Väinamere Liinid Loses Another Procurement Appeal
Estonia's procurement appeal committee has turned down another complaint launched by the Väinamere Liinid against the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication's decision to select Port of Tallinn's bid as the country's domestic ferry route operator.
Väinamere Liinid has not yet decided how to move forward but there are a number of other issues concerning the procurement that need to be clarified, reported ETV's "Aktuaalne Kaamera".
"For instance, how is it possible that TS Shipping, which is a subsidiary of the Port of Tallinn but has no economic output and no experience, managed to put in such a good bid without even having a project and how could this bid be qualified?" said Tõnis Rihvk, chairman of the board of Saaremaa Laevakompanii, who owns Väinamere Liinid.
"The alleged building contracts have not even been concluded yet but the offer was so good that this must be a case of a win-first, deal-later, principle."
Väinamere Liinid has put in three complaints to the procurement appeal committee as it is not happy with the outcome of the tender for the contract for ferry operator between the mainland and western islands.
Two have not been taken into hearing, the third is still pending decision.
Minister of Economic Affairs Urve Palo said that the ferry saga is bound to continue for a while, and it will probably end up in court.
"I believe the current disputes won't be the last. There will be more. And the decisions that have been made in our favor will be appealed again and taken to court. The probability of this happening is very high. We are used to it and have taken this possibility into account," she said.