A large number of construction companies are still analyzing the decision of the Competition Council (CC) in the construction cartel case, some of them plan to appeal it, said the representatives of the surveyed construction companies punished by the decision of the CC.
Representatives of JSC “LNK Industries” said that the company has not yet got acquainted in detail with the content and reasoning of the decision made by the CC.
“However, it can already be concluded that the CC, in deciding to punish LNK Industries, was guided not by the applicable laws and regulations in the case, but by populist considerations, thus clearly ignoring both the laws and regulations governing the activities of the CC and “Given the above,” LNK Industries is determined to prove its innocence in court, “said the representatives of LNK Industries.
SIA “Arčers” has also received the decision of the CC and, taking into account its scope, the company’s management together with lawyers reviews and analyzes it. When the decision is fully evaluated, the company will decide on further action, said Archers.
Representatives of SIA “Skonto būve” said that the company will get acquainted with the decision of the CC and evaluate the possibility to appeal it to the Latvian administrative court.
Representatives of JSC “Rere grupa” stated that the group has received a decision of the CC on the involvement of the group’s subsidiary SIA “Rere būve” in concluding mutually prohibited agreements, thus a fine of 711,050.34 euros has been imposed on the company.
Representatives of “Rere grupa” pointed out that the CP decision is a voluminous document of 200 pages, therefore the company is currently evaluating it. The company will decide within 30 days whether the decision of the CC in the “Rere būve” case will be appealed in court.
Representatives of SIA “Re & Re” told LETA that “Re & Re” has received the decision of the CC in the case of construction companies. The documents received are currently being evaluated, after which the company will decide on further action.
“Re & Re rejects KP ‘s allegations concerning the company’ s participation in negotiations with other market participants with a view to achieving anti – competitive rules, in particular the higher level of activity in the negotiations alleged against the company,” Re & Re representatives said.
On Monday, August 9, the parent company of the construction company “Merks” “Merko Ehitus” announced to the Nasdaq Tallinn stock exchange about the plan to appeal the decision of the CC in court.
In turn, one of the largest representatives of the public customer SJSC Valsts nekustamie īpašumi, asked to comment on the statement that many customers knew about the cartel, as well as that customers have the right to recover overpaid amounts in procurement, said that “VNI has no information about such The VNI will get acquainted with the decision of the CC, all factual and legal circumstances and evaluate the further action “.
It has already been reported that the participants of the CC open cartel of construction companies were involved in at least 70 procurements for the total contract amount of 686,989,991 euros, Ieva Šmite, the director of the KP Prohibited Agreements Department, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Among the largest public procurements, Šmite mentioned the procurements of Mežaparks Stage, New Riga Theater, Ventspils Music High School and Concert Hall “Latvija”, Latvian National Museum of Art, Culture Palace “Ziemeļblāzma”. Among the largest private orders, Šmite mentioned the construction of the Akropole shopping center, the construction of the Alfa shopping center and the construction of the Rimi logistics center.
From the transcripts of builders’ audio recordings provided by the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB), the CC has concluded that representatives of major construction companies discussed the conditions of participation in procurements at least 12 times a year from 2015 to 2018, meeting at least three times a year and distributing procurements. In total, almost 90 procurements were mentioned in the talks and notes, of which at least 70 were identified, Šmite said. The talks took place in the sauna “Taureņi” and in the sanatorium “Jūrsalīcis”, Jūrmala.
The CC has fined ten companies involved in the builders’ cartel a total of 16,652,927.4 euros.
Among the 10 fined companies are SIA “Skonto būve”, SIA “Latvijas energoceltnieks”, SIA “Velve”, SIA “Arčers”, SIA “Rere būve”, SIA “Re & Re”, SIA “RBSSKALS būvvadība”, SIA “Abora” , JSC “LNK Industries” and SIA “Merks”. The court “RBSSKALS construction management” has now been liquidated, so the penalty was not imposed.
The highest percentage of the turnover of the previous financial year – 6.1% – was imposed on two companies. A fine of 170,635.91 euros was imposed on Re & Re and 746,720.15 euros on Skonto būve.
A fine of 5.4% of the turnover of the previous financial year was imposed on four companies. LNK Industries was fined EUR 3,711,491.28, Merks EUR 2,688,950.79, Archers EUR 1,998,412.02 and Abora EUR 1,115,910.
“Latvijas energoceltnieks” was fined 5.3% of the previous turnover – 3,329,579.41 euros, “Rere būve” – 5.2% of the turnover or 711,050.34 euros, but “Velve” – 4.6 % of turnover or 2,421,419.39 euros.
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