© Julia Lazarova
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And the third tender for the purchase of 52 electric buses for BGN 27.6 million was stopped, this time by the Supreme Administrative Court. The imposition of certain criteria for participation, which “unreasonably restrict the participation of economic entities in public procurement”, the Supreme Judges found. With the purchase of electric buses, the Sofia Municipality will provide the so-called bringing transport from the neighborhoods to the metro stations and the main bus and tram lines. This should have been a fact by the end of 2020, as promised by Mayor Yordanka Fandakova.
With its decision, the SAC practically confirms the well-founded suspicion that the third consecutive order was written for a certain contractor and the management of Stolichen Avtotransport and its director Slav Monov have the task to do just that, announced the civil organization Save Sofia.
The public procurement is for two positions: purchase of 30 smaller electric buses with a length of up to 7.5 m at a price of BGN 15.1 million without VAT; the second – for 22 electric buses with a length of up to 9.6 m for BGN 12.5 million.
First, the complaint about the narrowed criteria for participation in the tender of two participants – the manufacturer “Skoda Electric” and “Cheryot Motors”, was filed with the Commission for Protection of Competition, but was not upheld. The complaint was against the requirement that the candidates have fulfilled a similar order in the last 3 years – delivery of low-floor electric buses.
The SAC has now accepted that this violates the Public Procurement Act, Article 63, paragraph 6: “Requirements related to the implementation of specific programs or projects may not be included as a selection criterion.”
The municipality: The requirement aims to protect the public interest
The Sofia Municipality explained to “Capital”, that with the disputed requirement “Sofia Motor Transport” was “intended to protect in the best way the public interest by admitting participants who have experience in the production and supply of this type of electric buses”. While the understanding of the SAC is that the technology for the production of autonomous vehicles powered autonomously by rechargeable batteries is relatively new worldwide and is constantly improving, and therefore the introduction of this requirement may lead to restrictions of competition.
Why the first two auctions failed
The first auction was canceled in December 2019 because a technical error was detected in the job of the order – instead of 60 months the maximum warranty period was 48 months.
The second was suspended in September 2020 by the Sofia Municipality because almost all candidates were excluded from participation due to errors in the documentation. Finally, for the two positions worth BGN 27.6 million, only one candidate was admitted – “K-Bul”, which was probably not a favorite of the municipality.
Boris Bonev, with his first appearances as a municipal councilor in 2019, warned that small electric buses are too expensive, because with the price of one of them – 503 thousand levs, you can buy two large gas buses with the highest eco-standard. . “This will actually reduce the interval on the city bus lines for the convenience of the people of Sofia,” Bonev explained back then.
The assignment of the procurement is to be changed urgently and a fourth procedure is to be started, because the deadlines for financing under OP “Environment” may be missed.
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