The tender in the square in Hradec Králové was won by the more expensive bid even after the new evaluation

Hradec Králové – The city hall had to carry out a new evaluation of the tender following the decision of the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS), where the consortium of companies Stako and Smola HK successfully lodged a complaint. According to the antimonopoly office, the city acted contrary to the law on public procurement during the initial evaluation of the competition. The selection made by the city was annulled by the ÚOHS on June 8. A new evaluation was conducted by a new seven-member evaluation committee, which included representatives from opposition parties in the council.

Deputy Mayor for Investments Lukáš Řádek (TOP 09) withdrew the assignment of the contract from today’s council meeting to ensure that the councilors had enough time to study all the documentation that had been supplemented in recent days. "I propose to withdraw the item from today's meeting and present it at the next council meeting in such a form that there will be no doubt about the procedural cleanliness," he stated.

The consortium Stako and Smola HK previously expressed their conviction that after a possible new evaluation of the bids and accounting points for the experience of the site managers, they would win the contract. The criterion of site manager experience was weighted at 40 percent, while price was weighted at 60 percent. The companies Stako and Smola HK assert that they documented the experience of the site managers. According to an earlier statement from Stako's managing director, Petr Kulda, the first selection was unlawful and made under suspicious circumstances.

The legal advisor of the consortium Stako and Smola HK, Adam Kulda, was surprised by the new decision of the committee. "If the references of the site managers were recognized according to ÚOHS criteria, the Stako and Smola HK consortium should have won. We will wait for the delivery of the notification of the contractor selection and will decide on further steps after reviewing it," he stated. He did not rule out that the consortium would again file an objection against the evaluation or turn to the antimonopoly office again.

"The new evaluation brought only a change in the score of the bids, which however did not affect the final ranking," stated the city hall. According to the city hall, the new assessment of the offers was conducted by the committee to the extent determined by the decision of the antimonopoly office.

After evaluating the bids, the committee again assigned 80.04 points to the winning consortium. The consortium Stako and Smola HK received 70 points instead of 60 points in the first evaluation. In third place was again the company Aquasys with a score of 39.78 points, which offered a price of 139 million crowns without VAT. The expected price of the work before the competition was 131 million crowns excluding tax.