The contractor of the major tender worth 393 million euros for the construction of the new commercial port in Porto Romano will be one of the two companies that qualified in the first phase: the Dutch Van Oord or the Greek Archirodon based in the Netherlands.
The Public Procurement Commission rejected the appeal of the French group Vinci, on the grounds that it did not pay the required fee for filing an objection. According to Albanian law, the objection fee amounts to 0.5% of the value of the tender. In this case, given that the value of the tender was 393 million euros, Vinci was required to pay approximately 2 million euros.
There was a heated argument between Vinci and the Public Procurement Committee on this issue. Vinci, through its legal representatives, argued that its objection concerned the pre-selection phase and therefore the payment of a fee was not mandatory.
In its formal letter to the Commission, Vinci stated that the objection was lodged during the pre-selection phase and not against a final decision or a decision issued after the end of that phase. Therefore, according to the content and interpretation of the relevant decision, none of the provisions on the obligation to pay a fee apply and therefore its payment was not mandatory.
Παράλληλα, η Vinci υποστήριξε ότι ακόμη και αν ίσχυε η υποχρέωση καταβολής του τέλους, η άμεση μεταφορά ποσού 2 εκατομμυρίων ευρώ σε λογαριασμό σε αλβανική τράπεζα θα ήταν αντικειμενικά αδύνατη για έναν διεθνή όμιλο. Όπως εξήγησε, τέτοιου ύψους μεταφορές απαιτούν πολλαπλά στάδια εσωτερικών εγκρίσεων από τα τμήματα εταιρικής διακυβέρνησης και χρηματοοικονομικών υπηρεσιών, καθώς και ελέγχους συμμόρφωσης από τραπεζικά ιδρύματα, διαδικασίες που αναπόφευκτα απαιτούν χρόνο και υπόκεινται σε αυστηρούς διεθνείς τραπεζικούς κανονισμούς.
Despite Vinci's arguments, the Public Procurement Committee decided to reject its objection and instructed the Albanian Port Authority to proceed to the next stages of the procedure.
Thus, the process now moves to the phase of submitting financial bids, in which only the two companies that qualified in the first phase will participate: Van Oord and Archirodon.
