Skanska has been excluded from a tender to refurbish the Strakonice railway station, because its bid was judged to be excessively quick and cheap. There’s growing suspicion that contractors are making unrealistically inexpensive bids for public tenders, since the state is currently required to award the work to the company offering the lowest cost. There’s additional concern that contractors are doing so in an illegal, coordinated way.
The organizer of the tender, State Railway Authority (SŽDC), disqualified Skanska, and the project will probably be investigated by the antimonopoly office. While SŽDC refused to comment on the case before this takes place, Skanska’s spokeswoman Lucie Laňková said that Skanska claimed it could complete the work twice as fast as the other bidders. The projected price for the order was CZK 622m, with the majority of the money to be tapped from EU funds. Skanska offered CZK 447m, Chládek and Tintěra’s bid was CZK 9m higher. Twelve bidders took part in the tender.
