The construction company Vinci Construction CS has filed a criminal complaint over the tender for the second stage of the Prague Metro D, on suspicion of committing fraud. According to the company, it has to do with proving the necessary qualifications of one of the participants. The company’s spokeswoman Iveta Štočková said today. She did not say who exactly the notification was aimed at. Vinci bid for the contract in a consortium of Porr, Vinci and Marti (PVM). It was excluded from the tender, unjustifiably, according to its representatives.
The transport company (DPP) has rejected PVM’s objections, so it will turn to the Office for the Protection of Competition (OPC). In recent weeks, the consortium also described the selection of the contractor, which is an association led by Subterra, as illegal. DPP will not comment on the criminal complaint at this time as it has no further information, said Daniel Šabík, head of the company’s communications department.
Last year, the DPP started building a new metro line from Pankrác to Písnice. The first section to be built is the section from Pankrác to Olbrachtova, which will cost CZK 14.5 billion. The works will take 90 months, i.e. about seven and a half years. It includes two stations, with the Pankrác station being a transfer to the current station of the same name on the C line.
“We are filing a criminal complaint with the law enforcement authorities due to suspicion of committing a criminal offence of fraud in connection with proving the qualifications of the selected contractor. We cannot comment in detail at this time,” Štočková said.
At the end of September, Porr CEO Dusan Čížek and Vinci CEO Martin Borovka said that the selection of the companies grouped under Subterra’s management was illegal because the requirement of technical qualifications or necessary references was not met for all participants. The DPP then failed to look into whether the bids of the other two bidders were coordinated, the directors said at the time.
“We have only sketchy information about the alleged criminal complaint from the media. It is not clear to whom the criminal complaint should be directed, where and if it has been filed. Thus, it cannot be commented on at the moment,” Šabík said on behalf of the transport company.
As for the exclusion from the tender, PVM disagrees with the argument of a bad construction schedule, which, according to the directors, the consortium completed and corrected in time. The consortium also disagrees with the fact that it submitted an exceptionally low bid price of CZK 27.7 billion. All bidders submitted a bid higher than the expected 24 billion, but PVM’s was two to three billion lower than that of its competitors, the directors said.
The PVM association has sent objections to the transport company over both the exclusion from the tender and what they say is an illegal selection of the contractor. DPP rejected both. PVM has thus decided to appeal to the Office of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Daniel Šabík, head of the DPP’s communications department, said last week that the company could not give details of the proceedings. The law prevents the contracting authority from disclosing any information during the proceedings. It would be considered influencing the contract, he said.
Source: Vinci Construction CS and CTK
