July 16 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority said it has rejected a complaint filed by Trace Group Hold over its disqualification from the tender for reconstruction of a 13-km long section of the Mezdra-Botevgrad road called by the government's road agency, RIA.
Trace Group Hold claimed that its dropping from the tender procedure was unlawful, as the bidders ranked in the first and second position did not meet the requirements and were illegitimately allowed to take part in the selection procedure, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in its ruling published last week.
Trace Group Hold also stated that its technical offer was in line with the requirements of the contracting authority.
The competition authority dismissed all claims made by Trace Group Hold and upheld RIA's request for timely implementation of the project.
RIA's argued that the completion of the road overhaul project, with an indicative value of 178.8 million levs ($102.5 million/91.4 million euro), is of great importance for Bulgaria's infrastructure, as the section is part of a larger first-class road linking Vidin, on the Danube river, to Sofia and further south to the border with Greece.
The regulator's decision can be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court.
At the beginning of June, RIA awarded the contract for design and reconstruction of the 13-km long stretch to a consortium, comprising Bulgaria's Evropeiski Patishta and Vodno Stroitelstvo - Botevgrad, and Slovakia's Vahostav - SK. Sofia-based GP Group was ranked second, the government agency said at the time.
GP Group proposed to build the road section in northwestern Bulgaria for 174.7 million levs, while the winner's offer was priced at 222.4 million levs.
The project envisages modernisation of the road section, construction of bypass roads as well as two tunnels.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)