Public procurement: infringement procedures against Greece
- Greece
- 10/17/2008
The European Commission has decided to send two formal requests to Greece in the area of public procurement. The first concerns the tendering procedure launched by the “Company for Water Supply and Drainage of Athens” (E.YD.AP. S.A.) for the award of the project “Main Drainage Collectors of the West Part of Thriassion Field”. The second concerns a number of tendering procedures carried out by various local authorities over the period between 2003 and 2005 relating to the award of contracts for the supply of vehicles for the transport of waste. These formal requests take the form of “reasoned opinions”, the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice.
Main drainage collectors of the west part of Thriassion field
In the course of the aforementioned tendering procedure, the contracting entity accepted the offer of the preferred bidder, although it deviated from the term of the call of tenders in relation to the bank guarantees, provided under exclusion penalty. Furthermore, it accepted also the offer of the second lowest bidder, although it presented unacceptable deviations regarding the way of submission of the supporting documents.
The Commission found that the acceptance of such offers constitutes an infringement of article 10 of Directive 2004/17 (coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors), which deals with the principles of transparency and equal treatment of the participants, as interpreted by the relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice.
Award of contracts for the supply of vehicles for the transport of waste
The Commission considers that these contracts have been concluded in violation of the applicable Directive at the time, Directive 93/36/EEC, as during the tendering procedures leading to their award, the Directive has been infringed in a number of ways. These include the application of criteria relating to the tenderers’ ability to perform the contract as award criteria instead of selection criteria, and the fact that the local authorities concerned have failed to proceed with the publication of a contract award notice.
