The ÚOHS annulled the DPP's decision on the selection of the contractor for Metro D, the company will file an appeal

Brno/Praha - The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) annulled the decision on the selection of the winner of the tender for the construction of the next section of metro line D, which became a consortium of companies including Subterra and Hochtief, for example. The decision is not yet final, and an appeal can be lodged against it. The server Seznam Zprávy pointed out the decision today, and Martin Švanda, the spokesperson for the office, confirmed its issuance to ČTK. He subsequently informed about it in a press release. The Prague Public Transport Company (DPP) strongly rejected the decision and, according to the head of the company's communication department, Daniel Šabík, will appeal against it. The company Subterra also disagrees with the office's decision, while the company Porr welcomes it.

"The office annulled the decision on the selection of the contractor and all subsequent actions of the Prague Public Transport Company in the procurement procedure for the Operational Section I.D of the metro in Prague - section (Olbrachtova) - Nové Dvory - construction part," Švanda stated. The reason for the decision was that, according to the office, the documentation of the winning consortium lacked documents proving the experience of some members of the professional staff, for which points were awarded during the evaluation of the applicants.

DPP disagrees with this. According to Šabík, the ÚOHS dealt with dozens of complaints and only decided to annul the decision based on three complaints related to references. "On those, the antimonopoly office claims that DPP could not reach a definitive conclusion regarding their verification. The evaluation committee and the board, however, based their evaluations on information from the applicant and information from the clients of the various contracts, which DPP requested beyond legal requirements and standard practice," he stated, adding that the company always proceeds in full compliance with the laws when awarding all public contracts.

The company Subterra also disagrees with the office's decision. "We are convinced that in the tender for the construction of the second stage of metro line D we submitted a bid that meets all the requirements of the tender, including reference projects and the qualifications of the relevant employees, which the ÚOHS's decision on Monday does not challenge in any way. We particularly point out that no conclusion regarding the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of any qualification or scored competition criteria has been made in this decision," said the spokesperson for the company, Vladislav Beneš, to ČTK.

The proposal to annul the selection of the contractor was submitted to the ÚOHS by the company PVM Metro DII JV, in which several companies are grouped, including Porr, Eurovia, and Průmstav. The antimonopoly office is currently conducting another administrative procedure concerning the proposal against the exclusion of the PVM Metro DII JV from the procurement procedure. In both administrative proceedings, the ÚOHS has issued a preliminary measure prohibiting the Prague public transport company from concluding a contract with the contractor until a final decision is made.

On the other hand, the company Porr welcomes the decision. "The office's decision confirms our doubts about the correct procedure of DPP in selecting the consortium led by Subterra from the Metrostav group, which we have repeatedly pointed out and highlighted in our proposal. We are pleased that the claims suggesting that our objections are merely opportunistic and lack legal support have been fully refuted," said Porr spokesperson Jana Mašínová.

The thirty-billion-crown contract for the construction of the second part of line D was won last September by a group of companies led by Subterra from the Metrostav group. Previously, the public transport company excluded a two billion cheaper offer submitted by the consortium of companies Porr and Vinci. According to the public transport company, it did not meet the tender conditions.

"Submitting complaints and proposals to the ÚOHS is very common these days even with considerably smaller contracts. It is almost a traditional tool of competitive struggle. It should be noted, however, that the ÚOHS ultimately repeatedly agrees with DPP, despite the first-instance failure," Šabík further stated. He added that the antimonopoly office again rejected the appeal of the company Metrostav DIZ regarding the same contract last week and thus confirmed for the second time and definitively the correctness of the set conditions of the procurement procedure. According to him, the ÚOHS already agreed with DPP last year in the case of objections against the conditions of the tender for the monitoring and passporting of the second part of line D.

The construction of the new line of the Prague metro started in 2022, with a one-kilometer section being built between the stations Pankrác and Olbrachtova. This will connect with the section from Olbrachtova to Nové Dvory, which is subject to the mentioned tender. The section from Nové Dvory to the Písnice Depot will be built last. The original expected completion was in 2029, but due to disputes, it will likely be postponed.