ZAGREB, March 26, 2018 – The State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures (DKOM) has turned down as unfounded the appeals by the Austrian construction company Strabag and the consortium of the Italian company Astaldi and Turkey’s IC Ictas Isaat Sanayi against the selection of the bidder for the construction of the Pelješac Bridge and access roads. The decision was made public on the DKOM’s website on Monday.
In January, the DKOM received appeals by the two bidders against the selection of the China Road and Bridge Corporation to build the Pelješac Bridge and access roads, the largest infrastructure project in Croatia.
The consortium of the Italian and Turkish companies complained about the assessment of the guarantee of their bid. Strabag said that the Chinese consortium had offered dumping prices because it was counting on illegal state aid from the Chinese government. The Austrian company implied that, by building the Pelješac Bridge, the Chinese authorities were seeking a gateway into the EU market, which it said was in violation of EU law.
The Austrians complained that the contracting authority Croatian road operator Hrvatske Ceste had not examined individual items of the Chinese bid concerning the price, which it should have under the Public Procurement Act and a European directive. It said that for 13 items the price of work offered by the Chinese consortium was several dozen times lower than theirs.
The Italian-Turkish consortium offered to complete the project for 2.55 billion kuna, Strabag for 2.62 billion kuna, and the Chinese corporation for 2.08 billion kuna, all excluding VAT.
