Illustrative stock photo (source: Sme)
State-owned railway carrier Železničná Spoločnosť Slovensko (ZSSK) has scrapped a public competition to purchase 25 railway electric multiple units (EMUs) amounting to €160 million excluding VAT.
The decision came following the recommendation from the European Commission as the carrier planned to use the money from the EU Cohesion Fund via the Operational Programme Integrated Infrastructure.
“The European Commission recommended canceling the tender in question because if a contract were concluded, the EC would have to significantly correct the sum of resources allocated from EU funds,” ZSSK informed, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
A new competition will be launched in January 2017.
ZSSK launched the competition last September. The Public Procurement Office (ÚVO) dismissed the complaints against the conditions of the competition in March 2016 and halted the proceeding against the procurer in two cases, the SITA newswire reported.
ZSSK originally planned to buy 10 EMUs, eight with the capacity of 220 seats and two with 300 seats. It later wanted to use the option to purchase another five units with 220 seats and 10 with 300 seats, SITA wrote.
Bids were submitted by two companies, Czech-Slovak group Škoda Transportation, Plzeň – ŽOS Trnava and Swiss company Stadler Bussnang. The Siemens company planned to attend the competition at first, but it did not submit any bid, SITA reported.
