Court rejects Strabag – no obstacles to construction of Pelješac Bridge

The State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures has reported that it received a decision from the Administrative Court in Zagreb by which the request from the Austrian Strabag Company for a postponement of works in the Pelješac Bridge has been rejected.

Austrian Strabag filed a case at the Administrative Court on April 16th against the decision on a contractor for works in the Pelješac Bridge and requested a postponement of works. The company also filed a proposal for a temporary ban on the beginning of works.

In January of this year, the Croatian Roads Company chose the offer from the Chinese consortium, the China Road and Bridge Corporation, for construction of the Pelješac Bridge. The price from the Chinese consortium was at 2.08 billion kuna, while an Italian-Turkish consortium, Astaldi-Ictas, offered a price of 2.55 billion kuna and Strabag offered a price of 2.62 billion kuna (all prices without VAT).

Appeals to this decision were filed at the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures by both the Austrian and Italian-Turkish consortiums.

Strabag claimed that the Chinese consortium offered a dumping price for a series of works. Among other things, they were not happy that the tender issuer, Croatian Roads, did not question the low prices offered by the Chinese consortium in certain articles, which as Strabag believes, they should have done according to the Law on Public Procurement and directives from the European Parliament and Council.

The Austrian company also mentioned that is assumed the Chinese could go with a lower offer because they will receive disallowed state support and that the Chinese authorities were to ease “penetration” into the European Union market through the construction of the Pelješac Bridge, Which is not in accordance with EU legislature.  

Italian Astaldi and Turkish CT Ictas appealed against the evaluation of the quality guaranteed by the Italian-Turkish consortium in their offer for construction of the Pelješac Bridge. The State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures announced at the end of March that they reject this appeal as unfounded.

The contract for construction of the Pelješac Bridge was signed last Monday.

Source: HRT