KDH Alleges Cartel in €18-Mn Karpaty Tunnel Tender

Bratislava, 24 March (TASR) - The Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) sharply rejects the way the state selected a contractor for the geological survey for the planned Karpaty tunnel. In a tender by the National Highway Company (NDS) worth nearly €18 million, virtually the only bid came from a consortium bringing together the largest players on the market. As KDH warned on Tuesday, such a procedure bears all the hallmarks of a cartel agreement in which the state has abandoned competition and become a hostage to an "oligopoly". According to KDH, NDS last week signed a contract with the winning bidder for the survey and long-term monitoring for what is to be Slovakia's longest tunnel. The Christian Democrats warned that if key companies join into one large "super-consortium" and eliminate any competition among themselves, the result is not fair competition but a pre-divided market. "Let us call things by their proper name. A tender with a single bidder, where all major players join forces, is no longer public procurement but a cartel. In such a situation, the state does not negotiate at all, it merely blindly signs the submitted bills. When there is no price pressure in a contract worth nearly 18 million euros, it creates room for overpricing. If the state tolerates cartel behaviour, the bill is not paid by a company but by every single citizen of this country," said Igor Janckulik, who chairs the KDH parliamentary caucus. In KDH's view, this is not a coincidence but a serious systemic problem. If a state tender is set up in such a way that only one bid effectively participates, it cannot be described as transparent. KDH warned that such practices severely distort the market, eliminate fair players and push Slovakia back to times when public money was decided by a few privileged groups. "Slovakia does not only need new tunnels. Above all, Slovakia needs fair rules for handling public money," Janckulik concluded. NDS concluded a contract for a detailed engineering-geological and hydrogeological survey and water monitoring for the construction of the D4 motorway section Bratislava, Raca-Zahorska Bystrica (including the Karpaty tunnel) with the Karpaty Consortium for approximately €17.9 million excluding VAT. This follows from the contract for these services published in the Central Registry of Contracts. The consortium is led by Geoexperts, based in Zilina, and includes six other companies. According to NDS, the public procurement was conducted strictly in line with applicable legislation. "This is a complex project and the initial detailed survey is extremely important for the subsequent stages of the preparatory process. The law does not prevent companies from applying as part of a consortium, in this case even an international one. In demanding projects this is common practice," NDS spokesperson Tomas Ferencak told TASR. Moreover, according to NDS, in general it is not possible to accuse a bidder of a cartel agreement on the basis of mere assumptions. "The law requires convincing evidence, which we do not have," Ferencak added. mf