NNDKP has successfully represented a joint venture formed of three Spanish and French companies — FCC Construccion S.A., Aqualia Intech S.A., and Suez International S.A. (case number 8424/2/2016) — in a dispute over the awarding of a public procurement contract related to the extension of the Glina Waste Water Treatment Plant and the construction of a sludge incinerator organized by Bucharest Municipality.
The dispute lasted for three years and entailed four evaluation and complaint filing stages. NNDKP filed three complaints arguing — and ultimately proving — that the bid that was initially ranked first breached the award documentation. As a result of the verdicts by the competent courts, the initially winning bidder was downgraded, and the contract was awarded to the consortium represented by NNDKP.
The downgraded bidder then, in turn, filed a complaint against the new result of the procedure as well as a claim for the review of the decision rendered by the Bucharest Court of Appeals upholding the downgrading of its bid. NNDKP succeeded in defending its clients’ interests against these actions in the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
Accordingly, the consortium represented by NNDKP now has the right to sign the public procurement contract with Bucharest Municipality worth RON 505,695,000 (approximately EUR 112.6 million), and to start the construction works. This brings the public procurement procedure for the extension of Glina Waste Water Treatment Plant and the construction of a sludge incinerator to an end.
The NNDKP team involved in the dispute was coordinated by Partner Adina Chilim-Dumitriu, the Head of the firm's Public Procurement and PPP practice, and Dispute Resolution Partner Radu Damaschin. Their team also included Associates Alexandru Aman, Cristian Dranca and Alexandra Enache.
”During the almost three years of work, we followed the strategy designed by our team together with the client, while remaining fully confident that we will reach our planned destination," stated Chilim-Dumitriu. "NNDKP has the necessary resources to provide clients with diversified and integrated services, at the highest quality standards. The efforts made by our multidisciplinary team prove once again the necessity of having complementary services across the legal spectrum (to include both legal advice as well as assistance and representation in litigation) and emphasize the synergy existing at the level of NNDKP between our departments, aspects which, in the long run, are beneficial to our clients.”
”We are extremely happy with the outcome of this project," added Damaschin. "This has been a long-term group effort that was strongly sustained by all the parties involved. In the end, we are all pleased that the NNDKP team succeeded in asserting its arguments in this case. It is clear that all this work would not have been possible without the dedicated involvement of our colleagues from the public procurement and dispute resolution departments, and I hereby wholeheartedly thank them."
