January 2022.

The Commission has still not decided on the complaint filed by Strabag.

More news about Pelješac Bridge can be found in the Business section.

The tender involved the acquisition of four catamarans.

ZAGREB, January 31, 2018 - The National Council for Monitoring Anti-Corruption Strategy Implementation on Wednesday backed an initiative for a new law on the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures which would prevent corruption risks and define the status of members of the commission.

ZAGREB, January 23, 2018 - The State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures has stated on its web site that it has received an appeal from the Strabag company against the Croatian Road public company ("Hrvatske Ceste or HC") operator's decision to select China Road and Bridge Corporation for the first-stage construction of Pelješac Bridge and access roads. Strabag was one of the three bidders, and the third one was a consortium of the Italian Astaldi and Turkish IC Ictas.

On 1 July, the most important provisions of the new Law on Public Procurement came into effect.

Most economically advantageous offer will be the only criterion for selecting winning bids.

The lowest price principle will no longer be the main criterion.

American Chamber of Commerce joints discussion on public procurement reform in Croatia.