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Czech: Ruling Delays Cleanup Tender
Publish Date : 09-Nov-2009
Tenders continue to be tricky business for the Czech state. The deadline to place bids on one of the largest commissions in the country\'s history - more than 100 billion Kc ($5.8 billion) to clean up old environmental damage - has been postponed by the Finance Ministry until next year, a ministry spokesman told. The original deadline had been set for Nov. 2 but has been moved after a ruling by the Anti-Monopoly Office (UOHS) overturning a state decision to exclude one of the bidders, the PPF consortium. Now that the firm has been returned to the process, the deadline must be extended to give them fair time to prepare a bid. The government has not yet set a firm date for the second deadline but expects to do so in roughly one month after further court rulings are settled.
In the case of these two companies, the UOHS ruled the ministry was correct in excluding them from the tender. Both verdicts will take effect unless the companies appeal the UOHS decision. Bids are expected to be submitted beginning June 30, at which point the government will decide the tender based solely on the lowest price, he added. The tender has been a controversial one, with many watch-dog and international groups, including the Czech Economic Chamber and Transparency International, criticizing what they say is an exorbitant price tag.
The cost of the cleanup should only cost about 40 billion Kc, according to former Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Martin Bursík. The commission is meant to clean up and repair ecological damage inflicted prior to 1992. NGOs have objected mainly to the state\'s decision to reward one large tender to a single company, rather than smaller tenders to separate companies. Then Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said in February dividing the task would mean the cleanup would take much longer, and the Czech Republic would not be able to meet ecological obligations by 2015.
