EC investigates EUR 110 mln public work contract awarded by Bucharest's Sector 3 City Hall

The EU authorities are investigating a EUR 110 million contract between the Sector 3 City Hall in Bucharest and a group of companies including Axela Construcţii, AB Construct, Teh­nologica Radion and Pro Cons XXI, to revamp streets in the district. The contract, contested at the National Council for Complaints Solution , was awarded in 2009 without publishing the details of the bid in the EU Journal. The bidding was contested by Mari Vila and Straco Grup, that had submitted an offer for the same contract, but the Council decided to change the bid admission criteria, from a 50 percent solvency rate to 30 percent, as well as decreasing the minimum mandatory turnover. These details were not published in the EU Journal, and the deadline for new offers was set at just three days. In the end, the consortium that had won the bid in the first time was declared winner in the second bid. The contract was signed for four years, and is valid until 2013.

The European Commission has said the bid broke EU law, as it did not offer equal chances to EU companies, and too brief a period of time to prepare the documents for the second bid. The Commission has also underlined the big difference in price for similar construction contracts. Officials from the Romanian European Affairs Ministry and the Sector 3 City Hall met to prepare an official response and recently sent it to the EC, according to Mediafax newswire. However, the European Affairs Ministry believes there's a high risk of sanctions for Romania in this case. editor@romania-insider.com