Sorainen has advised RB Rail on setting the qualification requirements for tenderers in the procurement of large track sleepers and has also defended RB Rail in a public procurement dispute before the Procurement Monitoring Bureau of Latvia.
RB Rail is "organizing a tender procedure and negotiations entitled 'Consolidated supplies of railway sleepers (including rail fastenings and sleepers) for the construction of the Rail Baltica' railway line," according to Sorainen. "Rail Baltica is a unique project that requires innovative solutions for organizing public procurement. The sleepers to be installed on the Rail Baltica line require a large amount of material and must meet high safety requirements. Therefore, it was necessary for our client to set proportionate but strict qualification requirements for tenderers. The requirements covered not only previous experience in supplying sleepers but also their design and manufacture, including the fitting of rail fastenings and subsoil during the production process."
According to the firm, "one of the potential tenderers tried to challenge the qualification requirements to the Procurement Monitoring Bureau, on the basis that they are inconsistent with the Public Procurement Law, restrictive of competition, and create unequal treatment of suppliers." Ultimately, RB Rail "managed to explain the difference between the Rail Baltica railway line and existing railway lines in Latvia. The Procurement Monitoring Bureau upheld the contested qualification requirements."
Rail Baltica is a railway infrastructure project set to link Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with Poland and the European standard gauge rail line network. Earlier, Sorainen advised RB Rail on establishing the framework for the management of the Rail Baltica cross-border railway infrastructure (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on January 11, 2019).
Sorainen’s team included Counsel Raivo Raudzeps.
