Supreme Court Rules to Have Greek Co Build Sofia Waste Plant

The construction of the Sofia waste treatment plant has already been delayed by more than four years. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) has confirmed the decision of the Sofia Municipality to select as contractor for the construction of Sofia's waste plant the consortium "Aktor –Helektor."

The news was reported Thursday by the Bulgarian news agency BGNES.

The consortium is headquartered in Athens, Greece.

A three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court announced Thursday its decision on Sofia's waste plant. The case originated from three claims – from "Aktor – Helektor," from the consortium "Stanilov-Daneko, "with headquarters in Sofia, and from the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova.

All complaints were against a decision of the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC), which abolished an order of the Mayor of Sofia for ranking participants and for the selection of a winning bid for contractor in the public procurement tender.

The decision of CPC returned the entire procedure to the stage of examination of bidding documents in accordance with selection criteria.

VAS ruled out to strike this decision and rejected the claims of the other bidders. The rule is final and cannot be appealed.

BGNES reminds that the Greek consortium "Aktor-Helektor" was the winner of the tender for the waste processing plant, but CPC cancelled the selection of the contractor and sent the entire procedure to the examination stage of the bids. The European Commission was approached by "Actor-Helektor" about the decision of CPC. The Sofia Municipality and "Actor-Helektor" also appealed the decision before the Supreme Administrative Court.

The prosecution told VAS Thursday that they saw the CPC decision as incorrect and the claims of "Aktor-Helektor" and the municipality as founded.

The other bidders in the tender have insisted that "Aktor-Helektor" do not have the necessary experience to build the plant, but the Greek company countered by giving as examples similar plants they have already completed – one in Cyprus, two in Germany, and two still in constructions stage in Croatia and Russia.

Fandakova has already said she would accept any VAS rule.

The long delayed waste plant is part of the disposal system of Sofia with an estimated cost of BGN 346 M. Of these, 84.26% are funded by the EU and the rest by the Sofia Municipality. The other two components of the system are: the depot at the "Sadinata" site, which has already been completed, and the compost installation in Han Bogorov which should be ready by the end of the year.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!