Sorainen’s Latvian office has successfully represented Sia Prolux in challenging the negotiation procedure for the “Delivery and installation of kitchen equipment at the Jelgava state municipality educational institution Jelgava Technology Secondary School” at Meiju Road 9, Jelgava, organized by the Jelgava city municipality and held at the Procurement Monitoring Bureau.
According to Sorainen, the negotiation procedure was conducted due to a previous open tender bid closing following the submission of inappropriate tenders. However, in addition to all of the suppliers that took part in the open tender taking part in the negotiation procedure, one additional supplier was invited and was awarded the contract.
According to the firm, “the Procurement Monitoring Bureau stated that in order to justify conducting a negotiation procedure due to the submission of non-compliant tenders in the open tender ‘it must be established that the tenders submitted in response to the tender are so incapable or incompatible with the contract that no further negotiation is possible at all.’ When assessing the discrepancies found in the tenders, the IUB agreed with our assessment that they could easily have been corrected or clarified during negotiations in the framework of the negotiated tendering procedure, by negotiating only with those suppliers who had previously participated in the open tender. Consequently, the IUB found that the [Jelgava city municipality] had acted unreasonably in organizing the negotiation procedure.”
According to Sorainen, the decision “is important not only in the context of this case, but also for the improvement of the procurement environment, as it clarifies under which circumstances it is permissible to conduct a negotiation procedure in case of the termination of an open tender, and under which circumstances it is permissible to conduct a competitive procedure with negotiation without the publication of a contract notice, negotiating only with those suppliers who participated in the open tender.”
Sorainen’s team included Counsel Raivo Raudzeps and Senior Associate Katrine Plavina-Mika.
