THE FIGHT over a lucrative state contract to supply and operate an electronic road toll collection system has taken another turn. On July 2, the Public Procurement Office (ÚVO) upheld the expulsion of three bidders from the tender by the National Highway Company (NDS), the Hospodárske Noviny financial daily wrote.
Thus SanToll-Ibertax, despite entering the highest bid, of almost Sk26 billion, remains the only consortium now left in the tender.
The excluded bidders maintain that they met all the terms of the Sk20 billion tender and will leave the verdict for lawyers to assess.
“If the decision of the procurement office is at odds with the legal standards and terms of the tender, we will take it to court,” Štefan Fecko, the head of one exclede bidder, the Slovak-Swiss consortium ToSy.sk, told the daily.
The European Commission has also voiced concerns over the handling of the tender. It wants Slovak officials to show within the next two months that there has been no discrimination in the process.
